Gigs, Ho!

The next few months we spent doing a lot of writing and an awful lot of polishing, although we didn't actually start properly practicing till halfway through January because of the stupid Mini Ice Age.

I remember 1 Wednesday, the 6th of January, which was meant to be our first post Christmas practice, for all the disappointment it brought, some of the most I'd ever felt in my life. Even though we'd only had 3 practices before Christmas, I had instantly fallen in love with the band and the highlight of my week away from work and college was the 2 hours on a Wednesday night jamming with the lads. I'd done a lot of interesting things but being in a band was the thing I'd always wanted the most and never got the chance to do. From the 3rd week in December though, we couldn't use the rehearsal place... the Christians had something better to do in the festive season apparently?¿ Finally though I got Rob, the guy who opened for us, to come back out, or so I thought. The buses weren't running due to the weather, so I'd got myself all bundled up to walk to Bray in my comfy but ridiculous looking coat and warm baggy jeans. In the big inside pocket was also a large mix of Huzzar and Red Bull to keep me warm for the walk and to get the creative juices flowing, I was buzzing! Just as I put my hand on the handle to open the door to leave I received a text and got a horrible sinking feeling... I'd always known when it was him texting to cancel before, I knew he was doing it again! Sure enough, it was from Rob. In his defence, he had tried to leave his house in Stillorgan to drive out but his car couldn't handle the roads so he opted not to go for safety. Still though, I was crushed. Not only had I found out Santa Claus wasn't real, it was like hearing he had been the one who gave me homework and sent me to bed early. So I text the lads then just sat at home. Then I lived out another highly uneventful week working at Dunnes until we finally got our chance to play again!

Then came all the writing and practicing. We done this in a variety of places, The Christian warehouse, which eventually closed, my bedroom, Applrock Studios and Paul and Alans house! We wrote Talbot Street Blues, Tempos, Stadium Rock Song and The Gait and practiced them all to death. I think that there was a separate point for each song (except maybe The Gait!) in which before we fully finished it we just felt like scrapping it completely. But we didn't scrap any of them, we just worked and worked and looking back its quite amazing we managed to write 5 original songs in that space of time, considering David was the only one of us who really had any experience in that (no disrespect to Tell It Again) Once again I think it was just a feeling of containment, like everyone of us had wanted to properly write music before but never really got the chance, so now that we had we even surprised ourselves at this early stage! There was definitely something between the four of us as well. For a while it seemed like everything we tried went right and the more we played with each other the more we loved it. Seemed like one week we were writing Talbot Street Blues and I felt like we could be New Model Army or Joy Division then the next we were writing Stadium Rock song and I was sitting topless in Applerock feeling like we could be Kings of Leon. Obviously now we are a lot better I am a lot more down to earth, just at this early stage I was ever the optimistic one!

Still though, we hadn't actually got any gigs at all and this was proving quite difficult. Our first was meant to be in February at the warehouse, but it closed down! Then in March we were set to play I.A.D.T but for some reason the organiser decided against it at the last minute. Besides these there was no prospects since no one had actually herd us but ourselves. One Tuesday night out of desperation I asked my college friend and DJ Niall Darcy if he could help us out in anyway and he amazing got me in contact with Keith Florea who booked us to play Andrews Lane Theatre the same night as Von Shakes and Zombie Nation that Friday. I don't think I ever properly thanked them for that, I really must someday! Then the next day in practice we got booked for another two gigs, one from my uncle Kevin Brennan who wanted us to play his book launch which would eventually be held at The Button Factory and another which was in The Harbour Bar in Bray that night for some guys birthday. While the gig that night turned out to be a bit of a reality check because there was fuck all people there, we were all tired, the sound was shit and poor Alans tongue had randomly swollen to three times it size (which isn't really relevant, I just thought it was worth mentioning) the others would go on to be vital in helping us develop as a band and also probably weren't that awful to witness!

This is an awful place
Shelberino