Now then... "If Carlsberg did rock gigs..."
On Sunday at Prestwick Cricket Club, in the company of Unreasonable Behaviour and Rolled & Stoned, another major milestone was added to the annals of Backwater's history.
It wasn't that the band played a blinder, as we have all played better, no it was the sheer joyous occasion of it all that made it a day to remember.
Ian McAdam, the promoter was "quo"ted as saying "the best gig the Cricket Club has ever hosted and we're sure that everyone who attended will concur. He didn't say that glibly either...what a show!
Unreasonable Behaviour's Dr Feelgood and George Thorogood short covers set kicked the day off as the punters started to fill up this roomy but compact wee venue.
The band quickly changed guise to become Rolled and Stoned with the lovely Tracy Cole belting out backing vocals in the guise of Marianne Faithfull and what a voice she has! The optics in the bar must have been ready to crack!
She was of course ably assisted by "Reef Richards" aka Paul Carr and "Mick Stagger" aka Harry Ross, who captured all the antics and mannerisms of the Glimmer Twins to perfection. (Paul taking the stage with the obligatory bottle of J.D's!)
The overall sound was immense but clear and without being overpowering which R&S took full advantage of with a blistering mix of Stones tracks. (Personal fav was "Sympathy" with Tracy keeping everyone going on the "woo-woo's").
We won't go into detail about Backwaters set other than to say that it was around 2&1/2 hours of FF fav's and album tracks but the playback from the recorded material sounds really good. It was also nice to have P.C. do a wee guest spot with us in the impersonation that he's better known for. Thanks Paul.
No1 roadie and techmeister Gary Miller has already posted on Facebook, a couple of videos taken on his phone; WYW and PP, and those should give an indication of what's to come once we upload the 5.1 surround mixes, including stuff from R&S' set.
The evening finished off with a small presentation to those madmen from the Emerald Isle, Joe Murphy and Martin Field in appreciation of the effort they have made in coming to see the likes of us and of course R&S. Many thanks to the two of them, we're pretty sure they endeared themselves to all of the new Scottish friends they made yesterday.
This idea for this gig was conceived by Kieran, SOQ's Paul Carr and Harry Ross many months ago down at Quofest in Wales.
Harry promised a stonker of a gig and boy did he deliver big time on Sunday. The band was tight, powerful and very entertaining and the overall vibe throughout the day was one of complete cameraderie.
Many heartfelt thanks go out to Harry, Tracy, Paul and the rest of the band for travelling all the way from Bolton to play for us in Prestwick, big thanks again to Martin and Joe,
special thanks to Ian McAdam and staff at PCC without whom this wouldn't have happened, Alex Young for the outstanding photography, but most of all,
thank you all who came, packed the placed, sang, drank and rocked with us into the evening!
Can't wait to do it all again sometime, somewhere, next year! You never know, it could become an annual thing!
TA!
Next stop for Backwater is The Talbot Arms, Milngavie on Friday October 25th. Accident Prone is a definate that night!