Next up in our ‘A Day in a Life’ series is Stephen from Liverpool based post/instrumentalist rockers Minion TV, who describes 24 hours surrounding the bands first gig in Nottingham at the wonderfully named Spanky Van Dykes. 28-05-2011
I woke up early on the Thursday morning to get a haircut in town -this is always one of those 'get it out of the way' sort of events so I was glad it was happening early enough to not put a dent in the day. That done, I proceeded down to our rehearsal room to begin the packing up process, only to find I was the first there. I think this was due to some misinformation about what time to arrive, either that or everyone else wanted an extra half hour in bed. Half way through lugging the gear to the lift the others started turning up along with Mike our van driver. All packed into the van we just had to wait for Barry who strolled up the latest and we were ready to set off for our first gig in Nottingham.
The drive from Liverpool to Nottingham was hardly treacherous. A two hour odd journey with one stop for diesel flew by as Mike kept us entertained with his off the cuff humour. Sion who'd literally brought an apocalypse survival hamper's worth of Sainsbury's food was was freaking me out with olives and his endless supplies of flavoured water.
Arriving in Nottingham we unpacked the van and loaded the gear into the venue Spanky Van Dykes. It reminded us of the Shipping Forecast pub in Liverpool so it was no surprise when we found it was owned by the same company. The stage itself looked like the setting of a game show or a neon pirate ship with all the flashing lights and protruding shapes. Having arrived way too early, we left our gear by the stage and went for a walk into the town centre. We met up with some friends who'd came up to see us and split up into two groups as some wanted to see the sights and the others see what record stores Nottingham had to offer .
Three phones running google maps couldn't find the store we were after as we ran into dead ends and lengthy high streets. By chance we wondered into an arcade shopping centre where some old keyboards caught our eye. Barry immediately bought a Bontempi after trying it out. It's an electric organ made in the 70s that produces sound by forcing air through reeds via a fan (no convenient output here!). We asked the owner for directions to the record store we wanted to go to but he basically told us to forget that one and instead go to Rob's Records as it was much better, It bloody was too! Wall to wall in vinyl we spent a good 40 minutes scouring through the shelves. I picked up Gary Numan, Focus, Kate Bush and David Bowie albums I didn't already have. Phone rang, it was Gayle who was sorting the night,time to head back!
We got back to the venue to find there was still a fair bit of waiting around to do as the headlining band 8mm Orchestra were soundchecking so we decided to get some food. After the massively filling (and tasty) humus and lentil burger, we played around with the Bontempi until it was time to soundcheck. We played through a couple of songs and headed to the bar. They have a balcony in the bar area which was empty so we crowded into there. It must have been near boiling point up there, no wonder nobody was up there! A couple of our friends fell asleep while the rest of us chatted away. About half an hour later it was time to go back up.
It was the first Memory Box Presents night so we were really flattered to be asked to be on the first bill. Gayle was really nice, well organised and very helpful, especially when it came to looking for vegetarian cafes! She'd heard about us from others but not actually been to see us play live so asked if we'd join the bill. There were three bands playing in total; 8mm Orchestra, Double Handsome Dragons and ourselves who were up first. A friend of ours who follows us on Facebook was there to see us and take some photographs - it was really cool meeting him in person for the first time. We had a quick chat about music we liked and gigs we'd seen before we took to the stage. The audience was mainly made up of the bands and their friends, which was to be expected for the first show but we managed to play a good 40 minute set. It was a great stage to play on and we were well monitored so we really enjoyed playing.
Next band up were Double Handsome Dragons. They were a 4-piece math rock band whose guitarists ran about the floor playing blistering riffs only stopping to scream into their microphones. It was fun to watch, especially the drummer who was tight as hell. Then came 8mm Orchestra, consisting of 5 members, who all influenced by different styles created an interesting fusion of diverse sounds.
We hung around for a bit to chat to the bands and people who'd came to see us before starting the arduous task of taking the gear downstairs through the crowded bar outside into the van, Nottingham was absolutely heaving with people out drinking, which is pretty normal for a Saturday night but it made for a few obstacles when carrying heavy amps. Sion was trapped in a drunken Welsh conversation with a random guy on the street who kept him there for what seemed an hour as we were ready to get into the van. Finally packed away we said our goodbyes and off we went back to Liverpool.One by one people drifted off asleep as we drove home. It'd been a fun gig in Nottingham, all that was left to do was unpack all of the gear back into the rehearsal room when we got back...
Check out the bands brilliant debut album here
Minion TV website
