Among the bands and artists that I regularly work with are two which can loosely be described as being in the roots rhythm'n'blues / rock'n'roll genre. Both have gifted, charismatic leaders, and my colleagues in both bands are among the finest musicians in their field that you'll find anywhere in the world. One is Chad Strentz & The Chad-illacs, and the other is Sister Cookie.
Recently I played a festival gig here in the UK with the Chad-illacs. I won't name the town, or the local authority that organised the festival, to protect the innocent. Let's call it Britville. I also played a one-nighter in Gijón in Northern Spain with Cookie, which was also organised by the local authority.
Britville has a thriving shopping centre with the sound of tills ringing wherever you go, whereas Gijón is a port surrounded by an industrial area, and we're always being told that the Spanish economy is on its uppers.
Let's start by looking at the difference in the stages. First, Britville. The photo was taken by Paul Silver Photography.
The graffitied concrete pillars, the stack of painted old tyres!
Next, the stage at Gijón. This photo was taken by GJ Photography.
Now that's more like it! A full, professional stage, with expertly operated lighting and sound rigs.
At both shows, backline and PA were supplied for us. At Britville, despite being given our requirement for two guitar amps, only one was supplied, which had only a single input. Both of our guitarists had to play through the bass amp, which had two inputs for different impedances, but only one channel. That makes it completely impossible to balance the sound of the two guitars. Both the bass amp and the guitar amp were of poor quality, and unsuitable for our style of music.
At Gijón, our requirements were met in full. I played through a gorgeous blackface Fender Twin Reverb, and got exactly the sound that I wanted and that the music required. The PA system was excellent, with ample on-stage monitoring. I could hear everything, and consequently I was able to relax and play to the best of my ability.
For the gig in Britville, we were told where to park our cars - on a side street about a quarter of a mile from the concrete wasteland that passed for the stage. The parking bays were restricted to two hours, so we had to wait until we were within two hours of the end of the show to walk to the stage. A parking warden arrived, so we had to pay for parking. Eventually we were told of a free parking area close to the stage, but by then parking tickets had been bought, and we had wasted nearly an hour standing by our cars.
At Gijón, we were flown to Spain, given the services of a driver and minibus who met us at the airport. We were put up in a very good hotel, and also given money for a post-gig meal. Our driver could get us through any traffic and parking restrictions with only a quick word to the police officer on duty.
What about the dressing rooms and backstage facilities? At Britville all we had were the concrete pillars. At Gijón, a trailer was provided for the band, with food and a fridge full of drinks. The onstage and backstage staff could not have been more helpful.
Did any other bands play? At Britville, we were the third band on, out of five. The first two bands were respectively in the jungle and trip hop genres, no doubt in an effort to appeal to the local youth. Of course both of those styles date from between 15 and 20 years ago, so that didn't work. Both bands suffered from an inadequate, but also deafeningly loud PA. The sound bounced off the surrounding buildings and from even 50 metres away all subtle details of the performances were lost. For the first band, the only audience were two 30-ish men skateboarding (badly) on the concrete path in front of the stage. To be honest, I think that they were there for the skateboarding, and also at their age they should know better! The second band attracted an audience of three or so. The singer would have been quite good were it not from the feedback coming from the PA. At the end of the long concrete path, the good shoppers of Britville were striding purposefully to the shops, not bothering to stop and listen to the performances even for a moment. When we went on, finally about 35 to 50 people turned up to listen to our performance, badly amplified as it was. We played as well as we could under the circumstances, and the audience were kind to us.
At Gijón, we had a proper soundcheck earlier in the day, which attracted a small but enthusiastic audience, who actually applauded us! For the evening show, we had a huge audience, TV cameras, and photographers from the local press. We were very well received, and got two encores. We were the only band booked to play that stage on that day, and we were treated like royalty. Here's some fan footage I found on YouTube...
After Britville, our performance was quickly forgotten, and The Chad-illacs went on to play a superb gig elsewhere that same evening.
After the show in Gijón, everywhere we went people came up to us to tell us how much they enjoyed our set. Not only on the same night, but the next day, even at the airport. The locals were also very keen for us to try their traditional cider, which went down very well!
So here's the difference: the local authority of Britville are not to be blamed because I'm sure that they tried their best. Perhaps the budgetary constraints were beyond their control. They certainly can't help the prevailing attitude towards music and musicians in Britain, which is just another commodity, to be bought for the cheapest price going. In Spain, as well as all the other European countries I have played in over the years, music is a valued art, and musicians are respected as they should be for all the hard work that they do learning their craft, and traveling far and wide to entertain people and free them from their cares and pains, if only for a short while. Full marks to the government and people of Gijón, who know how to put on a show, and how to have a good time. Britain could learn a lot from this.
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