The REOFFENDERS

Punk Rock: Classic and Modern

The REOFFENDERS are on an indefinite break. Never say never, but we currently have no plans to play. However, we had joy and we had fun... and we blogged about it. Enjoy reading and reliving some good times.

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Saturday, May 08, 2010

Bank Holiday weekend

Last weekend was pretty exhausting but I think we've recovered now.

Thursday

It all started in Newton Abbot on the Thursday before the Bank Holiday where we played the Jolly Farmer. Last time we were there, it was quite a punky vibe so I'd written our setlist accordingly, but this time round it was a much younger audience who wanted the more modern stuff, so we tweaked things a bit for the second half.

There were also two guys there who'd been to their nan's funeral that day and were drinking to her and giving us lots of song requests. As well as doing the requests, John dedicated 'Going Underground' to her. Oh the shame!

Saturday

Friday was a gigless day but we all had work so started the weekend feeling pretty knackered before leaving Exeter at 9am to head to North Wales. We were booked to play the Welsh National Scooter Rally in Llandudno which was great, but a bloody long way!
We weren't playing till 10.30pm but had to be there for 4ish to soundcheck so it was a pretty long day. After soundcheck, we went for a wander and got some pizza before heading back to the venue to tuck into our rider of 24 tins of Fosters :-)

The gig was over in a flash and after a quick packdown, we headed to our nearby travelodge to get some kip.

Sunday

We woke with lots of spare time so went for breakfast at the Little Chef next door. What a rip off. Terrible service, barely passable food and expensive to boot. We won't be doing that again!

We'd thought ahead and booked somewhere for Sunday lunch so that we could eat properly and so that the two Pauls could watch the footy. Sadly, they'd taken out Sky since the reviews that we'd read and were offering pretty poor veggie options for John and I. The best laid plans and all that.... Still, it's better than a Ginsters pasty from a service station! And the toffee crunch pudding was good ;-)

Next stop was Somerset. Robert, from Best Kept Secret, had very kindly stashed our PA at his house over night so that we didn't have to drive all the way back to Exeter. He's a very very nice man with a great band - check them out if you haven't seen them!

So we went to unlock the van and couldn't. The back door was firmly locked. Oh dear. We wrestled with it for over half an hour, with help from Robin (also of BKS) and telephone support from Matt (Trigger Happy and ace VW mechanic). Finally Robin managed to open it... and discovered Rob's bag hanging on the door lock! WTF? He'd chucked it in the back and it had rolled about and landed beautifully on the lock.

With that job done, we loaded up and headed for Wellington for gig 3 of 4. We were playing outside despite the bitter cold and the rain having a go at washing us out. Thankfully, we were in Wellington where they're all bonkers and they stood outside regardless :-)

Because there'd be another band on already, we were late being able to setup our gear so rather than keep people waiting, we decided not to get changed. Plus we needed our jackets! and jumpers!

We finished at about 12.15am and packed away quickly so we could get home and sleep. We were very very knackered by this point and Madge was in danger of having the lurgy.

Monday

After a long sleep, I felt soooooo much better and ready to face the world again. We were playing at the Royal Oak in Ilminster, our first time there. They were having a charity "Dave's Day" where they tried to get as many Dave's in the pub as possible! LOL!

Before we could setup, they had to move the fruit and veg stand (I'm not kidding! really!) that the landlord's son runs. They've got Wii projected onto one wall, Sports on another screen as well as a freezer full of gorgeous icecream. A very nice pub with the landlord and landlady really making an effort to make a community pub work.

It was nice to see some familiar faces and some of our tshirts in the audience as people had travelled from surrounding villages to see us. What a welcome.

We finished at 12pm and had a drink with the owners, and an icecream, before heading home. A pleasure to play there and we will be back again later in the year.

So all in all, an exhausting weekend but bloody good fun.



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