The last 24 hours have been testing times for me; let’s start with last night at the Phoenix. I was on sound engineering duties which isn’t unusual, but the night went horribly wrong, firstly the first band due on were late, so after waiting until 7:45pm, I had no option to put the second band, Obedient Bone on first, as we had just received word that the first band on, Sweet Black Angels had gotten stuck on the A38 because half of it was closed down. During the Obedient Bone set, I noticed a drop out in vocals occasionally, but initially put it down to microphone technique of the vocalist, but it became apparent that we were missing all frequencies above 1.2 kHz. This was a recurring theme during the night, eventually I realised that something wasn’t right with the top amp as there wasn’t any sound of rattling fans, which is normally very prominent during breaks in songs, so when it was suddenly missing, you’d notice. Eventually myself and Phil realised that the amp was on its last legs, so we did some creative thinking and arranged the stage monitors towards the front of house, and used the auxiliaries to control levels, balancing that with the output from the desk to the subwoofer units. I have to say that the sound was much clearer than what would normally come through the PA, so I think the top amp wasn’t firing on all channels for some time. Hopefully Nick, the person who we rent the PA from will provide us with another one of these, so we will have a full matched set of amps, which should create a much clearer sound out front. So all in all, a very stressful night, five bands in four hours, technical issues galore, and the third band on took ages to set up, so I shortened their set to 20 minutes to grab back some of those lost time, then their friends decided to throw abuse at me for not letting them play any more songs, I just ignored them, as I know I had ultimate power over the sound, first rule of being in a band, never piss off the soundman, us sound engineers have a very long memory when it comes to things like this. I come to the conclusion that it’s just one of those nights, where it was no-ones fault; it’s just one of those things.
Second thing is work today, so it’s more of “The Potwashers”. On a level of 1 – 10, today was a ‘9’ – we simply couldn’t cope with the influx of dirty dishes, there was only two of us in today, as it was Stuart’s day off. Eventually it came to a head about 3:30pm, when the girls collecting the stuff in on the trolley came in expecting another trolley straight away, I had wiped down and put away the third trolley as they have previously said they only wanted one trolley. But they took the clean trolley, demanding that I gave them a bucket of water. I wasn’t having that; I said “you can wait a minute, while I move all the dishes from this trolley the work surface” – then they could have that trolley. I never filled the clean bucket with water, so they used the one off the trolley I was clearing and walked off, making the clean trolley dirty again. To say that I was pissed off is an understatement, although I cleared two full trolley loads in about five minutes, how I never broke anything I will never know, I was literally throwing stuff through the machine. The annoying thing is that my pot wash workmate, Chris given a warning for swearing at the girls, which he didn’t as such, he did swear out of frustration, but not at anyone, so the girls must have ran straight to the supervisor. I am getting seriously pissed off now, most in there seem to think that what we do in the pot wash is easy, which it certainly is not, we work non-stop all day and what thanks do we get, NONE!!! There desperately needs to be three people in the pot wash at all times, two people simply cant cope when its that busy, but four days each week, there is only two people, as we each need to have a day off during the week as we all work Saturday’s, all they need to do is employ someone for 20 hours, 5 hours on each of the days when the regular pot wash have off, but they powers that be either don’t understand how it works in the pot wash or don’t care to know, make them work a day in our shoes, then they’ll understand!!! But the chances of that happening is non existent!
Finally, this is something that I was sent by a friend and I thoroughly agree with the sentiment; why should us Britons have to compromise… read on…
“After many cities not wanting to offend other cultures by putting up Xmas lights.
After hearing that the Birmingham council changed its opinion and let a Muslim woman have her picture on her driver’s licence with her face covered.
After hearing of a Primary School in Birmingham where a boy was told that for PE they could wear Football League shirts (Aston Villa, Birmingham, West Brom. etc) but NOT an England shirt as it could offend others !
This prompted the editorial below written by a UK citizen. Published in a British tabloid newspaper.
Quote: IMMIGRANTS, NOT BRITON’S, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It.
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on London, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Brits. However, the dust from the attacks has barely settled and the “politically correct” crowd begin complaining about the possibility that our patriotism is offending others.
I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Britain. However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand.
This idea of London being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Britons, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle.
This culture has been developed over centuries of wars, struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought, fought and died for our freedom. We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, Learn the language!!!!
“In God We Trust” is our National Motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.
If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.
If St. George’s cross offends you, or you don’t like “A Fair Go”, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet.
We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don’t care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our National Motto, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great British freedom, “THE RIGHT TO LEAVE”.
If you aren’t happy here then f#@* off! We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.
Pretty easy really, when you think about it. I figure if we all keep passing this to our friends (and enemies) it will also, sooner or later get back to the complainers, lets all try, please. No matter how many times you receive it.”