Jim’s Favourite Gigs/Events March 10-June 10
Some of these can be found on http://www.youtube.com/user/BeckyRoseMusic
Gig 88: Tuesday 02 March 2010
The Vic Inn, DERBY
After all these gigs, this was the first time Becky had performed in front of her wider family as myself and Cathy were originally from Derby.
It would not be a surprise then to say that Becky’s set was received very enthusiastically, what was even better for me though, was the young crowd right at the front who took great delight in giving some very humorous and cheeky banter with Becky between songs and seeing her handling it very playfully and not putting her off at all.
Gig 90: Thursday 11 March 2010
Council Chamber, County Hall, The Tryangle Awards, WORCESTER
Celebrating Young People’s Achievements
A big audience packed with dignitaries from councillors to Chief Superintendents and all manner in between.
This is where previous experience comes in big time, as there was no PA, but we could tell the acoustics would be excellent in this lovely room and Becky had done a gig before without a PA at the Lamb in Great Malvern, so Becky approached this with confidence which clearly demonstrated a new found belief in her abilities.
I said Becky was like posh Bx tonight and she performed with real class and dignity and it was nice at the end when a guy complimented her at the end and that he was ‘blown away’ by Come What May as it was his and his wife’s wedding song.
Gig 95: Friday 16 April 2010
The Camden Head, CAMDEN, LONDON
This was a Scary Little Girls production and the organiser Becca, who is terrific, had got us to do a gig previously at the Crypt Gallery under St Pancras Church and no one turned up! So we were a little apprehensive with another long trip to London ahead of us.
They were charging £5 entry and at 8:30 there was still no-one there but still we were having a really nice day out in London so, no worries, what we didn’t realise was that people were downstairs queuing to get in and then the place was quickly packed out with them having to keep bringing more seats in for people.
The audience were very quiet and respectful and Becky’s set was faultless and very enthusiastically received.
We got home at 2:30 am after a 296 mile round trip and we were coming back to London the following Wednesday!
Gig 96: Wednesday 21 April 2010
The Troubador, Kensington, LONDON
Maybe, just maybe, this gig could have far-reaching effects on Becky having a big career in music.
It all seemed pretty normal at first, not a big crowd but Becky put in another of her consistently excellent sets, the compere for the evening described it as ‘just fantastic’.
Becky took her seat and was chatting with Cathy, Katie and Lisa Ventura who was in London had come to see Becky perform (much appreciated Lisa) when two women came over to Becky and seemed very observant and were asking some detailed questions about her music and ambitions and they then gave her a business card and told Becky to keep in touch and keep them up to speed with any new songs etc in the future and in parting they said ‘Becky we came especially just to see you’ and with that they left.
Lisa promptly looked them up on her laptop and was amazed to see that she was the manager of a top class management company with loads of stellar names on their books.
Becky still swaps occasional emails with them and it was a real boost to know that the business believes she could have something special.
As an aside we had already paid £50 for a soundboard recording of the gig and I dubbed this sound onto the film and published virtually the whole set on my YouTube channel, because to me if Becky does make a breakthrough, this was the exact moment.
Gig 100: Saturday 05 June 2010
Walrus Gumboot at Sumo, LEICESTER
No, it’s not memorable for being gig 100, in fact, it was very nearly an absolute nightmare of a day.
We always seem to be jinxed on Leicester gigs, maybe it’s because I’m a Derby fan and I’m not welcome!
Last time we got hopelessly lost, this time we broke down at the Corley services. We eventually made it by car but then got hopelessly lost on foot! It was supposed to be a four minute walk but with all the gear we were carrying and it was boiling, we took a half an hour detour around the park where a music festival was on, we thought Sumo must be there, finally after asking lots of people from gang members to policemen we eventually found it.
But still, the bad luck was to continue, the pub was blasting out rave music from the bar with only a couple of punters in there and it was competing with the acoustic music just outside the door (why!?) and then when Becky kicks off her set there is howling feedback drowning out her first song.
Seeing as there were only a dozen people in the audience anyway I decided to unplug the keyboard from the PA altogether and then Becky carried on with it through the keyboard speakers.
So what made it memorable then, well it was one couple who were on the phone between songs to her friend saying that they were watching this amazing girl singer who was fantastic, listen (holds the phone out) did you hear that she’s amazing!
When Becky had finished she came over to tell her that she thought Becky was brilliant, a couple of minutes later, Becky took a CD over to give to her with the bizarre result of this lady forcing Bx to take £10 for it while Becky wanted her to have it for free…she did end up with the £10!
Now, any sane person, any businessman (and I’m supposed to be one) would say we are being totally stupid doing all this and yet it still felt wonderful watching the pleasure a complete stranger got out of Becky’s songs and performance, just seems to make it all worthwhile somehow.
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