Sunday 20 January 2013

Gig report: The British IBM @ The Victoria Inn, Derby

Band: The British IBM
Venue: The Victoria Inn, Derby
Date: 19/01/13
Audience: Small, but incredibly enthusiastic
Set: Not sure - a typical British IBM set, mostly with material from the album although opening with Make It Happen/Pain In My Heart and also with Guns and Washing Machine (which ended the gig) and a brand new song in there.
Notes: The Victoria Inn is very much one of those venues that you just have to play - you only have to look at the walls of the venue to see some of the acts that have performed there over the years to realise it's part of a circuit you need to be on if you're serious about this, which we are. It was a nice day, most of the country seem to be panicking about the snow but we had no problems making the three hour journey up to Derbyshire, stayed in a nice hotel and arrived early so enjoyed a couple beers and good food there - it's good to be back with the band again. The hotel was just around the corner from the venue and our manager, Matt, joined us too and he's great fun to have around, probably the most enthusiastic person in the country - it must be a youth thing! Played this one acoustic, and we're always just that bit tighter acoustically and it gives us the freedom to wing the set a bit; there's a certain structure to the set in the sense that we often start with the same couple of tracks and end with Washing Machine but the stuff in the middle is very much down to Aidy to decide during the show, judging the vibe of the room. We'd been rehearsing a couple brand new songs in the run up to this one and played one of them live last night (it's so new it's still untitled) and despite a couple sound issues we hit good form and we're happy enough. Matt joined us on stage as a special guest to play extra percussion on Not Your Day, it worked a treat. A bit of a scuffle kicked off at the venue (football related, we assume) but that didn't stop those who did make it enjoying themselves and the staff/soundman at the venue were nice people. Headliner Sam Forrest was fantastic - it's the third time we've been on the bill with the 9 Black Alps frontman and he's a joy to watch, and chat to/drink with before/after the show. A worthwhile trip indeed.

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