Another memorable evening, a lovely event run by lovely people.
The train journey there wasn’t as straightforward as to Croydon and we were wary of being stranded again so decided to drive to Three Bridges as there are more return options. Unrestricted parking in the road opposite. There were 2 changes on route (15 min wait at Gatwick, same at Clapham Junction) so not much time to sit and relax, just as well as the trains were unbelievably busy – why, on a Sunday? – and a bit of a wait each time so it was a long and tiring journey. We arrived just after 6pm so had a drink in the main pub next door to the Cabbage Patch venue (hop and a skip from Twickenham Station). Just under £10 for 2 soft drinks.
When we went into the venue at about 6.30, we were met by the 3 Pauls – a sound engineer and 2 organisers all called Paul – and shown the green room which was brilliant. It’s lined with music memorabilia including old cassettes and a clarinet lamp. It’s a function room which is also used for a children’s daycare so there’s lots of small chairs around and it just had a lovely feel.
The other act on the bill was The Gillies, Susan and Gillie/Mark who we’ve met a few times before and really like. We’re quite different musically, theirs are americana and often very melancholy songs. They did a sound check then we got to have a little chat before we went to set up and sound check.
There was a small audience – the stage is set up at the side of the room, opposite the bar area, with about 30 chairs or so set up, then the bar area has more stools and carries on around the corner with a couple of tables and stools. This was where we all set up our merch displays.
Our set went well – I think there was a problem with the lighting as it changed a few times during the set, but it wasn’t a problem for us and it looks fine on the videos – something we weren’t expecting was for the whole set to be filmed and it all came out really well. They also have a resident artist, Christina Dembinska who sat and sketched for the whole evening and gave us a few of her sketches of us at the end of the evening, which was so lovely. Sadly we had to dash off to get the train so didn’t get a chance to chat properly to her.
Jim mislaid his capo at the start of our set so I ran off to the green room to look for it only to find it under his chair on stage – honestly, I’m going to start keeping a spare capo in my pocket. I think that kind of threw him a bit as he didn’t feel he played well, but looking back at the videos it all seems good. I think a couple of false starts were edited out. That is the problem with a long journey, it really does tire you out so you need time to have a proper practice and warm up before your start performing. We did a little but the green room wasn’t very sound proof.
The audience had increased towards the end of the set so we had a nice number there, responding to chat. A few more came in for the second half. We sat around the corner with the merch where we could hear The Gillies.
Sold 2 CDs, got 2 names on the mailing list and a comment in the Audience Book. We also chatted with the organiser of Runnymede Folk Club who asked us to get in touch about playing there.
Walked back to the station with Graham, one of the audience and had a lovely long chat all the way to Clapham Junction. The journey home was long (missed connecting train so had 20 mins wait at Clapham Junction thanks to a 3 minute changeover to get from platform 4 to 13 and me stopping to take a photo). It was a tiring drive home from Three Bridges though so we took the following day off, eating leftovers and dozing on sofa in the afternoon.
View more videos by Pancentricism on our LIVE PERFORMANCE playlist on YoutUbe