| I'm on my way to Braintree, Essex. But no, I'm not here
to stalk The Prodigy, as you all might think, no, I just gotta meet Smitty and Jane here
and we're just here to drive to Colchester to see one of the first live appearances of Happy Gilmore, the band of Kieron
Pepper, to some of you might familiar as Prodigy's live drummer. The
sights of famous Braintree are very impressing and it is raining down. We're on our way to
the nearby Colchester then. The gig is in the Colchester
Arts Centre, a very unique venue indeed, it is in an old church! I really
have to laugh as we get there, there's this little church, but it says 'Box Office' on it!
And the entrance? You have to go through the graveyard! Ummm, nice. We get in about at 8.30pm and there's about 60 people in there.
Even the inside of the church still actually DOES look like a church, with graves at the
side and stuff, but there's also a bar and a stage. On stage then very soon are the first
band called Johnny Zivago. They play this
sort of punky rock, have a very energetic singer, loads of good melodies and are generally
really good and powerful! The audience in this venue is a bit weird. Unlike the usual
'17-25' gig audience, here there's people from the age of 7 until 70. Really weird
actually. Kids running around and stuff. But after all this is a church, isn't it?
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Johnny Zivago are finished now and Happy Gilmore are setting up the stage now. Kieron
as a multi talent isn't playing the drums here, no, he is actually playing the guitar, the
sampler and singing! They're a three piece, next to Kieron there's a bassplayer and a
drummer (apparently the keyboarder has left), and the first thing you notice is that the
drummer has a really 'weird face'. And then you notice it's only a mask! |
So what kind of music are they playing
then? A bit hard to say really! In a way they are a rock band, with the usual line-up
consisting of bass, drums, guitar and a singer. But there is more. Next to all that
they're also using a sampler, underlining the tracks with beats.
This is one of the first gigs ever that
this band is doing, and you can tell they're quite nervous. But Kieron, as frontperson of
the band, manages to get everyones sympathy from the very start, and doesn't fail to make
us laugh more than once. For example when he plays us a sample: "This
is a sample of my brother snoring on holiday" and while we laugh about the
snoring it gives him time to tune his guitar. The audience is on their side now, although
people are still standing a bit back, as often at smaller gigs like this.
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I like the last track they're playing, has
some cool breakbeats and they also use some weird 'keyboard-style' instrument, I have
never seen before. All in all a cool gig, I'd definitely go to see them again! Next on are the headline band. They're called Drive. A female singer with 4 blokes on the
instruments, it's a bit too poppy for me. They've got some good melodies and she has a
good voice, but this just isn't what I would listen to in my spare time. But who cares, we
were here for Happy Gilmore anyway. |
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