This gig was booked several months ago, long before anyone knew what dates Ingerland would be playing matches in the World Cup (or indeed whether they'd even qualify), so it was with a familiar sinking feeling we noticed it clashed with their first game against the USA... oh well, we reasoned, there must be loads of people in Shaftesbury who would rather see us than a bunch of overpaid pillocks ruining a perfectly good lawn, mustn't there?
The venue itself is great, a nice theatre with a huge great stage, loads of lights, backdrops, and a backstage area with a table containing several empty bottles and a pot of Geraniums. Clearly someone has got confused over our rider, which I'm sure specified several full bottles of Guinness? We make the best of it however, and eat as many of the Geraniums as we can manage, apart from Chris, who has a pathological aversion to salad.
Meanwhile, the very apologetic and charming organiser confirmed our fears that ticket sales had been "disappointing"...
Seven, to be precise. We counted 'em in, and every so often Chris got the excellent lighting man to light 'em up so we could check none had escaped. Never mind, it's quality, not quantity that's important, and for 7 people they did a damned fine job - we really enjoyed ourselves. Particularly nice to see Elodie from the Plough at Manston there with Dave, the Man in a Hat, to whom many thanks for the great photos..!
As we packed the van up at the end of the night, several grim-faced men in England shirts wandered past, muttering something about a "complete bloody disgrace..." Apparently, a huge audience is no guarantee of a good gig!
http://www.maninahat.com/
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