Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury

Have been super busy so his is a bit delayed, I got a hard time from the band at rehearsal too for being slack!!! I've been soooo busy!!

Arrived in Newbury, Arlington arts centre. 2nd visit and really good to hear that we were nearly sold out this time!! I couldn;t remember the dressing rooms situ and then got there and was like. 'ahhh yeah!'

View from the stage at Newbury


Steve and Chris Stringing guitars. Steve does his before EVERY SHOW!! Chris refused to look at camera!



Random - but Fredi painted my nails in red!! here I am displaying them over the arlington arts mag!!



Jason on his lights



The new sound desk - oooh!!



Steve wanted a feature on his equpment so here it is...
I call these the guitar boomers.. amps to the rest of you..


Pedals and things.. how very confusing!


Lap steels...make nice sounds



We ate school dinner at the school opposite with all the kids and everything!
here we are in queue



here is the others on the other table. felt like I was back at school as I had to sit on separate table with Fredi and Steve. we were the outcasts!! ..


My sis has enquired as to the food we ate.. I was hoping for pink custard but alas no. I has mushroom ravioli covered in a cheese sauce, (not ideal before you sing!) and salad, which was conveniently chopped up (quite small) already and thrown together in massive dish , so you just had a big scoop...
Pudding, hmm Fredi had a toffee yoghurt, but can't remember what I had!

We met loads of super people after the show... so many young people there!

Hi to young Reece who bought our t shirt!!

We had a nice Green Room at Newbury, supplied with tea and coffee...but the walls were concrete blocks, we looked up why it is called a green room...

From Wikipedia!
Green room is a room in a theatre, studio, or other public venue for the accommodation of performers or speakers when not required on the stage. Its function is as a break/touch-up lounge so that performers do not have to go back to wardrobe/dressing rooms and are still easily accessible for their call. The term is often attributed to the area historically being painted green [1][2] however in modern use the area may or may not include any green in its color scheme.[3] [4]

The specific origin of the term is lost to history which has led to many imaginative theories and claims. One story is that London's Blackfriars Theatre (1599) included a room behind the scenes, this room happened to be painted green, here the actors waited to go on stage and it was called the "green room". In some English theatres there were several green rooms, ranked in use according to the status and salary of the actor, and an actor could be fined for using a green room above his/her station [5] [6].

Ooh, well I never!

Over and out!

Chesterfield 13th March 2010

Back to feeling fairly normal today! YAY! Thats the medicine of the Floyd! 2 and a half hour drive up to Chesterfield. We didn't stop for breakfast and by the time we got there there was some very hungry people. Steve L was feeling giddy! Jeff doesn't speak when hungry. So we arrived and as soon as poss popped into town for breakfast hunt. Found a little van in the centre by the market. The woman behind counter upon hearing we were playing at the Winding wheel regaled us with a story of how she was in a band way back and went professiona!, the boys were muttering under their breath, 'less talking more frying that bacon!

Lovely blue sky day! Heres couple travel type pics of Lovely Chesterfield!

Here's their crooked spire!


Heres just nice houses..


Heres the Winding Wheel from front.. google again!


Here's inside before we set anything up..


Here's my room which was up many stairs...again!! note sparkly dress which i got in town! Fredi and I will be sparkletastic next week!



Rare shot of mrs L on projector! I think she looks beautiful in this!


Boys in dressing room. Last of Theo's shows, He had lots of friends watching this evening, all musicians! no pressure huh? Hopefully he will be back and I know he expressed an interest to play with us again (cos we're a friendly bunch as musicians go!)


A funny pic from backstage! Trust Paul to get himself in it! At such an angle too!


Jeff a happy chap as always!


Show time! The crowd tonight were really enthusiastic! Think my best solo yet! I spotted one bloke standing up after my solo which made me very pleased! A nice vibe were coming off them if that makes sense!!
Pics taken with my camera by Mrs L who was at the back doing projection for a change.



After show, lovely atmosphere!


Bow Time! Bye bye Theo... for now..



Special mention to Superman Hoody wearing TOM who was 13 and loved the show. He got our autographs! He plays guitar, says mostly Floyd too! Look forward to seeing you guys another time (you must wear the superman hoody again and we'll recognise you straight away!)

Thats all folks, til next week after Newbury and Dunstable!

Broxbourne 12th March 2010

Ok next morning, feeling quite a bit better and not so far to go to Broxbourne, just round the M25 a bit and up. We found the town of Hoddesdon which is pretty much also Broxbourne they were so close together. We had breakfast in a nice cafe. The boys were very pleased with the food, lots of silence whilst eating and when someone asked Steve L 'like your breakfast?', all he came back with was 'ahh yeah' in an eee by gum type voice, made me smile!

