We've just landed back in Cardiff after a great weekend at Shrewsbury; it's always a good festival but this one was a bit special.
Having arrived we decided to pitch in and have a go at the Open Mic competition. More than anything, it was a good opportunity to air some of our new stuff live and to play using a decent sound system. That said, we were chuffed to win the heat and go through to the final - any excuse to play!
Because our heat was the first one, we had the opening slot in the final; so we played and settled back to watch the others. The Bailey Sisters, Kaleidoscope and Tree, all put on a really good show and the judges retired to consider their decision. Thinking we'd exhausted our appeal for the day, talk turned to beer and junk food - we'd put off eating 'til after the final and it was now well and truly time for some nosh and lubrication.
The prize for winning was a half hour live session on the festival's second stage. Given that we were a good deal less "trad" than the other acts that followed us, we were surprised and absolutely thrilled to be announced the winners! Before we could ring home with the news we were approached by a fella who introduced himself as the stage manager for the evening and were given instructions about when we would be needed for sound-checking etc.
We barely had time to give ourselves a thumb-wash and a change of T-shirt before we made our way over to the big tent. The nerves were zinging a bit, so first stop was the loo - "The Artistes' Loos!" They deserve a special mention in themselves - they were so posh it was almost offensive to do anything in them. But we did. Lots.
The stewards and back stage crew were fantastic and couldn't do enough to be welcoming, friendly and helpful. Ally on the sound desk ran us through the checks and we had just 15 minutes to decide the set and steady the nerves. We performed a mix of our own stuff and some covers; here's the set list:
Before the show we managed to get a message to Steve Knightley (composer of Cousin Jack) asking him if he minded if we performed it - he's one of our biggest influences and it seemed the courteous thing to do as he was on site. He said he would be delighted. Thanks Steve!
All of a sudden we heard the MC, Jim MacDonald, announcing us and we were on! What a great experience to play on such a big stage. The audience seemed up for it and were very responsive throughout.
After 15 out of our allotted 30 minutes, we were already two thirds of the way through the set. So we did what all true professionals do and ... told the audience we were panicking a bit. They laughed - God bless 'em. We asked our friend Rod to nip 'round the back to the green room and get the lyrics for a song we wrote a couple of weeks ago - All Is Well. We'd never performed it before so we wanted the words handy as a security blanket. Rod got his own round of applause for his trouble - thanks mate. Liam told his "Paul the Hermit Crab" story which went down a storm and we were back on track with the time.
How lovely to hear 300 plus people singing the refrain from All Is Well back to us! We felt quite privileged to be so well received. We'd like to thank all the Shrewsbury folk, particularly Sean (who put us through in the heat) and to Chris, Colin and other judges for deciding in our favour and giving us the break - thanks fellas. Special thanks to Rod and Fras (the Balding Middle-Aged Groupies!), for managing to be both very encouraging and at the time time not taking it too seriously. They helped us to stay relaxed and to enjoy the experience to the full. We had a cracking weekend!