That’s the only way I can describe Saturday night at Voodoo. The venue was hired out by Project Seven who owed me 30 pounds and the venue 100 pounds from the last show they put on. For a start doors were meant to be at 6pm, but the promoters didn’t show up until 6:30pm. I was there from 4pm to set up and sound check bands, but only two bands were there and no drum kit and loads of confusion about who was providing what. No-one could get hold of the promoters so I just stood around for a couple of hours waiting for information about what’s happening. I was getting more and more pissed off as the thought that the promoters have done a runner with what they owed us from the last gig they put on crossed my mind. When they did eventually arrive they told the first band on, Less Than Me to leave because they couldn’t play until 15 minutes after the promoters wanted them to because their drummer couldn’t make it until 7:30pm. Less Than Me messaged the promoters days beforehand to make sure that this was OK with them but never got any reply. Eventually I got the NOW first band, Scientist The Orange Pip on at 7:45pm. At least the sound was better because I had some bass in the system as Nick has replaced the whole bass-bin on the left hand side. But it still lacked real low end in the middle of the room as only one sub on the right was working. And frankly that didn’t sound very healthy compared to the replacements on the left hand side. The system needs a complete overhaul, even more so now as the left mid blew on the very last song of the night during the Crazy Arm set. Neil was doing the sound for that band and he does push the system hard, but on this occasion was more conservative with the system. I expected a speaker to go on the night to be honest and it could have quite easily happened during one of the other bands I engineered. So I will now need to take out the speaker out of the drum monitor that I replaced earlier in the evening while waiting for the promoters to arrive and put that in the left mid enclosure to temporarily replace the blown speaker. We can’t run the system with only one mid speaker. I’ve never known any place like Voodoo where speakers are not working for months on end, if a speaker blows then replace it, never mind arguing over whether it’s cost effective to replace it. The simple fact it as long as the system isn’t firing on all cylinders the sound will suffer and people will just assume the sound is rubbish in the venue and not come back for future gigs. At least I got all the money that was owed at the end of the night, 130 pounds in total although even that was disputed by the promoters as they said I only had to engineer five bands instead of eight, but they never notified us of the line up change so I was there in the middle of the afternoon expecting a 6pm start to the night, so they had to play the 100 pounds they agreed with the venue for my services.
In football, there was mixed fortunes for my teams in the FA Cup third round. Plymouth Argyle overcame Hull to secure a spot in the fourth round in a five goal thriller. Nadjim Abdou opened the scoring in the 22nd minute directing Peter Halmosi’s free kick goalwards from 12 yards out. Peter Halmosi scored a goal of his own three minutes later with a superb free kick from 35 yards out deceiving everyone with the flight of the ball. During the half time break Hull manager Phil Brown made some inspirational changes bringing on Dean Windass who made an immediate impact lobbing the ball over Luke McCormick to reduce the deficit to just one goal. But Plymouth responded restoring their two goal cushion, Peter Halmosi once again turning provider for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to fire off a curling shot past Hull keeper Boaz Myhill. A further two minutes into the game and the deficit was again down to one goal, Dean Windass firing a long range effort from a free kick past McCormick after Marcel Seip had brought down Caleb Folan. Plymouth defended resolutely as the visitors pushed forward for an equaliser and take the game back to the Kingston Communications Stadium. But couldn’t make the breakthrough needed to force a replay. Liverpool were the architect of their own downfall failing to beat League One Luton Town at Kenilworth Road. The Hatters frustrated Liverpool for much of the game and were the better team in the first half. But Liverpool stepped up their game in the second half but still had to wait until the 74th minute to take the lead. Peter Crouch picking up on a loose ball to slot home from close range and you’d think Liverpool would be favourites to progress to the next round. But it wasn’t to be as three minutes later John Arne Riise mistimed his clearance sending the ball flying past keeper Charles Itandje. Frankly this Liverpool performance was unbelievably under par against a team two divisions lower than them. If anything I would say that Luton deserved the win based on the relative performances of the two teams. Liverpool will have to face Luton again at Anfield next Tuesday (15th) to progress into the next round of the cup. It’s something Liverpool could really do without given their Premiership and Champions League obligations in the coming weeks and months, it’s a game that they shouldn’t have had to play. But well done to Luton for forcing a replay, they certainly didn’t look like the underdogs, taking the game to Liverpool!
And even better the “cheap teabag” (Ian Holloway) team Leicester City crashed out of the FA cup being beaten 2 – 0 by fellow championship side Southampton at St Mary’s. So Mr. Holloway what’s it like at the bottom of the league? Made the wrong choice moving to Leicester did you? Leicester only above the drop zone on goal difference whereas Plymouth are on the edge of the play-off places and safely through the fourth round. The other Judas (Pulis) is still in the cup but face a replay at St. James Park as Stoke couldn’t make home advantage count against the Magpies. I never thought that I’d be saying that I’m supporting Newcastle, but indeed it happened yesterday and will happen again in the replay next week.
If you are a believer in miracles then this story must be a bona-fide candidate. New York window cleaner Alcides Moreno fell more than 500 feet to the ground from a 47 story skyscraper and survived to tell the story. Moreno, an Ecuadorian immigrant had severe brain, spine and abdomen injuries and both his legs, right arm and ribs were broken in the fall. His younger brother who he was working with died instantly on impact. Mr Moreno is awake and able to talk and is expected to walk again after several operations to put his broken body back together! It’s an amazing story which defies the laws of physics!
And finally, television presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been stung financially by an unknown person after publishing his bank details in his column in the Sun newspaper. Clarkson was trying to rubbish claims that bank details that went missing on the two discs lost somewhere between the HM Revenues & Customs and National Audit Office could be used for fraudulent purposes. Clarkson Stated in his column – “All you’ll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out.” Someone took the published details and set up a direct debit from his account to charity Diabetes UK. Clarkson had a rude awakening when he opened his latest bank statement to find that £500 had gone missing. Clarkson retracted his comments in his latest column saying “Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy.” That’ll teach the TV motor-mouth to engage his brain before opening his mouth!