There was no respite after the Monkees convention, we had to get straight back to rehearsing. as the 'Suitcase' tour continued with our biggest gig to date, The Harlow Music Festival, which took place on August 31st 1998.
Above: The Shorties (minus Mark) relax in the park with Saul's Mum, dad and sister.
In June, shortly before The Monkees Convention, I saw a notice on the BURBS (British Unsigned Rock Bands) Site, asking for demos from bands who might be interested in playing at a charity festival in Harlow Park. This sounded ideal for us, and we liked the idea of being to help good causes while having a great time. I subsequently sent off a demo tape, and about 3 weeks later, I learned that we had been accepted. Harlow is about an hours drive from London, and we all made our various ways there, early on the morning of August 31st. Dan and I came by train, whereas Mal drove with the amps, Mark drove down with his family, and Saul got a lift with his father who brought his drums along. As you can see above, Saul's father had on his Shorties t-shirt, and no sooner had he arrived than he was approached by the organiser who said:
"You must be Aiden, I loved the demo tape".
To which Sauls's dad replied: "Thanks very much, I worked very hard on
it!!" before explaining who he really was!!
Above: Too hot in a shirt.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, which drew the crowds in. Over 300 people lay in the park listening to the bands give their all. On stage I was sweating profusely, I started in a shirt ,(above), was soon down to a t-shirt, and by the end had decided to go topless!!, . At which point Dan apologized to the audience. The nerve of the man!! Clearly it was a thrill for all the women in the crowd, as they all started screaming; though, as Saul pointed out, they also seemed to be running away :))
Above: Down to the T-shirt!
We took to the stage at about 2pm, a very nervous group of guys. We had never been on such a big stage, with such an amazing PA system before. Anyway we performed 10 numbers: Star Wars Vision,
Girl I Knew Somewhere,
Steve,
Would You Ever?,
The Great Leveller,
You Say That You Love Me,
On The Balcony,
The Fish & The Tambourine,
No No No and
The Is Not The Gook.
Above: TOPLESS with Mark's inflatable whale!! Mark, meanwhile, does 'The Gook'.
Onstage, we couldn't hear a thing. All I could hear was my amp. Saul stopped Star Wars Vision early because he couldn't hear Mal, Mal's mic hadn't been turned on. Yes, despite all the money the organisers had invested in equipment, they had obviously cut corners on getting people to operate the PA. Not only was the balance appalling for us onstage, it was even worse for those in the crowd. Mark's keyboards were inaudible and my guitar drowned out everything. Of course we weren;'t to know this, and just trusted that the 'professionals' knew what they were doing.
Above: The view for the crowd
We really relaxed as the set neared the end, and were able to enjoy the thrill of playing on proper festival stage, and going through an enormously powerful PA. We felt like a 'real' band!. For 'The Fish and the tambourine', Mark had brought along an inflatable whale (pedants corner: not strictly speaking a fish, we know) and carried it back and forth across stage, to the delight of the crowd, and by the time we did 'Gook', Mark felt relaxed enough to teach the crowd to do 'The Gook', a superbly bizarre dance he'd invented while bored in a rehearsal.
Above: Relaxing with the whale, after the gig. (I really love this photo for some reason)
All too soon it was over. Bits of it were recorded on video by Saul's Mum, and the photos here are courtesy of Mark's wife, Belinda. When we heard of the bad sound mix from our friends and relatives, we were a little downhearted , until a local DJ approached us; He'd
loved the set despite the problems, and said he thought the songwriting was
very strong, and has promised to play some songs from Suitcase on his show.
So that was very heartening. We cheered right up, and headed off to the pub to celebrate!
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