During Novacain's first year together we struggled to get gigs outside our home town of Leeds. The internet hadn't really taken off and we didn't have a clue how to find venues that put on unsigned acts. It sounds silly now but we talked a few times about taking a trip to Manchester of Sheffield so we could wander round and search for pubs that looked like they might have live music. Of course we were far too lazy to ever actually do this. Eventually we hit upon the idea of The Gig Swap - we'd find bands we liked from other cities and offer them a show with us at Joseph's Well in Leeds in return for a support slot in whatever exotic locale they came from. We started the ball rolling with a gig in January featuring Mike's mates from Sheffield, Corinal, and Halifax based Jacasta, who were friends with Suggy. The evening went well and we looked forward to playing regularly with both bands as well as organising more Gig Swaps. Typically for Novacain though, things didn't go exactly to plan...
Our show with Jacasta started well enough. As we were first on, we arrived in Halifax quite early for soundcheck and found Revival Bar without too many problems. Although there was no parking and we had to lug our gear up some steps, the place itself seemed pretty cool. It was semi-circular with a fairly big stage facing the bar, which was on the back wall, and looked like it regularly hosted bands. After soundcheck I left with Mike to move his car as he was worried about getting a parking ticket. As the two of us drove round the centre it seemed as though everyone was already hammered even though it was only seven o'clock and we abandoned several spaces thanks to groups of fat men brawling nearby. We eventually parked near a tower block ten minutes away from the venue and had a much less eventful walk back.
I was a bit concerned that the fat brawly men would rock up when the doors opened/no-one would rock up when the doors opened, but thankfully a large crowd of indie types filled Revival by the time we went on.
We opened our set with a new song, "Gibbsy's Street", which we'd written the week before. It was a great little tune with a good groove and was exactly the direction I wanted to go in - dancey, catchy indie-pop. The track was named after our mate Gibbsy, who'd been to school with Mike and Suggy and had attended most of our gigs in the past year or so.
The sound on stage was good and the crowd seemed to be enjoying things but we'd rather front loaded the set with our better songs and after "Scarborough Warning" and "Stick To What You Know" the audience lost interest a bit, although we did still receive polite applause and I remember "Back Row Exit" going down well. Before "End Of The World" Leigh thanked everyone for listening and announced that we were about to play our last song. But as he was plugging in his acoustic guitar Jacasta's manager, who'll we'll call Dick, ran on stage and told us we had to end our set, screaming "you've had your thirty minutes!" and flapping his arms around like a wounded chicken. Not only was it pretty embarrassing for all concerned, Dick's ill-advised stage invasion actually took up more time than "End Of The World" would have done if he'd let us get on with things. Dick evidently thought he was Peter Grant and Brian Epstein combined. In reality he was just A Knob and A Head combined.
Although Revival was a decent venue the booking policy left something to be desired. Apart from Jacasta's 'Love Spreads' night, cover bands and tribute acts were very much the order of the day.
I was a bit concerned that the fat brawly men would rock up when the doors opened/no-one would rock up when the doors opened, but thankfully a large crowd of indie types filled Revival by the time we went on.
We opened our set with a new song, "Gibbsy's Street", which we'd written the week before. It was a great little tune with a good groove and was exactly the direction I wanted to go in - dancey, catchy indie-pop. The track was named after our mate Gibbsy, who'd been to school with Mike and Suggy and had attended most of our gigs in the past year or so.
Novacain - Gibbsy's Street (Rough Demo)
A few weeks after we wrote Gibbsy's Street we recorded a demo at Cherrytree Studios in Morley using some equipment Mike had just bought. The gear took so long to set up we didn't have much time for the actual recording. It's a bit sketchy as a result but it's got a lot of charm and I prefer this rough demo to the version we 'laid down' at Woodman Studios later that year.
The sound on stage was good and the crowd seemed to be enjoying things but we'd rather front loaded the set with our better songs and after "Scarborough Warning" and "Stick To What You Know" the audience lost interest a bit, although we did still receive polite applause and I remember "Back Row Exit" going down well. Before "End Of The World" Leigh thanked everyone for listening and announced that we were about to play our last song. But as he was plugging in his acoustic guitar Jacasta's manager, who'll we'll call Dick, ran on stage and told us we had to end our set, screaming "you've had your thirty minutes!" and flapping his arms around like a wounded chicken. Not only was it pretty embarrassing for all concerned, Dick's ill-advised stage invasion actually took up more time than "End Of The World" would have done if he'd let us get on with things. Dick evidently thought he was Peter Grant and Brian Epstein combined. In reality he was just A Knob and A Head combined.
Unsurprisingly Dick's antics put a bit of a dampener on the night. Jacasta were full of apologies though and I really enjoyed Rigsby, who were on directly after us. They played sugary glam indie-pop, not a million miles away from Suede, and had a bunch of really decent songs. I found myself singing one of their tunes, "Wockachicka", for days afterwards. When fellow glamsters King Adora and Spacehog started appearing on the radio in 2001 I felt sure that Rigsby would follow. Needless to say they did not. Several years after this gig I found a copy of their debut, and only, single in the bargain bin at Jumbo Records. The single itself, "Mystery Machine", was just alright, but fabulously "Wockachicka" was the b-side.
I would have happily stuck round to watch Jacasta but the rest of the band wanted to get home and were still pissed off with how we'd been treated. I remember us making a bit of a show of carting our equipment down the stairs to the cars while Jacasta were starting their set.
Despite the fact that the Jacasta boys had apologised for Dick's actions it was clear that there would be no more Gig Swaps between our bands for a while. Not only that, we soon found out that Corinal had split so there'd be no Sheffield gig for us either. 2000 was meant to be the year that we firmly established ourselves as a touring band, in the event though we only played three more shows outside Leeds after this gig in Halifax and the first of those wasn't until November.
Set list (Novacain)
- Gibbsy's Street
- Scarborough Warning
- Stick To What You Know
- M.F.S.
- Paracetamol
- Party Politics
- Back Row Exit
- Step To It
- Second Time Around
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