Chesham and Weston Super Mare

The Elgiva Theatre, Chesham 27th May 2010

When putting in postcode to sat nav we found a road name in Chesham called bottom lane and so we went on a magical mystery tour with the sat nav to find it. It was down many wind roads. Eventually we found it and here is the photo result. Look away if easily offended!!

The venue from outside today

During the show, lots of people came in after we had started and as the seats were mainly taken they had to stand on the outside edges..

There were a lot of younguns there this evening. Saw a girl (maybe 11yr?) in a sparky bolero like me, swaying, in a similar style to me, I secretly hoped she was copying me. Her face lit up when we played Brick in the wall. Parents must be huge floyd fans!

Everyone seemed very relaxed on stage, couple band members were throwing some shapes, seeing if they could get in some muscle poses when they weren't lit to amuse each other. Apparently they did it through my Great Gig, I had no idea as I go off to my own little world anyway..

Lots of nice comments afterwards and very friendly people!

The Playhouse Weston Super Mare 28th May 2010

The pier was shut! - boo!

Tonights gig was mostly about the T SHIRT for me! Gary and Anna our old blog friends, were there. Gary had had a T shirt made up with the words 'I follow Pollys blog on it' HOW COOL IS THAT!!

Here it is after the show!

100% Effort!

Craig (from Torbay) and his mates were there also, so had a picture with them. Here me with them

Here's Fredi's folks who dropped her off for the show.

2 nice kids came and asked for our signatures. Megan and Alistair, here they are by the merchandising stand after the show.

Some high 5'ing on the move was practised during sound check!

During wish you were here Jon on lights threw a muscle pose at us from the back, wasn't expecting it so had to try not to laugh.

Fareham, Worthing, Welwyn Garden City, Tring

Thursday 20th May 2010

Started off the journey with some smoke coming out of the wheels coming down Telegraph hill. Paul was under that van in a flash. We decided to carry on anyway (not with Paul under it mind you) and blame it on the braking down the hill and heavy load.


First stop off was in Fareham, Farenham Hall.

There was a huge green room upstairs with lots of dressing rooms off it. There was much toasted sandwich making. There was a load of nonsense with the projector AGAIN!

The one good thing to come out of it is that I have learnt what key stoning means. Jon took the camera and took some mighty fine pictures. I shall let him loose again!

Also the devil plectrum I mentioned in previous post was out during sound check..

Few shots from the show that night, courtesy of Jon.

Friday 21st May
The next day we took a stop off in Arundel which was nearby. Lovely castle, we wanted to look around but didn't have any time, chatted to the tour guide at the front gate. Funnily enough someone later at gig said to chris that he had seen us at the castle and knew we were 'in the flesh'. Better look a bit more decent in the mornings from now on!

We had a walk around the outside of castle and there was a stream, and lots of ducks. Here is one I managed to get close to.

Got to Worthing, the stage had two tiers to it so me and Patch went on top level. Jeff went centre stage with the other two either side, bit different!

Ticket sales had practically doubled in the last week which was a bonus. Good show, (nice high 10 from Jeff and Patch at the end)

Jeff insisted this head band (made of bits cut off the arm of one of the band t shirts was cool! hmmm)

Saturday 22nd May 2010

Stayed near gatwick airport overnight, the next morning chris was late to the van so we stood and watched planes taking off. Sounds pretty dull but my word there were men camped out with flasks of coffee with massive cameras there too!

Paul came out with his boots on the wrong way round - the numpty, he'd had a bit of a crazy night the night before.

Pig was feeling the heat.

Drove to third venue, this was Welwyn Garden city. I asked if the 'Garden' bit meant it was very green to be told no i don't think so, but it darn well was! full of trees and very beautiful After the third show it was all starting to blend into one. The set up the tea and coffee making etc blah blah blah, manager Glenn was there which was different however and we all had breakfast in what I thought was a wetherspoons but turned out to not be. It was super dooper sunny so I made a little blanket and cushion arrangement outside the stage door! Had to keep coming inside to cool off!
note to self, strange eery silence during show.

Campus West, Welwyn Garden City from stage

Steves Jimi Hendrix Tattoo

Last of the 4 shows was Tring

Pretty pretty town,

There was much sun bathing and chasing fish around a pond, thats all I have to say on the matter.

