what I did last night

Well, last night the prog rock covers band played the bikers festival we got booked in at. We had a
great time, & it was well worth the 70 mile each way trip. We dropped a few of the more, erm, art-
rock orientated numbers (EG "In the Court of the Crimson King", "The Lamia"), and filled up the
gaps with "War Pigs", "Born to be Wild", "Smoke on the Water" and "Smells like Teen Spirit" all of
which went down a storm. Thee drummer wanted to do "Sweet Child o' Mine" but both me & the
bassist vetoed that, because it's CRAP.

Anyway, it's August, right? So it's supposed to be the middle ov summer LOLOLOLLOLOLLOL as I
drove down in the *pissing rain* I reached the North Yorkshire Moors, and the ph34rsome wall of
FOG that dwells there in perpetuity &c. I had to drive very slowly, and had the crap scared out of me
by a mad person in an XJ6 who screamed past at something like 80mph on a single carriageway
road in dense fog.

The place was easy to find, because there were motorcyclists everywhere (and a big sign when you
got close by). A little side-road led to the motorbike scramble course where the event was held. It
was beginning to show the first signs of muddy quagmire-ism by the time I got there of course. I
drove very slowly round to the back of the marquee where we were playing and set up. I would have
had a look around and examined the custom bikes, but the rain was so heavy & miserable that I
just stayed inside.

As we stood around waiting till 10pm when we were due on, the tent began to fill. I couldn't help but
notice these INCREDIBLY HOT biker women, including one hippy-ish sort who looked like anita
pallenberg. Rowr! A biker who looked like young iggy pop saw me stari...er looking, and sidled up.
"See those lot" he said. "They've brought *seven bottles of vodka* with them". Blimey. As the DJ
played heavier & heavier musick, they began to dance with wild abandon, shaking their asses in a,
er, lets change the subject. The men all looked like vikings, or members of Hawkwind or the Pink
Fairies circa 1971. Thankfully we had played to many of them before so we knew that they were
actually really nice people. Going into this gig w/o this knowledge would have been an experience
of total PH33R.

Anyway, we went on, and cranked it up. When we played "War Pigs" we knew we had won the
audience over. They went totally out of control, some actually shinning up the (very high) tent poles
& headbanging! We then went into the Transatlantic number we do, and it
was just starting to really rock, when the power went off! It turned out that the power feed from the
generator went to a plug board outside the tent, which had been protected from the rain by a plastic
sheet. Of course, water had got in. they got it fixed, and we started again, but then the generator
went on the fritz, and the power started browning out. Gah. They fixed this and we finished our first
set.

Now, the DJ took over, and started w/a bunch of hard rock type stuff. Then he played this really
cheesy trance number that was a big hit last year ( I forget the title, but it has JP8000 all over it not
that that narrows it down any hehehe) The bikers seamlessly switched to dancing to this, doing all
the wavy hand movements as appropriate. Some of them got out glowsticks & started waving them
in the air I AM NOT KIDDING, I SAW A TENT FULL OF BIKERS DANCING TO
EURO/TRANCE/CHEESE WAVING FUKCING GLOWSTICKS. The DJ faded to an AC/DC number
and on it went. The drummer and I looked at each other. He looked totally freaked -> what-the-
*fuck*-was-that?" he said. It was one of the most surreal sights I've ever seen

We then played our second set. The best response of the night was for "Born to be Wild" (BTW
this is really easy to play -
"get yer motor running"
{emin7 hammond w/fast leslie}
"head out on the highway"
{emin7 hammond w/fast leslie}
etc - this might actually be wrong, but it sounded right)
however, they made us play "Smells like Teen Spirit" twice. We did "war
Pigs" again, and then had to stop, b/c the drummer's (who's also the singer) voice had given out. I
left at 1.30am, and didn't get home 'till 3.30am. At certain points on the N York moors the fog was
so thick that I had to drive at 15mph, and I still felt like it was too fast. I got a nail stuck in the tyre
of the most recent Saab, and until Monday i'm driving round at less that 50mph with the bloody
useless "space saver" spare wheel on. It was worth it. It was fukcing great, & one of the best nights
I've ever had. If you play in a rock band, & get thee chance to play a biker fest, I can recommend it,
tho you absolutely HAVE to rock! Playing "Born to be Wild" is pretty much mandatory I think.
Also, upcoming pub gigs look a little lacklustre now. That's what I did last night, anyway.