The car was well loaded up as we were going straight on to Bridport Folk Festival after this gig and planned to sleep in the car overnight en route then set up a tent when we got to the festival. That meant using a roof box but fortunately this is just low enough to get under most car park barriers.
Loading in was easy as there’s a pay and display car park right opposite the back of the theatre which I think was free by the time we got there and the basement is ground level at the back with a ramp.
The set up at the venue is one mic and a PA with bluetooth connections for plugging into guitars. Tricky to get the mic volume level with the instrument but good enough sound for the space – one couple performed without the mic. There were 4 floor spots including one young couple, Ross and Melanie, who played and sang beautifully and Jim chatted to afterwards, telling them about Bluebell Roots. We went down very well, people singing along, especially with the final number of Romance at the Panto. Audience of about 30. This was a ticketed event and our fee was a split of the door on invoicing the theatre, paid by BACS a couple of days later.
As I said, we were planning to sleep in the car. After the gig we stopped in a layby near to Alton. Seemed quiet until we killed the engine and heard a loud party going somewhere in the distance. Drove on further and stopped by a village playing field – we could still hear the party (this was 1.30am) but were too tired to go on. Originally we had thought we’d take the caravan but just could not find a campsite anywhere near Barnet for less than £45 a night. It did not make sense to drive up to north London (ULEZ fee) and back again then head off to Bridport the next morning, so Jim made up a fold-up flat base on legs to go in the back of the car. This worked really well, some of our stuff stored in the roof box, the rest in the front two seats and a few bits underneath our heads behind the seats. The trickiest thing was covering the windows. We’d got some left over foil insulation sheets which we cut to size and tried to attach with sucker hooks but ended up using blutac. We left the rear windows open slightly to breathe. The blow up mattress is a little deep so there wasn’t much wiggle room once we were in which proved a problem when we decided we had our heads the wrong end. We had to shuffle round taking the sleeping bag with us. But we got a few hours kip, woke the next morning to sunshine and had a quick bite of breakfast sitting in the open boot, chatting with the early morning dog walkers. Then we set off for Bridport.