After a few weeks of jamming and not getting anywhere, we started the new year by working on Leigh's "Soap On A Rope" and "Shot An Arrow" songs that the rest of the band had initially dismissed when he brought them in at the start of November. We couldn't get them right, however, and, once again we were in a bit of a rut. As a result I decided to show the guys a shuffling indie-pop track I'd written called "Meaning Of Life". It was inspired by Belle & Sebastian's song "Sleep The Clock Around", and didn't sound like Novacain AT ALL, but I thought anything was worth a go at this point. To my surprise, the rest of the band really liked it, particularly Win and Mike, and we ended up coming up with an arrangement the same night. Although I obviously wanted the band to like my songs, this was the first time we'd properly prepared one of my tracks to go in the set and it felt kind of weird hearing Leigh sing it.
Suggy had booked us our first gig of 2001 with a friend of his who was putting on a night at Abrahams, a great music venue that was at the heart of the town's music scene in the 90s and early 2000s. Despite the fact that Sug and Mike frequently went out in the town, as they lived in nearby Dewsbury, and had lots of mates there, we'd never played Huddersfield so we were really looking forward to the show.
Abrahams was set over two floors, with gigs usually taking place on the top level. When we we got there, the staff behind the bar didn't seem to know much about the show, so we piled our gear into the lift and made our way to, what we thought was, the right floor. When the lift doors opened, we found ourselves in the deserted attic. The venue obviously used the area for storage and crates of bottled bear were everywhere. I think it was Leigh and Winny who decided to steal one and take it downstairs. I pointed out that this might not be the best idea if we wanted to play Abrahams again and eventually they relented. But only after they'd nicked us all a bottle each.
The second and third floors were also deserted, so we made the decision to unload our stuff on the third floor. Just as we'd finished doing this, a member of staff came upstairs and told us the gig was actually on the second floor, so back to the lift we went.
We set up our kit and waited for Sug's mate, the sound tech and the other bands to arrive. Eventually Chapter 13 and Mary Jane turned up but, by half past seven, there was still no sign of the promoter. By this point people were starting to arrive. Without anyone on the door to take their money, they all got in for free. Finally Sug's mate turned up... and promptly left as he needed to pick up a PA from his friend's house. He also told us that there wasn't going to be a sound tech and, because Winny played drums left handed, we'd have to go on first to save time swapping the kit around for the right handed drummers in the other two bands. Awesome.
Things got even better when he returned. He'd only managed to get two vocal microphones, so I had to sing through a bass drum mic, gaffer taped to a knackered stand that kept falling over. At least we could crack on with soundcheck though... Or we could have done if the promoter's shonky PA system hadn't tripped the power for the entire pub as soon as we played a note. Awesomer.
After a hurried discussion, the day was, quite literally, SAVED, by Mike, who managed to put the vocals through his Marshall head and his guitar through my H|H amp which, luckily, had space for two inputs.
From left to right: Me (with bass drum mic gaffered to a broken stand), Mikey C, Win (behind Mike), Leigh, Suggy (behind Leigh).
Unsurprisingly the sound was not great. We could hardly hear ourselves and there was a horrible echo, as the music bounced back off the far wall. We soldiered on anyway and, against all the odds, managed to enjoy ourselves. We threw in our cover of "Something For The Weekend" and also played "Meaning Of Life" for the first time. The crowd were reasonably enthusiastic, despite a few people telling us that the sound in the room was terrible, with the vocals being heavily distorted, when we got off stage.
I was rocking a semi-skinhead at Abrahams, after the hairdresser at Toni & Guys interpreted the statement "I want it shortish. But not shaved LOL", to mean "cut my hair as short as you can go without using a shaver". Hilariously my haircut inspired my flat to drunkenly shave each others heads after a night out. Things, predictably, went wrong, and my friend Armes managed to shave a bald strip into our flatmate Joe's forehead.
Although he was super slack, the promoter was a nice guy and made sure we had plenty of free drinks throughout the night. We quickly got rather sloshed while watching Chapter 13, who'd improved as musicians since the last time we played together at Joseph's Well in August 2000. They were still lacking a bit of confidence though, something which we did little to help with when a friend of ours fell off their chair and we all howled with laughter... at the precise moment Chapter 13 ended their first song.
Possibly the worst flyer I have ever seen. "Hudderstfield'd Top D.J's" were busy on the night. Shame.
Mary Jane rounded off proceedings with some punky rock, not a million miles away from The Distillers. They weren't the tightest band in the world, but their singer, Terri, had a great rock voice and their guitarist, Rachel, had some nice riffs and was a really good player.
Despite all the problems we'd had on the night, I liked Abrahams and was hopeful that we could get another gig at the venue. We went there on a few nights out over the next couple of years but Abrahams shut down in the summer of 2003, a year too early for us to play there again with The Voltaires. Although The Parish stepped into the void left by Abrahams to a certain extent, it took several years for Huddersfield's music scene to fully recover and I still miss the place.
Set list (Novacain)
- The Way She Talks
- Sibling
- Meaning Of Life
- Step To It
- Something For The Weekend
- One For The People
- Quick Release
- Gibbsy's Street
- End Of The World
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