I forgot to bring enough contact lenses for duration of trip Doh! (yes i'm quite blind without them!) So I visited specsavers in Hoddesdon and as I use them for my sight tests etc they gave me 4 pairs for nothing.. So if you live in Hoddesdon, please go into Specsavers and give them your custom, they get my seal of approval!

Got to the venue Civic Hall Broxbourne/Hoddesdon and they were just finishing from what I presumed was a dance class, it's a multi purpose place perhaps, off the main road a bit. I couldn't even see a poster of our show in the foyer and I was looking.. I am told there was ONE!!
Here is venue tucked away amongst the trees..


Broxbourne from the stage


At some point over the three days Chris was banging things inside his thing. (very techincal see!) here's a picture of him doing it. Seems by listening to the sounds when you bang you can tell you if things had 'gone'. I'm pretending I remember when this happened and i'm making it today..Heres accompanying picture.


I went and laid down in my dressing room. It's not worth putting a picture of it on here but the sofa in it was an exact replica of the first sofa Chris and Steve Loar had in their married home, many years ago.. She was freaked out when she saw it and Steve instantly recognised it also! It was comfy, I had a little sleep on it. Getting used to this napping thing! Also something I thought was amusing was that the room has light sensors on it, so to get them to go off and have a nice normal dark nap you had to lie perfectly still, even a foot waggle would fire them up again. Someone came in when I was sleeping to make a cup of tea, it was a male with a voice I didn't recognise and I still have no idea who it was as I was under my hoody.. Hmm. Got me thinking now??
Later on Me and Mrs L had a nice chat and he started to tell me the story of when she first met steve and what she thought of his drain pipe trousers.. I shall keep it between us though Chris!

Here's the lighting boys Jason and Paul G, as mentioned previously. They did a super job I think.

This is Jason - sporting a very long fridge, Where have his eyes gone I hear you ask! I expect he has to do the side head sweep to get it out of his eyes!


Here is Paul, standing in my spot for my light to be focused. He is very tall or am I just really short? That seriously is how low my mic needs to be!! he's also stooping forward to accommodate for my shortness! hence the funny monkey arms!



Another of Jason for good measure as it's surely mid head sweep!


Here's one of Mark the Tech Manager, he had very nice arms! We always appreciate a good pair of arms don't we ladies??


Not much more to report. Sound checked early and then the boys went to get chips. They hurt my throat as they went down.. Oh yes, the steps of doom, These steps were really cold and you had to walk up them from the dressing rooms to the stage. Not very appealing really


Show went well, all in all. No unusual happenings from the crowd. Although I did see quite a number of men wiping their eyes during comfortably numb. It's always gives my nose a tingle and my eyes start to water when I see men moved to (dare I say it) tears. I start thinking about what the song might mean to them or a loved one, or their father oh and then that really gets me going and I have to focus! Same with 'us and them' and 'wish you were here', they're all the tear jerkers!
Steve makes my hairs go up on end during the numb solo and i've been lucky enough to hear it maybe 50+ times now.. still gets me. I particularly love the mirror ball moment! Thats the things people may not realise, we are up there doing the show for the love of the music, and we really want to audience to enjoy it as much as we do! Hope this comes across!

Emotional rant over!

*Little mention that I shall mow be checking that band have visited the little boys room in plenty of time to get on for the 2nd set! No names mentioned!!

After show chatted to Sylvia And Sinclair who have also seen us in Dartford and the O2, now are they are best fans to date?? Hope to see them again soon, lovely people! Hi Guys!!

Chris chatted to Steve and Sue Greenald who deserve a mention on the blog too! Thanks for coming to see us!

On the way to hotel tonight Wendy, Mrs L and me got lost, the man told us accommodation was easy to find off m25 so we didn't take a sat nav! It wasn't signed like he said and we missed the turn off, not that we realised! Got there about 45 minutes later than we should have, same time as the rest of the band!

Aylesury 11th March 2010

After having been ill in bed with flu for 2 days I wasn't sure if i was going to make this little tour but then I heard at last minute Fredi couldn't make it so i told myself I had to get better for the sake of the music MAN! Thursday morning dragged myself out of bed and managed to get my aching bones to the pick up point..

firstly heres a picture of me incase you havent got which one I am yet..

