But maybe a little late! Friday 24th August saw the Quiksters arriving at another new gig, this time in Lichfield. The venue was the Feathers and is owned by a thoroughly nice couple called Mike and Tracey, the former being a musician also.  Anyhoo, battling through the traffic Arty and I arrived first, thirsty and hungry and as soon as we had dealt with that issue scoped the gig. always nice to see your posters already up and visible at a venue we unloaded the van and got to it.

There has been a fair amount of thought gone into this as a venue and it was good to see a defined and raised stage with a good PA and an excessive (in a good way) amount of lighting and stage effects. The stage was defined by three hanging curtains in a square and on closer inspection these curtains were lined by 2 inch thick sound proofing foam as a nod of respect to the local residents. Windows were also blocked up with 4 inch acoustic foam on the road-side. Good attention to detail.

Soundcheck came up pretty easily with me being guitar roadie for the day as The G Man was busy at a local festival in the afternoon. New backdrop up we waited for showtime to come.

With a new setlist in a new order we were keen to see if people approved, which fortunately they did, and the songs worked into each other really well providing some nice highlights, as told to us by Mike (who was also the sound and lighting engineer for the evening). Highlights for us were Get Carter, Break on through to the other side and Green Onions which really went down well. With the combination of a badly placed oil lamp and smoke machine combo I think we did really well considering that The G Man couldn’t see us and vice versa for most of the 2 hours sets!

00Deano is really settling in nicely now, head up enjoying the gig. The placement of his drum overheads this evening meant that he could sing backing vocals in them and contribute to that authentic 60’s backing vocal distant wall of sound vibe that so many producers achieved at the time (possibly by the limitations of their equipment more than by design!)

Arriving in shorts is great in the summer and it didn’t even matter that it was raining when we striked the set as after a gig you tend to stay hot for a few hours. The drive home was long and wet but we left after having done an excellent performance (not our words) and with Mike keen to get us into his book for next year so you can’t say fairer than that can you.

See you soon Quiksters see you soon!