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First Gig in England



I was, by chance, invited in a house barbecue party with our friend Rhoda who's got a very close "English" friend, Caroline. There at their house, I met Mike -- Caroline's husband. Mike and I had a chat whilst others were busy with barbecue and other food. Then, I saw a drumkit which is Pearl, a lovely set.  Also in that lounge there's a mini-pool table.  I asked Mike if I can try the drums and he said "only if you win the 9-ball billiards with your mates."  I told him that I'm not very good with billiards, but he said that's the condition.  And so I played and accidentally or by pure luck, I won.  So, I had the chance to play the drums and Mike took his acoustic guitar and we jammed.  Then, I told him that I am more comfortable with the guitar and then we swapped and jammed again and he got carried away and took his Ibanez SG type electric guitar and we jammed together, one acoustic and one electric guitar.

The inevitable offer came and he said that they have an upcoming gig and they needed an extra guitar player and if I can join the band.  I was really happy and immediately I said yes. Then, we set the practise dates as well as gave me some songs to learn.  And during our first rehearsal, I met his son Ali who's the one playing the drums and he is an excellent drummer.  He's got a mate called Dave, who plays the bass and got a very good gear setup... a Behringer bass amp and an Epiphone Thunderbird Bass.  There were a lot of songs that we jammed and we ended up choosing Mustang Sally, Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Summer of 69 as our top 3 songs which will be playing at the Hamperball Gig in Netherwallop, England.

After few rehearsals, Mike told me that it would be great if I can have my own gear and so I bought this Lyon black strat by Washburn and paired it with a digital multieffects processor which is Digitech RP55 and Ali lend me his 15W Panther guitar amp by Hohner.  I fiddled around to get the best sound of my guitar, foot pedal and the amp which after less than an hour, I got it.  When we finalized everything, Mike said we needed backing vocals and that's where Lofel, my lovely wife joined us for backing vocals and the band was complete, ready to rock on.

Here's the sample of my first gig in England.  Thanks to my good mates/best band mates Mike, Ali and Dave.


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