HA!

Indeed ha. For this was our 3rd gig in one week. That’s a lot of gigs and not so many weeks. Are we on a roll? I think it’s too soon to tell personally, but we certainly are popular. Well, I like us.

So the gig: we had been approached by Adrian Phillips who had previously featured us on his site tuna the day - you should check it out, it’s a neat site (can I say “neat” and still be cool? I dunno, but I’m going for it), and we of course said “delighted to”. Pete seemed disgruntled, but then again he often is. And we had the pleasure of supporting Avipaul (look at me and my hyperlinking. Took long enough to remember how to do it though) at said Fat Lil’s. Again, check them out, they make some good sounds!

The venue: Fat Lil’s. For those who have not been to Witney then you may not have heard of it. For anyone who has been to Witney this is the venue that you want to play. Situated just on a road (some road, dunno which one) leading into the town centre, this venue looks quite modest when you look from outside – you can see that there is a door and name across the top and that is about it. Venture on inside however and you can see why we were excited to play here. Walk on inside and the venue takes an almost terraced-house approach: seems to stretch on forever! Bar on your left (this of course was the first point I noticed) and stage straight on ahead, on the other side of the seating area. There is even a musicians area with lovely comfy seating just off the side of the stage! We then got the tour from Ade, introduced to our sound engineer and spent some time getting ready backstage.

On for soundcheck: and it was a breeze. Mics were set up readily while we were getting ready, stage was nicely sized for a sextet and all that was required was to blast some notes out (I blasted, everyone else played proper stuff) and rattle through a couple of tunes. And then on to the Chinese we went.

The gig itself. Good. Very good. We had a shortish set (compared to some of the others we have done) of 45 minutes and so we were able to produce a pretty tight set. A couple of new tunes were aired as well, though we stuck mostly to what we new (we don’t know a lot, but what we do know is….. good). And then Avipaul followed – very impressive set, especially the use of the Tabla (if you don’t know what it is you can look it up).

So a B+ for this one. We were treated very well, felt very welcome and the sound and crowd were excellent. Just waiting for our next opportunity to show Witney and Fat Lil’s what we are capable off!

Adam

Ha!

2 gigs in 2 days? Dear me Quadrophobe must be popular, as we made our second visit back to the Banbury area to partake in one of our most favourite pastimes: drinking. Oh wait, i mean playing tunes. With beer.

So we ventured our way up to Chacombe, 5 of us even squeezing into a single ford focus (it was COSY. a little too cosy…) and eventually found our way, instruments and all. The venue, for those who are intrigued and even for those not intrigued: a country pub in Oxfordshire, parking provided for in a field with a large elongated (look at me and my long words) pub garden. Patio area complete with huge (tasty) barbecue then stretches off into grassy area where the beer tent and adjacent perfomance tent were situated.

We arrived a good 2 hours early and proceeded to settle in: ales (with commemerative pint glass) were purchased, food was eaten and chatting to some of the village residents was done. Just what you want on a Saturday eve. And so Quadrophobe were suitably relaxed, calm, pampered and inebriated to perform (well, I was pretty drunk, I wouldn’t want to speak on behalf of everyone. Except for Jim, he was definitely drunk).

We were fortunate enough not to have to bring any sound equipment with us (as stated, the ford focus of wonder was already packed, never mind if we had to bring amps and all) and so we got the luxury of trying out their system. Did a good job I think: 3 dedicated cound guys catering to all our needs (much appreciated ) and we were all micced (miced? miked?) up and ready for action.

Following a 2 and a half hour session the previous night, we were feeling pretty on the ball. Unfortunately we had to cut it off after 30 minutes (not because we were bad. I don’t think :S), but I for one thought we could have played for another hour: it was tight, it sounded good, the audience were getting involved. Only issue from our perspective was a cutting out of the monitors part way through – made it tricky to tell if brass/vocal levels were there with the rest of it, but as said, had 3 guys keeping an eye and audience reaction was very positive!

I give this gig a B. The amount of playing the night before was really telling – but in a good way! Tight ensemble, energetic performance, and awaitng the invite for next years event.

Adam

Ha!

‘When did Quadrophobe visit America’ I hear you cry. WELL WE DIDN’T! We in fact made a short slightly long stop to the town of Banbury to visit this new refurbed venue to steal it’s musical virginity. And steal it we did in sublime slightly okay fashion.

For those of you who are not aware, or could not tell from the above ramblings (don’t worry, even I’m not sure what’s going on now I’ve reread it), we rocked out at the newly refurbished pub/restaurant on the outskirts of Banbury. As said (twice, now thrice), this place was newly refurbished, and so when mentioned to my peeps at work (yes, I have work peeps) they said “but it’s been closed for aaaages!”. This brought about a certain amount of worry, but I live to tell the tale so all is good.

About the venue: it is a large establishment (as said, on the outskirts of Banbury = lots of space) and they are partaking in regular friday and saturday night entertainment. Hence the Quadro-action going on. So, you walk in and forward to the left you have the bar (important note), with seating expanding round to the left, while the main stage area (well, cornered off section) was round to the right in an open space with more seating and the other bar (second important note). We were situated infront of the fireplace (there was no fire in it so Dan was safe), using our own sound system. Stage size was perfect for our band, must say.

As for the gig, was probably our tallest demand: playing from 8 30 until 11 30! 3 hours of Quadro-fun. Is it possible? Is it even legal?? The answer of course is no, it is not legal. So we had to take a half hour break in the middle.

And we performed all we had: we played our hearts out – originals, covers, the lot. And was a dam good effort – my lip even survived the whole gig (my playing is somewhat inconsistant :S ). Unfortunately there were not a huge number of people to see the first half but things certainly picked up second half: dancing galore for all! Pete probably danced a little too much but that’s okay: we forgive him. At least I did. Alas though, despite cries for “Buzzcocks” we were unable to to deliver on this!

All in all, a good effort given that the venue was still looking to establish itself on the music scene. I give this gig a C, though we need to up our repertoire for our next visit!

Adam