T minus 72 hours

So, here we are. It's roughly three days until our first gig.

Am I nervous? I dunno.

Are you? Are you coming?

I'd be interested to see what the three members of the band who have never played a gig before are feeling. It may be the same as the 'seasoned veterans' (hah!).

I remember my first gig I played; in 1998 my younger brother hired me and Nathan A as a rhythm section to fill in for his band. We did one gig with them, and from what I recall it sounded passable. I got to play wah bass (yup, bass through a wah pedal) on one song. I've yet to try that since. The singer was a girl called Emily who was later in ITV's The Worst Witch. There was this lad Liam as the co-frontman, and for a 17 year old he was a pretty confident songwriter. I still hum songs like 'Young Blood' or 'Before What' that he wrote. Sometimes I even crib some of his hooks.

Anyway, I digress. Expect that from me. I'm sure for Waz this is pretty much par for the course. A gig's a gig; he's in three bands so it's not like it's unknown territory for him. Barring my brief unscheduled appearance with The Milburns at the O2 Festival last month (on drums of all things) I haven't played live for nearly three years. I think that was Dan's last gig as well. We played Maidenhead Leisure Centre in a local battle of the bands. We came last.

We had our final rehearsal last night, and it sounded pretty good. I kept missing change back into a verse on one song. I'm worried about fluffing my guitar solo on Student Nurse. Don't laugh if I do.

Andrew mis-timing a drum part on Shiftwork is now a running gag. If we introduce Shiftwork, please shout 'SOLO!' at him after the second verse so he knows what to play.

From past experience, a good gig usually hinges on a bad rehearsal beforehand, to keep everyone on their toes. But with one exception (when half the band got stuck in traffic and missed most of the session) we haven't really had a bad practice. For me, this is pretty good news- it's certainly the most industrious band I've been in. Eight complete songs in six months is pretty good going.

It amazes me how fast things have moved. Dan and I were in a band off and on for nearly three years, but nothing came of it. We haven't even played our first gig and already we have plans for nearly up to Christmas. I got some more band-related good news today which I'll save for later, but it's a step in the right direction.

See you on the other side of Sunday...

Thom