Hello


Got to first venue, Civic Centre Aylesbury I couldn't do much but sit even if I had wanted to so I sat and watched the palava of getting the screen up. We met our lighting guys for the three days, Paul and Jason. All hands on deck to get the screen up, it's a heavy bugger you know!


There was lots of oh will it fit? and yes it did, just! Then they stood around and looked at it for a while!


I was feeling particularly rough so after having made tea (they had a big urn, very handy to have backstage!!) so I went and had a sleep in the minibus. Missed most of the next hour of so.. Came back and there seemed to be stress in the air. The inhouse projector took about a hour to even get a picture up and then it was only coming out in black and white.. also there was a curtain shadow showing at the top of the screen and they couldn't move it. Should have used the smaller screen was mentioned but how can you know these things in advance. There was much idea throwing about, eventually we used our own projector and balanced it at the back, did a grand job from such a long way back, a powerful little machine!
Aylesbury was a nice enough town. Seemed quite posh from my brief wander to get more medicine!

Heres is my obligatory view from stage!


Jeff asked me to take some more pics of his kit...(he's such a proud parent to his drums!) here are the best ones!




pigs finest moment
pig has finally made it on stage, from van to the hammond- pretty big leap...


Show went well. I felt really dizzy after singing great gig. It takes so much out of you physically. Ok wasn't my best one yet but I really tried for the audience!
Travelled with Wendy and Mrs L to somewhere near luton for hotel so we got there way before the boys. They apparently got lost thanks to sat nav and got in at 2am! Enjoyed my sleep immensely!

Manchester Opera House

Hello everyone.

I was very encouraged with the blog after the show this evening by two very nice people Sue and Tommy who had been reading it and looked at me and said 'ARE YOU THAT POLLY? in an excited way!!' I will write more about them later..

Minibus journey took forever (well 5 or 6 hours) but I was really keen to get there, been so long since our last gig!

Here are the bands mascots, please note the incredibly dirty windscreen, is there no washer fluid?? Suprised Chris/Steve could see to drive!


Many ipod songs later and a little snooze and we were there.. the Manchester Opera House. We entered from backstage door and walked out on to the stage, the two new BV's (backing vocalists') said 'WOW! This is what we saw...





Here is an exterior shot ( I didn't take this I must add, good old google images!!)



Went to find our dressing room, chose one right at the top of 3 flights of stairs, that was a mistake (we walked up and down sooo many times!!!) but it was big enough for all three of us girlies.. The fly tower area was huge, it's own little room, there was even gym equipment in it!



Here the view from the tower down on to stage!



We did a bit of wandering around Manchester (well the area just around the Opera House which is probably not very representative of Manchester!) We visited local attractions including the local tesco's, me mainly for tissues for my snotty nose.. darn cold! The hardest thing to get used to on tour is the eating thing. You eat when you can and what you can and end up being not very healthy at all.

Back to Theatre and I had to do pics from FOH. This was during set up mind you so not that impressive.


I then felt like I should see how royalty felt and try the royal box.. Me and Fredi both decided the seats were not at all fancy, we were expecting so much more from a 'Box'
Heres pics from said 'Box' The view of the stage is quite rubbish, very side on, wouldn't have been able to see us singers so I wouldn't bother! The other is of a smoky auditorium.



Rest of the evening went quite quickly, sound check was good, we met our dep sax player Theo Travis....he has his own website.. www.theotravis.com. He is a polite mild mannered fella, and boy he can play those sax's good! only one brief run through and then the show, now thats a pro!

Heres a pic I took off google, the man has so many images of him when you type in his name, i'm a bit jealous!



Show time was fun, the girls were excited.. we wore lots of sparkles, note to self must get more sparkles to match up to Fredi's super sparkliness!!

Show went rather well, audience enjoyed I believe. After the show we went out front to meet people as is now customary. We met lots of lovely people but us girls chatted mostly to Sue and Tommy, they were keen supporters, had been to see us somewhere else too. Tommy told us a story of a girl Mel (a local lass from their town) who was in the back of his taxi and offered to sing him great gig in the sky..He said it was a memorable taxi fare. Sue kindly mouthed to me, 'but you did it better...' I liked Sue and Tommy, hope to see them again..

Heres a pic of us with Sue and Tommy taken on mobile phone so excuse quality..


Here's a random pic of us girls taken by Joanne Loar!



There was some Kebab eating after the show

We then wearily packed up and travelled to hotel,

Other news
* the van broke down as Paul (soundman) was driving home so there was a kerfuffle about that and RAC men coming out in the middle of the night..
*One of Steves Amps packed up during the set, good job he has two huh!

Thats it for now... over and out..