Budgie Smugglers
Last week was a bit busier for the band I’m in, Scruffy Buzzards, with 2 very different gigs.
On Thursday afternoon we played under the Midsteeple in Dumfries town centre, as part of the "In Our Town" festivities this summer.
Photo courtesy of Giles Atkinson
I have no idea what committee decided that 4pm on a Thursday afternoon was a good time slot to book a band, but the decision was clearly not based on potential audience figures. On occasion it threatened to get as high as double figures, but for the last 20 minutes we only had 3 people watching us who weren’t also part of the festivities, and one of them was Sharon, the partner of our lead singer.
One advantage of this was it was the first time we’ve played live that I wasn’t in the slightest bit nervous. Normally my heart is pounding hard when we’re playing to an audience, but the lack of spectators meant we just had fun playing for ourselves with no pressure.
However, I was able to hand my camera to Sharon and ask her to film us, as I’m aware there’s precious little footage of us online yet. So here, for your enjoyment, is “Your Own Way”. The chord structures were by me and the bass, tune and rhythm section were created by the rest of the band, but the lyrics were kindly donated by Alan McClure of The Razorbills when we were going through a blank patch on lyric writing.
On Saturday afternoon, however, we had a much livelier audience when we played in the Ingrid Pitt tent at The Wickerman music festival. I think the fact that some of them had been drinking for about 36 hours solid at that point added to their desire to join in as much as possible. All in all, the mood was great and the response was terrific.
I had another friend film our set with my camera, but the speakers were so loud, the built-in microphone couldn’t cope with it, so the sound ended up too distorted to be useable.
While there’s no doubt we made a good impression on the people there, it might not translate into extra followers. More than a few were struggling to remember our name. Scary Parrots and Budgie Smugglers were a couple of the variations we heard mentioned.
My thanks to Pete White for this photo of me tuning up my instruments just before we began playing.
Next gig is on Sunday August 5th in Newton Stewart at the Wheelie Good Bike Show.
I wonder when we’ll get discovered by Jools Holland...
On Thursday afternoon we played under the Midsteeple in Dumfries town centre, as part of the "In Our Town" festivities this summer.
Photo courtesy of Giles Atkinson
I have no idea what committee decided that 4pm on a Thursday afternoon was a good time slot to book a band, but the decision was clearly not based on potential audience figures. On occasion it threatened to get as high as double figures, but for the last 20 minutes we only had 3 people watching us who weren’t also part of the festivities, and one of them was Sharon, the partner of our lead singer.
One advantage of this was it was the first time we’ve played live that I wasn’t in the slightest bit nervous. Normally my heart is pounding hard when we’re playing to an audience, but the lack of spectators meant we just had fun playing for ourselves with no pressure.
However, I was able to hand my camera to Sharon and ask her to film us, as I’m aware there’s precious little footage of us online yet. So here, for your enjoyment, is “Your Own Way”. The chord structures were by me and the bass, tune and rhythm section were created by the rest of the band, but the lyrics were kindly donated by Alan McClure of The Razorbills when we were going through a blank patch on lyric writing.
On Saturday afternoon, however, we had a much livelier audience when we played in the Ingrid Pitt tent at The Wickerman music festival. I think the fact that some of them had been drinking for about 36 hours solid at that point added to their desire to join in as much as possible. All in all, the mood was great and the response was terrific.
I had another friend film our set with my camera, but the speakers were so loud, the built-in microphone couldn’t cope with it, so the sound ended up too distorted to be useable.
While there’s no doubt we made a good impression on the people there, it might not translate into extra followers. More than a few were struggling to remember our name. Scary Parrots and Budgie Smugglers were a couple of the variations we heard mentioned.
My thanks to Pete White for this photo of me tuning up my instruments just before we began playing.
Next gig is on Sunday August 5th in Newton Stewart at the Wheelie Good Bike Show.
I wonder when we’ll get discovered by Jools Holland...
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