HA!

For those of you familiar with Rugfest, good work. For those unfamiliar, shame on you. But I will explain all anyway. I’m nice like that. Rugfest is a festival based in Wallingford and run by the Rugby club - mucho entertainment was provided at said event (including beer of the alcoholic type) and fun to be had by all. And so to recap the Quadro-day up to point-of-play:

The day for us started about 5pm when I left Oxford enroute to the most happening farm there has ever been for final preparations and convoying fun. Practice was good: ran some dodgy parts (not that there were any, it’s just a figure of speech), finalised the set and then packed up and ready for our trek to Wallingford.

The venue: we arrived nicely in time - about 2/3 hours before playing and parked up at the front of the rugby club. We then strolled on up to the entrance (which, being a festival, was a field. Not that I think I’m above playing in fields. I am though in case you are now wondering) got our all-area rockstar passes (complete with booze voucher) and ventured on up to take in some of the surroundings. And I have to say, the sound coming from the stage was very impressive. We were to play out of the back of a truck (well, the side) with a huge sound system and several engineers catering for all of our needs - even a full drum kit was provided which was, as far as I could tell from Dan’s face, a little more than adequate.

And so for the gig. As it was my birthday (waay) I was starting to get a little tanked/merry/drunk/blind (waaaaaaaaaaaaaay) through free drinking and also just buying lots of drink. But I was fit to play (fortunately). And so at 11pm we soldiered onto the stage ready for an performance under intense heat (the lights really were warm and they actually made me feel justified in wearing aviators at 11pm). Some of the audience had started to part as there were lots of families (and Quadrophobe is too hardcore for family entertainment. Not really, if you are a family please come and see Quadrophobe), but there there was still a strong contingent ready for our own brand of sound. And brand it we did.

The music I thought was great - lots of energy, generally together and a good all round performance. I say generally together because those of you see us regularly (yay for Quadro-fans) will realise that often we are playing on a smaller stage (oh yeah, this was a BIG stage, probably as big as our ventures at the O2) and so some of the eye contact we usually get going on (not the dodgy pervy type - the type where we communicate in order to play together) was a lot tricky to do when sexy wing-man 1 is about 40 feet away! As well as the lights being slightly blinding. But it rocked still!

Music went down very well with the crowd - there was a combination of people loving the music and watching intently as well as some who were at that stage in the drinking where they could not help but dance dance dance (which Quadrophobe LOVES by the way) and I think I even got my (left) nipple out at one point (on request, not just because I like being shirtless. That was just a happy coincidence). And when we came off we were all shattered - coated in sweat (gorgeous) out of breath (lovely) and in need of a sit down (eurgh). Now THAT is the sign of a good gig (as well as the musical element. That counts for some too)

Overall this gig gets a strong B, a B+ in fact. Great audience reaction, all the energy in the world and some gooood tunes played (and Dreadlock holiday was loved this time around. SCORE!).

Catch you soon peepies

Adam