This unexpected and unfortunate occurence delayed me so I informed the group I was going to be late and alo explained why. I selected a red and brown
shirt and black skinny trousers with a smart sheen look; which I
accented with brown checkered braces, brown boots (which I polished) and
the same necklace I would have worn with my original ensemble. I
consider the soiling of the original shirt a blessing in disguise as my
second outfit had much more flair and was preferred by the group - which
was a relief.
I arrived shortly before 10:00 a.m. to find the rest of the group (minus Stefan and Luke who arrived not long after) rehearsing in a classroom with no PA equipment or staging as the equipment was unavailable to us due to a music class going on concurrently. We were not told to expect this the previous Friday at the end of our penultimate rehearsal, when we were advised by our tutor to rehearse from 9 a.m. and thus assumed there would be a room and appropriate facilities for us to utilise. This was not the case however as the girls had to go in search of the room we used initially.
I picked up a bass immediately and resumed rehearsal of the basslines Kian had taught me for The Smiths' "Big Mouth Strikes Again". Sleeping on it had helped and I was able to play both well which boosted my confidence and eagerness to show the others and layed to rest any concerns about delivering in the show.
Furthermore, I ran my performance of "Fire" repeatedly as we all focused on our solo performances independently. I walked through the choreography to ensure that both Serena and Stefan were clear on what I wanted and to ensure accuracy. As usual, they sounded great vocally on the track and really complimented my pre-recorded background vocals with their own fresh additions to the vocal arrangement.
I also offered to return the favour by running through Stefan's "Hey Lady" on which I was due to perform backing vocals, but he felt confident enough in his knowledge of both his original compositions; "Ghetto" and "Hey Lady", to not rehearse them during this time.
After a few hours of rehearsing, we took a break at approximately 12:30 p.m. as Crystal and Serena departed to Costco to purchase produce to sell at the show, having received and reviewed my budget plan the day before.
At 2:00 p.m. (an hour before we were allowed to access the venue), we learned that the music room was finally free and so we scrambled to get in there and set up microphones, stands, instruments and amps so that we could run the group songs as much as possible before migrating to Milton Keynes Christian Centre.
At 3:00 p.m. we migrated; myself, Elica, Tamara and Kian walking straight to the venue accompanied by our tutor whilst Luke and Stefan stayed back at college to collect and transport lights meanwhile Dylan stayed with the equipment which included; microphone stands, microphones and amps, which Joe the Sound Technician was coming to transport in a van.
We arrived at MKCC to find helpers already setting out chairs for the audience and asking how'd we like the stage to be set up, eliminating the major task of setting up the venue, giving us time to focus on other tasks such as bringing all the equipment in, which Joe and Dylan set up mostly.
At approximately 4:00 p.m. Crystal and Serena returned with the food produce and a set of fellow college students; Anais, Luke, David, Scott, Dylan and Leila, who had agreed to help assist us in setting up followed shortly after. Crystal made a quick trip home to retrieve a laptop amongst other things, so I could project the The Lounge logo I designed and featured prominently on our poster and tickets directly on to the black curtains for the entirety of the show, thus displaying the motif in a different format.
I arrived shortly before 10:00 a.m. to find the rest of the group (minus Stefan and Luke who arrived not long after) rehearsing in a classroom with no PA equipment or staging as the equipment was unavailable to us due to a music class going on concurrently. We were not told to expect this the previous Friday at the end of our penultimate rehearsal, when we were advised by our tutor to rehearse from 9 a.m. and thus assumed there would be a room and appropriate facilities for us to utilise. This was not the case however as the girls had to go in search of the room we used initially.
I picked up a bass immediately and resumed rehearsal of the basslines Kian had taught me for The Smiths' "Big Mouth Strikes Again". Sleeping on it had helped and I was able to play both well which boosted my confidence and eagerness to show the others and layed to rest any concerns about delivering in the show.
Furthermore, I ran my performance of "Fire" repeatedly as we all focused on our solo performances independently. I walked through the choreography to ensure that both Serena and Stefan were clear on what I wanted and to ensure accuracy. As usual, they sounded great vocally on the track and really complimented my pre-recorded background vocals with their own fresh additions to the vocal arrangement.
I also offered to return the favour by running through Stefan's "Hey Lady" on which I was due to perform backing vocals, but he felt confident enough in his knowledge of both his original compositions; "Ghetto" and "Hey Lady", to not rehearse them during this time.
After a few hours of rehearsing, we took a break at approximately 12:30 p.m. as Crystal and Serena departed to Costco to purchase produce to sell at the show, having received and reviewed my budget plan the day before.
At 2:00 p.m. (an hour before we were allowed to access the venue), we learned that the music room was finally free and so we scrambled to get in there and set up microphones, stands, instruments and amps so that we could run the group songs as much as possible before migrating to Milton Keynes Christian Centre.
At 3:00 p.m. we migrated; myself, Elica, Tamara and Kian walking straight to the venue accompanied by our tutor whilst Luke and Stefan stayed back at college to collect and transport lights meanwhile Dylan stayed with the equipment which included; microphone stands, microphones and amps, which Joe the Sound Technician was coming to transport in a van.
We arrived at MKCC to find helpers already setting out chairs for the audience and asking how'd we like the stage to be set up, eliminating the major task of setting up the venue, giving us time to focus on other tasks such as bringing all the equipment in, which Joe and Dylan set up mostly.
At approximately 4:00 p.m. Crystal and Serena returned with the food produce and a set of fellow college students; Anais, Luke, David, Scott, Dylan and Leila, who had agreed to help assist us in setting up followed shortly after. Crystal made a quick trip home to retrieve a laptop amongst other things, so I could project the The Lounge logo I designed and featured prominently on our poster and tickets directly on to the black curtains for the entirety of the show, thus displaying the motif in a different format.
