Friday 28th Dec
Well I slept quite well apart from my little episode where my mattress slid off the camper bed and catapoulted me face-first into the side of the tent, which completely freaked me out as I couldn't move much. My trusty tent-sharer Bridge's reaction went something like this: 'Whaaa? Wha? Hmmm? *pause* 'Mna mna mna . . . *roll over & go back to sleep* Thanks for your help, Bridge! :) I somehow managed to right everything & slept very lightly for the rest of the night!
It rained all night and today there's mud everywhere, so Bridge & I decided to gig in our gumboots. Not so fashionable, but damn, my feet were warm & more importantly, dry, so I just went with it. They go with everything, anyway.
First gig, Concert, 10am: We definitely weren't expecting such a turnout in the 1000-seat plus Concert tent at 10am, but that's what we were greeted & finished with! I had been fretting a bit over our first gig (my mouth ulcer proved it!), & I made sure I took my time warming the ol' vocals up (Mannie was also fretting a tad, but his bodily functions served to remind him just how nervous he was - frequently!). I was too busy distracting myself with vocal & whistle warmups to actually be nervous, so there you have it. Once again I had no coffee before the gig (but you should have seen me attack the caffeine afterwards!), and it was a wonderfully mental performance for us all! The audience cheered when I did my soundcheck (one of my standard favourites, 'The Fairest of all Yarrow' by Kate Rusby) - thanks everyone. Paul took his time tuning his bodhran between songs, which Mannie took as an opportunity to take the piss in the most hilarious manner. He was utterly on form in this gig! The venue was packed & we were enormously proud of our first effort at Woodford. The feedback was incredible. We went straight to the Guinness tent to celebrate (Bridget told me cider is a morning drink, and she's a teacher, so she must be right), played more tunes and just relaxed.
Caught Trouble in the Kitchen's gig in the Troubadour, they were just brilliant. The Troub is THE tent to play in, so I hope we can play a few chalkboard gigs - you have to be invited to play. We'll wait & see. It was Mannie's turn to cook tonight, chicken & a yummy sauce with rice, using Bridget's awesome cooking utensils. It's been quite cold today, so this was exactly what I needed. Angus & Julia Stone played a great gig at the Amphitheatre, & right now The Cat Empire is playing. I took a stroll up to the Amphitheatre before to see what was happening, & it was just mental. I kid you not, literally 20,000 people were squashed together dancing in the mud to their music. I was just hoping I didn't fall over in the mud :) Back to camp I went, I was knackered. Bed now. Goodnight.
PS, Paul has been whinging like a girl because he didn't bring any gumboots with him & the floor of everything is pretty soupy now, so today we all went in search of size 11 gumboots. Turns out they'd sold out everywhere - the only ones available were pink psychadelic swirly ones straight out of Austin Powers selling for a mere $90!! Bridge placated him by placing an SOS to her parents to bring some tomorrow when they come to spend the day. Mannie declined to get a pair - he's assuming the rain will clear up over the next few days. I'm not so sure about that . . .
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