Essential Feature
Diary of a Rock Band
Well, here we are at the end of June
(at the time of writing) and so far this
year has been a bit of a stop start affair
for Black Thursday. We’ve played a few
gigs though for some reason they have
been a bit sparse during the first part of
the year, but we’ve also had a couple of
cancellations due to double bookings
at a couple of venues so it seems as if
we’ve hardly played at all! Having said
that, we’re now coming into our busiest
period of the year, with eight bookings in
the next twelve weeks. It seems that our
gigs are like buses – you wait around for
ages and see nothing and then they all
arrive at once!
If you are a regular reader of this column,
you will, over that last few months have
become acquainted with the members
of the band as each of them has written
their own band biography. Hopefully
you will have enjoyed finding out about
Lee, Helen Garry and Mike as well as me,
John. Each of us has our own musical
past and we have all played in various
bands in recent and in some cases distant
years! I first played in a band nearly 30
years ago and I think Mike’s first musical
venture was around the same time.
Together as Black Thursday I think we’ve
all found our musical home and with
three uninterrupted years now behind
us (as far as personnel goes) the band is
set to continue for the foreseeable future
going from strength to strength.
This year has seen us make a major
purchase. After long deliberations we
decided that we needed to improve the
sound quality at our gigs and especially
as this year we have a number of larger
venues to play at. So at considerable
52
cost we took the plunge and invested
in a new PA system. Being the technical
one Lee researched a number of options
and came up with over £3000 worth of
kit which we have purchased from band
funds. Actually Garry stumped up the
money and we’re paying him back from
the proceeds of our next few gigs! The old
PA was ok but it was big and heavy taking
up a lot of space, both on stage and in
storage. Now with the improvements
in sound technology we’re a lot more
streamlined and the difference in sound
quality is more than just noticeable!
Over the coming weeks we have a
number of local gigs – if you want to
come and see us you can find a list of
forthcoming dates on our website www.
blackthursdayuk.wix.com or on the
North West Bands website at www.nwb.
co/blackthursday . We’ll be playing in
Warrington, Cadishead, Preston and
Chester as well as a trip to Blackpool in
the next month or so.
Having been together with the same line
up for three years now it’s important
that we continue to grow the set list
adding new songs regularly to refine and
hopefully improve on the sets that we
play. There are, of course, a good number
of old favourites that will continue to be
played, but recently we have added some
great new ones that will be appearing in
our set in the coming weeks. When I say
‘new’ they are new to us but as a classic
rock band most of the stuff we play tends
to be from the last century!
Don’t forget that Black Thursday are
available to play at your party, wedding,
or other event – we can promise you a
great rocking night! You can contact us
either through the website or by phone
on 07881 521150.
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