Liked this sign in the cafe we had brekkie in.

Narberth, 14th May 2010

Rainy day up to Narberth, which was a long way plus windy roads, not my favourite type of journey! When we got there the venue was quite a lot smaller than we had imagined and there was a lot of trying to sort out where everything would go. Here is a shot of Jase and Pete (lighting boys) filling up half of the room with their empty boxes!

Witnessed a very minor strop from Jase as a light went ping, and he stomped up the ladder and blew his floppy fringe out the way too with exasperation!! (made the last bit up)

He was still focusing lights when we were sound checking, so it all took a lot longer than usual!

Chris bought along a George 'Formby' (yes I know thats wrong!) lean mean grilling machine that Wendys dad Pete bought, so had to mention that. It did four toasted sarnies at once! Here is the factory line! Fredi's a whizz on buttering bread!

Narberth is a pretty town so had to do a few pics! The sun had come out by this point making even prettier!

This is the venue from the front.

Shot from my position during sound check.

The lady (Lynne) told us to expect a walk up and she was right loads of people turned up on the door! We had it as a standing venue with seats around the outside, so the atmosphere picked up as it went along and people were dancing. Extraordinary amount of filming on phones going on! The quality must be shocking but I suppose if it gives them a chance to relive it then we will stay in their memories!

Show went really well, and I really enjoyed the more intimate crowd, all the other band members were a bit close for my liking though. The instruments were so loud because they were near!

After the show we met some super people, but two people stood out. A young man called Matthew Bird who was a budding guitarist and asked for a plectrum (well his aunty did). Chris gave him one and in return he gave back a red 'devil' shaped plectrum that Chris promised to play with! I will take pics Matt to prove it!

We met a most amusing lady called Katie Honka-Tonka Williams. She told us she was quite drunk but to me she was just great and funny! She was very enthusiastic and complimentary about everyone, she called Patrick 'Colin Farrell' as there is a resemblance ( if you squint!) ..Oh and in the line up Chris called him the 'mildly attractive Patches O' Houlahan' which is my favourite Patch intro yet. She asked us to find her on facebook, which I have tried but nothing came up, so Katie your task is to find us from the band facebook page.

A long drive home, but all in all a thoroughly enjoyable gig!

Adieu (From now on I will try to sign off in different languages) xx

Lincoln, Sunday 2nd May 2010

Well it was a long ole Trek to Lincoln, but the Theatre was so cute, it was worth it.

Nice boxes for the rich folks back in the day.

The usual shots of stage and auditorium from my spot. (this is so I can look back and remember the places we've played in)

The best Green room too. A nice chilling/hanging out space.

Not much really happened to report, the same old really, clutching at straws with this gig to make a story.. Fredi tried out brown hair to see what she'd look like..

She'd look good with any colour I think!

We checked out the pictures in foyer, This 1911 poster caught my eye as I'm directing Midsummer Nights dream at the moment!

There was an incident with someone filming me demonstrating and doing the running man in the interval, but we won't say too much about that and hopefully the video will be kept locked away until I feel less embarrassed about being such a fool and not realising it would happen when people have these all singing and dancing iphones!

Such a great Crowd!!!

This a sneaky shot I took as everyone was leaving!!

After the show we met Gary and Anna, read previous post!! Here they are in their T shirts!

This is Lesley who was selling the merchandising.

Chris was very happy with his display today...

So that concludes my entry, sorry it wasn't very exciting, but Patch said he never reads the words anyway just look at the pics!

My apology to Gary and Anna

Ahhh, realised on the bus on way home last night that I called Gary and Anna.... Tommy and Sue! They didn't say anything either bless them!! It was because Tommy and Sue wrote on the Website that they were coming to a gig soon and then when Gary and Anna popped up last night I remembered the names from the recent web comment! EEK So sorry guys! I'm usually so good with names.

They are becoming like old friends, it's nice when you see the same faces coming back, cos we know we're doing something right!

I will get the names right next time, which is at Weston Super Mare!

Maybe they didn't hear me call them the wrong names and this is all for nothing but hey why not write about them anyway!!