Not
anticipating an exciting evening, I remember thinking to myself,
"Well at the very least, I will have kept the promise that I made to
Pete". I spoke with him prior to the start of the gig and as tactful
as usual, he made some comment to me about his band obviously being better
than my band because his band were playing that evening! This did not put
me in a good frame of mind, even though I had desires to leave Tough
Childhood. It's all right me being critical about my own band, but it's a
different matter when some one else decides to have a go.
LISTEN TO THE BAND
It has always
been my belief that when you go to listen to a band, you go to listen to a
band. You don't dance and that has never been a problem for me because I
can't dance anyway! When the gig started, probably because of what Pete
had said to me earlier, I found that I was inwardly willing the band to be
rubbish. For his band to impress me after that would not be easy so I was
just waiting for them to fail. After about 20 minutes of their
performance, I realised that I had not spoken a word at all. To say that
they impressed me would be a massive understatement.
The first
thing that hit me was the clarity of Pete's voice, together with the fact
that it was actually possible to hear him when he sang. At that time most
bands seemed eager to play their instruments with as much volume as
possible, regardless of whether or not the vocalist was singing. Usually,
if you could hear the vocalist you could never understand any of the
lyrics that were being sung. There was also no doubting the fact that the
members of the band could play their instruments well. Midway through the
gig they performed a version of Voodoo Chile, by Jimi Hendrix, which was
Robin's chanced to shine (photo). He was superb.