Day 70

Sunday November 6

Way back at the beginning when we were trying to decide what kind of act we would actually be, we came to the idea that we would play in bars that either didn’t have regular music at all, or bars that mostly had cover music. With that, we knew we were going to be a high energy pop act, which would mean veering very directly into rock territory with an acoustic guitar while attempting to keep hold of the total pop element. The act itself would also have to be fearless and pretty much in your face with the aim being to basically overwhelm whatever room we were in. Be bigger than the room. Always be bigger than the room. With that, we felt we would be able to walk into totally indifferent, or even hostile environments and win them over with songs they immediately connected with, combined with sheer force of performance and personality. This was our vision right at the beginning months before we had a single song. If we ever told anyone of this plan, if we were lucky, we were just ridiculed. So we very quickly realised we should just not talk about and get on with doing it.

We had our first early and undeveloped thoughts about this concept in March 2021, less than four weeks after we’d first met. We moved to Ireland a couple of months later in May, then had to detour almost immediately to Sweden, where we stayed until late July, all the time still not managing to get to any kind of songwriting. Once back in Ireland from Sweden we began working out in our new Irish home studio almost every day. At first we were working just from my own back catalogue of songs. But then on August 6, we finally wrote our first song together – All Kinds Of Wonderful. Ten days later we wrote our second song, I Like You Better (When You’re Naked). Three months after that we played our first gig, then we were onto our first European Tour, starting in Berlin at the end of November. All this from a standing start in August, working from a template developed in March.

I’m recapping all this first of all because it simply seems a good time to be doing it, but second, because tonight is the night of our show at The Canal Turn. By now we’ve done a lot of shows following the exact plan we set down almost two years ago, a plan that was shot down by everyone we were forward enough to mention it to. I think I’ll also say here that by the time we were preparing for our very first show, ridicule had turned to begging, at times aggressively so. Meaning people were really strenuously, for our own good, advising us not to attempt it. ‘I’m begging you not to do this,’ was one exact line we heard. While another new friend, who would later become quite a keen supporter and admirer, was almost aggressive in his assertions that we absolutely had to put some covers in our set. I should add that that aggression was directed in our own interests as he desperately tried to sway our intentions. 

For some reason, The Canal Turn is almost the exact identikit audience and demographic I had in my own mind when I was thinking and talking of all of this. A middle aged, musically conservative audience of perfectly pleasant people, but the kind of crowd who would only react to music in a vociferous way if it had the words Caroline and Sweet in the title. All the right words, not necessarily in the right order. And tonight, we here to play at least a full half hour rather than the usual 15 to 20 minutes we play. Nine songs. An actual full-on original show to a full-on committed coverband audience. If they’ll let us get through it.

Yes, they’re sceptical at the beginning but, to be fair, ready to give us a chance. But oh man, they very quickly have no idea what’s hitting them and they are absolutely loving it. Hands in the air, fists pumping, trying to sing along, shouting out ‘More’ after every song. Oh, the whole lot. I’ve just gone and had a listen to it all to see if it actually fits my memory of it, but it does and so much more. The impromptu, made up as we went along setlist goes like this:

I Like You (Better When You’re Naked)

Six Sense Lover

Make Me Shine

Rock’n’Roll Tree

A Thousand Doors

Fire

Give Me The World

The Cat

—–

How You Rock’n’Roll

Oh, and Freefall and Beanie Love to start but we forgot to press record at the beginning so the above is what we have.

We’re not far in before they’re loudly thanking bar manager Martin for booking us. But when A Thousand Doors comes, I still feel a bit uncertain as everyone starts talking over this tender song. But that’s probably more because this is the first time tonight they’ve really had the chance to. However, as the song develops and begins to enter epic territory, it really starts to feel epic as heads turn and the clapping along with us begins. By the end it’s just huge and there’s a call for a standing ovation, matched with, ‘You’re brilliant.’

This is followed up with another slow burn – Fire. After which the place really loses it with calls of ‘Number one. Number one.’ ‘I’m Your number one fan,’ ‘I want a record deal’ It almost feels like everything we’ve been doing has been building up to this show. Yes we’ve won hard audiences over before, but this really feels like an audience that was simply not there to be won over, but has totally crossed over to the other side with us.

After this, it’s a total sprint to the end, complete with encore, which we oblige. Give Me The World is a bit rough, but fair enough, a brand new song, and I wasn’t sure about that as we began, but yes, they’re totally up for this one too. Then The Cat is a tad rough to be fair but still smashes it. Then How You Rock’n’Roll sends them off happy. We kind of simultaneously pack up and talk to people, and all around the sense if of joyous disbelief joined with hugely vociferous and insistent hugs and handshakes, with calls to Martin to have us back. And indeed Martin himself is very gracious and appreciative.

As we walk out of the door, having waved at the bar one last time, the whole place erupts in applause, and this is the sound that accompanies us right to the car, where we settle into the seats in disbelieving jubilation and the relief of job totally smashed and done. Oh wow. Yes, yes, and just yes.

Yes there are a few rough spots, but tonight’s recording could almost be put up as a live album. Now, there’s an idea. I literally thought about this as I was writing that line. Then I mentioned it to Maja just as I’d finished this entry. And you know what? We’re doing it. It really feels right. Tonight’s show is such a good representation of where we are at this time and what we’ve done up to now. And it’s an excellent example of reactions from audiences who have never heard us. While it may only contain ten songs, we’re going to leave every bit of audience participation on there because really, they’re the tenth track.

The video of the show isn’t the best spectacle because we really couldn’t get a good angle for the camera, but you can see the whole thing here: