Wink - The Live Practice at Bad Grannies
Nervously we enter the bar. We're not on for a while but we wanted to be ready and also look professional for any gig we do, whether it's an Open Mic Night like this one is or a Huge Gig on a stage like Toast Martinborough, that we hope to get booked for in the future.
We've talked to the booker and set up our gear as much as we can. There's a few acts on before us so we've got to wait. Drinking whiskey and lemon-honey-gingers as usual. We're chatting to the other acts and the bar staff. The band have all bought their other halves along, single me bought noone. But this gig isn't about who we bring with us it's about what we can bring to a stage. This gig is a test to see if we're ready.
Finally it's our turn. We get up to set up, plugging in chords, setting volumes and generally check, check, checking everything. Getting the nods from everyone I grab the mic... it's time to tell them who we are.
"We're a brand new Rock n Roll Covers Band. We're here to do our first set in front of an audience ever! We've just got a few songs to do tonight, a teaser for our first full gig in a months time at Cavern Club. We're absolutely excited to be here and we're going to rock this stage. We are Wink!"
The band has been strumming away in the background and on those words we swing into full action. The opening sequence of 'Take Me Out' fills the room and soon the bar is nodding and singing along.
The next few songs have the audience moving in their seats and then people are up and dancing. Something I've never seen at Bad Grannies before. All to early it was coming to an end, just as people had starting getting into it.
As the last notes of 'Gold on the Ceiling' ring out, I yell out ... "We've been Wink, you've been great, good night!" The applause rolls in thunderously loud for the size of the crowd and we stared at each other grinning for a while.
Packing up and getting off the stage in a daze of happiness was a blur. As are the people who gave me a hug or congratulated us. I was so busy in a world of realisation that this was real. We were a real band who had just done our first mini gig and we'd killed it. Wink. We are Wink. And Wink is awesome!
See you at our next gig where we'll really show you what we can do.
