Gig report: Christmas lights show, Cambridge

Bands: The Dowsing Sound Collective, Fred's House
Venue: The Grand Arcade and Market Square, Cambridge
Date: 17/11/13
Audience: Packed, festive
Sets: Dowsing: Tonight's The Kind Of Night, Ho Hey (not set 2), I Believe In Father Christmas, White Sky, You Can Keep Me Talking, Fairytale Of New York. Fred's House: Standing Next To Me, Fine Life, Beautiful You, Take A Ride
Notes: I'm really into Christmas - perhaps more so than the average 32-year-old should be, so the opportunity to play at the Cambridge launch of the Christmas lights was something I'd been looking forward to for quite a while now. Ignoring the fact that I was so knackered from last night - and the early Sunday morning start today put me in a grumpy mood, Dowsing typifies Christmas for me... so much spirit in that group, our 11am show at The Grand Arcade woke me up nicely. With Dowsing there's always pressure, it's just a completely different type of gig, even with a scaled-down choir, and today we performed a couple songs for the first time ahead of the Corn Exchange gig next month. We did well, and Billy Bragg was watching. We then dashed over to Market Square, complete with our equipment (I played the cocktail kit for all of my gigs today, with the exception of a sliding bass pedal it served me well, which is a relief because it really didn't cut it at the British IBM gig in Manchester a month ago) to play a second set. Same songs - with the omission of Ho Hey, and the choir switched around, really big audience, a touch tighter, all in all a solid live return for a massive project which continues to grow and grow without spiralling out of control. A couple hours later I was back on the Market Square stage, this time with Fred's House. Our bassist, Gaff, was unable to make this one, and we were struck a further blow when Lachy - our lead guitarist, was too unwell to play (he was feeling very, very rough at the gig last night). The three of us - Vikki, Griff and myself bashed through it regardless - it was a bit of a challenge but only a short set anyway and we held that audience, they were a big crowd, but we kept them, it felt like a bit of a victory. All in all a busy, but thoroughly enjoyable day.