Behind the scenes at Down for the Count present On The Town – Part Two

Continuing our build up to A Very Down for the Christmas, Mike shares a look behind the scenes at our last Winslow Public Hall gig – On the Town, in May 2011.

The tickets had been sold, the drinks bought, songs rehearsed (if not quite yet perfected!) but the serious work was only just beginning.

The big day actually started on Friday lunchtime, in the same way as every single Down for the Count gig – loading the van at our storage unit.  With extra lighting, decorations and drinks to fit in the van was even more packed than usual!

Next was a quick stop off at Granger Hertzog, an amazing prop house in West London where Amelia worked until October 2011.  We were borrowing some fantastic lights to add a touch of ‘glam’ to our New York-inspired evening, and couldn’t stop from helping ourselves to a few other bits and pieces too…!

Then we had a short hop up the A41 to Winslow, to start setting up for the next day.  This involved setting up the tables and chairs, rigging the lights and hanging our chandelier decorations from the stage – work so physical that we had to reward ourselves with fish and chips.

There was just enough time for a quick sleep before heading back to the hall on Saturday morning, to finish decorating the hall and setting up the sound system and stage.

After a quick lunch, it was time for our rehearsal.  Playing on a hollow stage in a large, boomy room creates a few technical difficulties so we spent a long time on the soundcheck, getting things sounding just right. Anna, our ever-present sound engineer, once again worked her magic, and soon the band was sounding fantastic!

In the afternoon we ran all the new material we had prepared for the concert, and brushed up a few other other songs that we hadn’t performed for a while.  There was also time to practice the feature songs we had prepared for the evening, and to rehearse the opening and closing numbers of each set so that the show on the night is seemless!

Then it was time for a quick dinner – probably fish and chips again, knowing us – before coming back to the hall to tidy up, add the final touches to the decorations, check that everything is good to go and finally get changed, ready to welcome our guests for the evening before launching into our three sets!

Our next Winslow Public Hall performance will be on Saturday 10^th December 2011.  A Very Down for the Count Christmas will be a fantastic evening of live jazz, swing, soul and Motown music, with a few of your Christmas favourites thrown in for good measure!  Buy your tickets here.