Saturday 17th August 2013 - Peterhead FC Social Club
In marked contrast to last week's gig, this was a looong way for a few claps and a wee bit of chatting with the punters. They don't really applaud up there in Peterhead, but I had a great reaction to my version of "Jumpin Jack Flash", so that's all good. There were a fair few young guys in and I tried to play to them, even downloading a couple of chart hits to play between sets.
Saturday 19th May 2012 - Peterhead FC Social Club
I had a wee look at my last review for this venue, and so I was prepared for the underwhelming response from the crowd all night. It's difficult to keep your energy levels up when you get no response, but these nights do happen now and then. Some say these are the nights when we have to pull out all the stops, and the ones where we definetly earn our money. Nice people, chatting and singing, but next to no applause.
Saturday 21st August 2010 - Peterhead FC Social Club
I've gigged once before in Peterhead, but at another venue, so I had no idea what to expect from this club. We arrived realllly early, as is the usual when doing a venue for the first time. Well you never know what the layout will be like, or if there'll be stairs, parking issues etc. There had been an away match at East Fife (of all places) and they'd lost 2-1, which didn't bode well. Frankly, I was a bit worried about how they'd react when I told them we're from Fife and we used to stay in a house which overlooked the East Fife stadium! So I joked with them that I live just across the water from Edinburgh. My jokes are a bit dodgy though, so there wasn't much laughter. It may have been my accent though (right?).
It's quite a journey to Peterhead from our wee house in Kirkcaldy - around 3 hours at "Al velocity"...Not that we would ever speed...
There were two sets of birthday banners up when we arrived - one for a 21st, one for a 50th birthday. They were both guys too, so I thought "great - my kind of audience". Then in came a fair few young girls dressed for a night on the town, so I was raring to get started.
My first set was met with what I can only describe as apathy and quite a few funny looks. It wasn't the material, as I could see them singing along. It makes me wonder if, in this age of mp3 players and ipods, we are all so desensitised to music that we forget it's on sometimes. I wonder if people forget that it's a live singer doing their work....
During my first break the large group of girls were working their way through quite a few shots, so they loosened up a little for the second half, and even did a bit of dancing. Strangely enough though, they all sat down for the more dancy type tracks, so that confused me a bit.
After the end of the second half, I took the attitude of "stuff it, I'll do what I like". Well what I like is a bit of rock and pop, followed by some classic rock. Many of the younger crowd had left by that time, and I was left with my age group - brilliant! They got down and danced to all sorts from Erasure to Bon Jovi, The Bangles to Journey.
I reckon a change of attitude from me is forthcoming - maybe I'll just do what I enjoy rather than trying to please the crowd so much...