14/9/2007 Honeykill's first offshore gig...

Subject	Honeykill’s first offshore gig...
PostedDate	9/14/2007
	Another out of town show for those road warriors Honeykill - their second recent trip to the Essex coast, Clacton this time. The traffic was a nightmare and it took well over an hour just to get out of London - the van passing one accident in town and another halfway to the gig. Consequently, the band missed soundcheck. I was looking forward to seeing the sea for the first time since Scarborough a couple of years ago, but it was dark when we arrived and the pier was barely visible.  On asking directions we were told that the pier was now shut as the season had ended - a bit worrying as the venue was supposed to actually be on the pier! The venue itself was only just on the pier - a pub type place called the Cockney Pride, doubling as The Pier Music Venue. Actually, it wasn't a bad place at all - quite well laid out, with a generous sized stage, decent sized house PA, and even a house drum kit! Certainly not yer normal rock 'n' roll toilet. The selection of beer behind the very long bar was less than impressive though - only keg beer on tap. I was informed that this in the norm locally - maybe us Londoners are spoilt?  They didn't even have any bottles of Newcastle Brown.  At least the prices were reasonable though - but compared to London, where isn't? There was another band on the bill - Rizzo. Apparently it was their last ever gig. Two girls and two blokes making a quite acceptable indie style noise. Honeykill elected to go on first - the plan being for a beach party after. Almost no one turned up apart from bands and friends - even though it was Friday night. It transpired that this was the first weekend the pier was shut after the summer season - so all the locals had gone to the nearby pubs instead - the two nearest boozers were packed apparently. Pity no one had told the band about this beforehand... Honeykill aren't the sort of band to let this sort of thing get to them, so went on to make the best of the situation. This turned out to be harder work than they expected - there were some technical problems and the onstage sound was pretty bad, although it was reasonable out front apart from the keyboards being way too quite most of the time. Then there was the house drum kit. Alfie, being the professional type that he is had bought along the usual bits and pieces - snare, pedals, cymbals, etc. However, the bass drum skin on the house kit was split - before he even started playing! It had to be patched up mid-set with gaffa tape and a beermat! The band played well as usual, to a good reception from the few souls present. We stayed to watch the other band and give them some support, but no one seemed to have much enthusiasm for a beach party afterwards so everybody piled back in the van for the (somewhat debauched) drive back to London.  There was no falling out of the van vomiting on this occasion - although the mass exit from the van and synchonized emergency pissing was impressive!