My Exciting Life in ROCK (part 2): My Exciting Life In ROCK: 29/9/2003 - The Social, Nottingham

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PROFESSIONALISM! I'm sure that when people think of MJ Hibbett & The Validators there's ONE word that springs immediately to mind, and that's it - PROFESSIONALISM! Need a band who are Edgy, yet Committed? Excitingly Competent? Well Drilled and so TIGHT that you cannot describe them as Rocking without being forced to drop the final "g" and make it ROCKIN' ? SURELY that's us?

Well, all right, maybe not, POSSIBLY we are a bit happy go lucky about things, un-arsed about RIGIDITY of performance or vigorously pursuant about financial remuneration, but we ARE still pretty darned EFFICIENT. At least at the start of the evening.

At this gig, for instance, we all turned up BANG on time. If you've never been in a band you might think "So what? BIG DEAL! Talk to the hand!" because in normal life that doesn't mean much, but for BANDS it's almost an article of faith that you NEVER turn up when you're meant to, and when you eventually GET where you're supposed to be the first item of business is to wander off somewhere else. Trying to get bands to do anything makes herding cats look like TROOPING THE COLOUR.

The Validators, however, benefit from literally (OK, not literally) THOUSANDS of years of experience in ROCK which has taught us that if you DO bother to get your act together and TURN UP it means you can spend LESS time fannying about and MORE time in the PUB. ALSO we all have relevant real-life experience of organising OTHER people - most of the band are currently in MANAGEMENT and/or have KIDS - THUS when whoever's nominally in charge of an event says "Let's get there on time!" everyone else usually does so, in SYMPATHY.

Unfortunately the venue itself wasn't so efficient, and we found ourselves with AGES to spend hanging around before we could soundcheck. We discussed where to go to wile away an hour when we were EXCITINGLY approached by someone I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW who asked "What time are you on?" I THINK I was suave, cool, and collected when I said "About half nine" but inside I was AGLOW with EXCITEMENT - someone I didn't know had come SPECIFICALLY to see us! The rest of The Vlads tried to make out like it was funny that I was so excited, but the fact that they went ON AND ON about it for the rest of the night led me to believe that I wasn't the only one.

We went over the road to a "Goth" pub. It wasn't a PROPER Goth Pub - those tend to be old man's BOOZERS with slightly lower wattage than usual, a disco in the corner and some jolly people trying to look gloomy whilst drinking Real Cider. This was a "Goth" pub in that it was specifically decorated with SPIDER WEBS and PLASTIC DRACULAS. Any "Goths" in THIS pub probably thought the Cure's BEST EVER SONG was "Love Cats". PAH!

After much band BADINAGE (largely based on the fact that Tom had injured his wrist from too much violin playing - you can guess the rest) we went back in to find Chris TT and his band finishing their soundcheck. And my, what a LOUD soundcheck it was! The Social has (or had then) a VERY high stage with a MASSIVE PA which faces a WALL about 20 foot away. THUS all sound WHAMS out of the speakers, goes STRAIGHT over the heads of the audience and bounces RIGHT back into the band. It is, to use a technical term, the recipe for a BLOODY RACKET.

Now, for some bands this wouldn't matter. SOME bands have a gentle acoustic ambience that transcends ideas of beauty, but The Validators are NOT one of them. Even when we're performing a WISTFUL BALLAD we have a tendency to sound like a SKIP full of ALLEN KEYS being thrown down a concrete stairwell and so on this occasion we were not at our delicate best, but we still had a fine old time. Making a BLOODY RACKET is FUN!

Some of our number had to leave quite soon after we'd finish, and we exchanged the traditional farewell of ANY group who will be playing their next gig in Hull i.e. "SEE YOU IN HULL!" We said that quite a lot.

After us was the excellent Chris TT, who always makes me feel a bit like I'm PLAYING at this Game Of ROCK. Which, in a sense, I very much am. This time we were discussing how much coverage he'd got in the PRESS for his latest record. I'm always impressed by this sort of thing, as it's something I'm RUBBISH at doing myself, and said "That's really good! Did you send them all out yourself then, or did someone help you?" "Er... no. The record company has people who do that." Oh yeah! Record Companies!

It was a good evening, although slightly MARRED by a young man (who would later be revealed to be Sam From Tasty Fanzine) getting suddenly and abruptly HEAD BUTTED. It was very strange - we were all talking happily and then a LOONEY appeared and HEAD BUTTED him. The LOONEY was swiftly removed and Sam appeared to be all right - and indeed would come to and even PROMOTE many of our gigs in the future - but it was all rather strange.

The evening ended with more shouts of "SEE YOU IN HULL!" before Tom and I set off in The Tigermobile. We were on the ROAD. The ROAD... to HULL!

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