We had a good night’s kip in the caravan then had another band practice in the morning before a lunch of leftover pizza from last night. Then drove into town with the gear – didn’t realise we could have parked inside the gates of the church so parked in the pay and display and lugged all of the gear on the trolley and in two trips. The church was empty when we arrived so we just got ourselves set up and had a little practice in the peace and quiet. One of the organisers came to make sure we had everything we needed but had to leave to get to one of the other events. We’d been to a performance here last year which was acoustic so had decided we needn’t take the PA. In the empty church the sound was great but those who had sat at the back (unnecessarily as there was plenty of room at the front!) said they had trouble hearing us when we were talking. Having said that there was plenty of room, we did have a very good audience but it’s a big church and they really spaced themselves out. When we started there were just 5 in the audience but it soon filled up (very loud bang from the heavy doors whenever anyone came or went) during the first half hour, a steady stream of people coming in. That’s probably why they didn’t come down to the front, not wanting to disturb those already seated. Some started to wander off to the other venues during the second half, which we had expected, but we still had a decent number at the end and several came up for a chat, some buying CDs.
It’s a good venue for the quieter numbers, Jim used the 12 string and we kept it chilled. To us the sound was lovely. We saw another louder band later on who were playing through a PA but the sound wasn’t great and you still couldn’t hear the talking between numbers. I think we could just have done with a mic for the talking rather than a full PA set up. We didn’t get any photos of the gig, just one of the inside of the church as we set up.
Back to the campsite as I was reacting to the antibiotics I’d started on Friday. Drizzly rain had gathered in puddles in the awning of the caravan but no leaks! Watched the John Ward Trio playing at the campsite who were great – we had intended to head back into town to see some of the other events but stayed put as I wasn’t feeling too good. I went back to the caravan to eat and Jim stayed to the end of the gig and had a good long chat with John and Lynn (the third part of the trio hadn’t been able to make it). One more Fishguard gig tomorrow… read on…