Here is the image I wanted to project:
By 5:00 p.m. Crystal had returned with the laptop and the refreshments tables were set up at the back of the venue, near the entrance doors. We were now almost set to commence soundcheck and by this point I was desperately trying to find ways to transfer Serena, Elica and Tamara's backing tracks from their phones and onto Crystal's computer to play them from their so the all the backing tracks could be played from a single source.
As I'd already had my backing track for "Fire" in a range of easily accessible formats (USB disk and Google Drive) since the first time I rehearsed "Fire" for The Lounge a month prior, I was irritated that 2 hours before the show, I was having to sort out the backing tracks of everyone else who was using backing tracks (except Stefan). It was their responsibility to bring the tracks in on Friday - which they all agreed to - so that we I could make a CD on Friday with the tracks in chronological order. Yet there I was in the kitchen trying to solve the mess caused by their technical incompetence - instead of using the laptop to project The Lounge logo on to the curtains as planned. All their songs which required backing tracks were are risk of being cut completely from the set list with soundcheck pending and their phones (two of which had low batteries) being the only means of playing their songs.
I took a quick break from the laptop to join the group on stage for the first song in the soundcheck, before going back to the kitcken as to get some water for my voice and conduct a quick warm up as there was at least 1 song in the set list before my next song.
As frustrated and dissapointed as I was, I sacrificied time I could have used to warm up my voice to solving the issue, opting instead to boil some water for a quick fix. Just after pouring myself a mug of boiling hot water, I hear people calling me to the stage and so I cautiously make my way to the stage with the mug, at which point Kian, Dylan and Luke launch a verbal attack at me for walking too slowly to the stage and wasting time.
It is key to note that it was one of the girls who were due to perform next on the set list, but because their backing tracks were not yet playable, the decision was made to skip and go straight to "Sunshine of Your Love" - one of my solo performances.
I responded to the guys by saying "don't rush me" and before I got a chance to explain why I said that or why I was not running to the stage (due to me holding a mug of boiling hot water), Kian - who was already getting increasingly agitated by our tutor's constant prompts of what the time was - got irate with me, shouting and swearing at me in an outburst that was witnessed by the entire group, college tutors, college helpers and staff of the venue.
This was incredibly embarressing and infuriating considering the awful irony that the reason I was in the kitchen in the first place was to sort out the backing tracks which resulted in the decision being made to skip straight to my song. This is the exact sitaution I was making every effort to avoid by arranging to make a CD of the backing tracks the week before, but bringing a backing track on a USB disk or emailing it proved too difficult for some.
After being screamed at, I simply turned around and left the venue feeling defeated, mistreated and unappreciated after the extra effort I put in to ensure others could still perform their solos at the expense of my warming up time. I deserved that outburst the least of anyone in that room. Not only had I been fulfilling my assigned job roles but I had also taken on other tasks that day due to other people's incompetence and I was rewarded with a tirade from the project manager.
Unwilling to undo all of my hard work, I humbled myself and returned to the venue as the soundcheck was in its final stages, slotting straight back into the rehearsal as if nothing happened. As upset as I still was, once I returned to the venue I (for the most part) acted with the utmost decorum to ensure there was no more drama.
Unfortunately my departure meant that I missed the opportunity to soundcheck "Sunshine of Your Love" properly along with my other solo peformances - but I did not feel comfortable going on stage with Kian immediately after his furious rant, which was simply the result of stress from a variety of sources which had nothing to do with me. Knowing this, I accepted his apology before the show, despite still being somewhat resentful that I sacrified my soundcheck, for the sake of the group and the show.
Approximately 20 minutes before show time, we had a group discussion in which I expressed that I wished to cut "Sunshine of Your Love" from the set list, as I relinqushed the opportunity to soundcheck the song properly after the argument; plus it only conjured up bad memories of it and without a proper warm up and soundcheck, all my fears about the performance from the day before were now heightened rather than calmed. For some reason at this point, Serena and Tamara followed suit cutting Jamiroquai's "Little L" and Emeli Sande's "Next to Me"; which they both were using backing tracks for, whereas "Sunshine of Your Love" would have been a completely live performance with Kian, Dylan and Luke accompanying me.
Doors opened shortly before 7 p.m. and the show started a few minutes later, by which point the venue was only half full with audience members. Stefan stepped out to introduce the show, but the room's main lights were still on which concerned me as I was unsure if they would be turned off in time for the first song or at all during the first half of the show. Thankfully, as we stepped out they were turned off and the show commenced.
Ironically, both Elica and Tamara's performances were interrupted by the sound of the laptop and the phone which were used to play their backing tracks, bleeping to indicate low battery which was undeniably audible above their tracks for a second or two. This diminished the technicial quality of the show and made it appear amateur - exactly what I was trying to avoid.
Despite this and all the preceding drama, the show was a success and the venue was virtually full by the end of the second song as people were still arriving by that point. We breaked for a 15 minute interval at 7:45 p.m. and played through until 9:00 p.m. before packing up and leaving.
I was surprised and delighted by the audience turnout and their resounding support of all of the performances. They also became more vocal and interactive as the show progressed - Kian even had a moment of banter with an audience member towards the end. This is evidence that we did truly create a lounge atmosphere in which the audience felt relaxed and comfortable enough to interact with us. Furthermore, I am proud of myself for finding the humility to perform professionally despite how I was feeling emotionally and mentally from the mounting stress and pressure of the day and all the drama that occured within it. Lastly, I am proud of the group for uniting in the end to put on a show that was very well received and enjoyed.
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