The Soak

On Thursday, October 2nd I played at The Soak, in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

I hadn't been to this part of Birmingham much before, let alone played at the night before, which is always jointly exciting (this could be a great, great gig) and scary (what if no ones there, what if the venues nasty, what if the people I've invited are embarrassed for me when they see the place!!!?)

I had to get there first, and this proved not be as easy as I might have thought. I'd invited a good friend and house mate to come with me and arranged to pick him up from a theatre in Wolverhampton five minutes away from were we live, and then go straight to the gig. So, at the appointed time, I drove to the theatre. It was timed beautifully, just as I got there the audience were leaving. I parked up and waited. And waited. After a while I went into the theatre. My girlfriend (who works at the theatre) was on the phone, so I asked one of her co workers if she had seen my house mate. She didn't think he had been there. I put credit on my phone and called him. And woke him up, he was in our house asleep. I called him names and went back home to get him, then he and I, with my girlfriend following in her car, went to the gig.

The Birmingham new road is rubbish. That's all I want to say about the journey.

The Soak itself is a really nice pub, right next to Birmingham Uni. There was a match on TV and it seemed to me to be very full, although the promoter said it was usually busier. The night was open mic, and I caught a couple of cool acts before I played. The pub was very full, but the area where the music was happening was quite small, and so while I was playing it felt as though only about 30 per cent of the place were listening, although when I went to the bar later I noticed the music could be heard all over the room.

The gig was good, I enjoyed it. Because of the match and the size of the place there was alot of background conversation etc from all over the room and it was pretty hard to hear myself whilst playing, but I'm pretty confident everyone who listened enjoyed me, which is what we want! The night was well run, and again free....payment was a drink, which I may case has to be a coke, sadley.