After our last show at the Cockpit, we signed up for another gig with 'Flatnose' John Trueman in late November. This time we sorted out the date several weeks after we'd played, rather than while we were packing our gear away. I remember feeling quite down about the lack of the usual enthusiasm from John, and I felt worse when he sent the tickets through... It looked like we'd only been asked to play because our old friends 22 Blue had pulled out. Selling the tickets to our friends and family was even more fun than usual, as we had to explain to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM why our name wasn't on the front.
The bill had a familiar feel to it, with Base 4 being the only band we hadn't played with at our last cockpit gig. I was quite excited about watching Base 4; I'd never seen any live drum and bass before and I was ALL ABOUT expanding my musical horizons. I remember being quite disappointed though. They were either not very good or drum and bass wasn't for me...
By the time we went on, the room had filled up nicely. Without trying that hard we'd brought a whole bunch of people with us, probably the most we ever brought to a gig we played for John. I think we felt we had a point to prove to ourselves after the lack of enthusiasm we received from the crowd at the Rose & Crown a few days earlier, and the show actually went pretty well for a change. We were really tight, with our new song, "Scarborough Warning", sounding particularly good. I felt a tiny bit weird playing the track in front of Insense, having pinched the idea for my guitar part in the chorus from them the last time we gigged together, but, looking back, "Scarborough Warning" sounds sod all like an Insense track.
Novacain - Scarborough Warning (Acoustic)
The band recorded this acoustic version of "Scarborough Warning" at Mike's parents house towards the end of the year when I was too busy writing essays to practice. I came in later and added my lead guitar.
After we played, I chatted to various friends and relatives who'd come to see us. It was nice to hear complimentary things after our last couple of gigs, which hadn't gone particularly well. Given the amount of people we'd brought to the show it wasn't particularly surprising that John was really impressed too. He offered us an acoustic show at The Rocket bar (the small room in the Cockpit, now known as Cockpit 3) the following week, and a headlining gig at The Cockpit in the New Year. He even agreed to stop comparing us to Mansun on his posters. Boom.
I ended up missing most of Cloud 99's set, but I made the effort to watch Insense, having enjoyed them last time we played together. Once again they were decent, although the didn't blow me away, and I certainly didn't think they'd go on to have any real success...
When we were packing our things up, we noticed a snare stand that didn't belong to us perched on Winny's drums. We decided to take it with us, as everyone had left, and rang John a few days later to let him know. He told us it belonged to Insense and gave us the number of their drummer. We tried to call him a few times but he didn't answer.
Next time we saw Insense they'd changed their name to The Music and were co-headlining a gig at The Warehouse with The Coral on their first UK tour. They didn't seem that arsed about the snare stand.
Set list (Novacain)
- Slipstream
- Stick To What You Know
- New Song #1
- Paracetamol
- M.F.S.
- Back Row Exit
- Scarborough Warning
- Second Time Around
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