After much deliberation I have decided to give up control of the night to Steve and Kelly if they want to take it on. I believe that Steve wants to take it on according to Voodoo manager Pete. I took down all the posters and brought the laptop home and cleared my name from any of the publicity in print and on the web. It’s been fun at times, it’s been frustrating and stressful at times, but ultimately it has come down to the fact in the end it was about the money for me and I was losing money, repayments for the laptop are much higher than what I was making back and the amount of money I spent on booze didn’t help matters either. So I want to spend more time at home away from pubs and clubs and do other non alcohol related activities. I learnt a valuable lesson through this whole experience, never go into business with friends, it’s too damn complicated, there isn’t a simple employee/employer way of working. Everyone thought it was a group effort, but it’s not a group effort when one person is doing most of the legwork! It’s started to take over my life, I was spending 3 – 4 hours every day locating and downloading tracks to play on the night. I wouldn’t mind so much if I were to see a tangible return on investment, but that wasn’t happening, so it was time to cut my losses and walk away as I was starting to become very bitter towards Steve and Kelly taking home more than me when they haven’t laid any of their own money down to promote the night; so stepping back is the best for everyone!
Oh, while I am on the subject of Voodoo, I promised I would mention Lucy Williams so she could be just as famous as me. Apparently she has a friend in Bristol that has been reading my blog since day one back in October 2003. Allegedly he was passing Voodoo, and decided to come in, paid for parking, paid entry to the venue; just to be able to see me, but he never came up to talk to me as far as I know. Lucy swears this is true, I find it a little hard to believe to be honest, it’s just a little too far fetched for me, maybe I have a stalker? Why can’t I have a nubile young woman as a stalker? Tonight (Saturday) was an interesting one, knowing the sound rig was only firing on 5 or it’s 8 cylinders, I had to be incredibly careful with levels, but managed to get an acceptable sound from the system, aided by reasonably quiet bands, ‘Me And My Mates’ were the headline band and they sounded pretty good, I’ve engineered them on many occasions before and they always impress with their “tribal” pop rock as they describe themselves. The Dirty Fashions were main support and sounded pretty tight , it was louder than I ideally wanted it but I could live with that as quite a lot of the guitar and bass from coming off stage, so I just had to deal with drums, keys and vocals and a little reinforcement of the bass and guitar to make the sound coherent. But I couldn’t get the kick drum sound I wanted because of the limitations of the system at the moment, which is frustrating as a sound engineer. You know what you need to do, but system limitations ruin any chance of making a good sound great! Tomorrow is going to be a nightmare, six bands, Le Chat Noir, The Monroes, Arthur Walker, Dawn Chorus Ignites, and Supenik. Rebuild The Doxa may or may not be playing I have heard conflicting reports about whether they are performing or not! It will be a great gig musically, but I have serious concerns whether the system can handle these bands, especially Le Chat Noir who are insanely loud on stage, the drummer, Eileen may only look like a little woman but she hits those drums harder than most men I have seen drum; I recommend you see this show!
Lewis Hamilton will start tomorrows European Grand Prix in 10th after a spectacular crash because his right front wheel wasn’t attached properly because of an air gun failure when he pitted before making his doomed run. The Briton crashed into the tyre wall at an estimated 150mph at the Schumacher ‘S’ turn. Hamilton has provisionally been cleared to race after the crash, but will face a final medical tomorrow morning. Hopefully he will be cleared to race as I want to see how he copes with starting from 10th having to fight his way through the field, Hamilton hasn’t started any lower than 4th in his fledgling F1 career! He certainly has his work cut out to maintain his 100% podium finishes record from 10th, you can guarantee that the BMW’s who qualified in 4th and 5th won’t be a push over. Kimi Raikkonen will start from Pole with McLaren rival Fernando Alonso lining up alongside the Ferrari. The sister Ferrari of Felipe Massa will start on the second row in 3rd. It was another dismal session for the Brits, with David Couthard starting in a lowly 20th position, Jenson Button could only manage 17th and Anthony Davidson in the ‘B’ spec Honda otherwise know as Super Aguri starts the race in 15th position. I’m looking forward to this race to see how Hamilton copes with starting so far down the grid, I think it’s a case of damage limitation for Lewis, 4th is probably the best result he can hope for given the pace of the Ferrari’s!