The Hanwell Cavern, London
The Hanwell Cavern, London - Friday 22nd March 2024
Sometimes we have to wait ages before we can play certain gigs, they only happen at regular intervals, and we generally have a pretty full diary. We like to be doing great gigs, especially now that we are out and about promoting our debut CD album “A Triumph!” (https://thetr5s.bandcamp.com/album/a-triumph) so the Hanwell Cavern has always been on our radar. Firstly, its interior is ‘under the arches’ just like the old Cavern in Liverpool and secondly, we’re aware that these monthly events always sell out.
So, after many many negotiations with head organiser Andy, we get a date in the diary. Tickets go on sale after the previous months' event and, we’re told, sell out in record time. It seems they are looking forward to seeing us just as much as we’ve been looking forward to playing.
Ted arrives to pick me up, we’re travelling light today, just breakables for Ted’s drum kit, a couple of guitars and the mic stands for me. The sat-nav proceeds to take us fully cross-country to get there (we think it’s taken a route to avoid traffic somewhere!) but we still arrive on time. The idea is that we can unload everything into the venue before the sold-out crowd arrives and take their seats. This we do, even though the crowd has already started to arrive, and we’re shown to the storage area and offered tea or coffee. The building itself is stunning, with a brace of vintage electrical equipment (record players, radios etc) littered about, it looks really vintage and authentic.
There’s 3 acts on tonight so we introduce ourselves to soundman Michael before making ourselves comfortable at our allocated table to take it all in. First up is Flora Fiora, she’s a young singer-songwriter backed by a drummer (who occasionally plays a cahon). Flora is great and very engaging. She plays her songs with real passion and has the full house eating out of her hand. Great stuff.
Next up are NDX (Near Death Experience) who appear to be old friends of the venue and the organisers. Every time we see one of the organisers they seem to be singing along to one of NDX’s original songs. They have been here before. Naturally, they go down well though, being the charismatic and energetic performers that they are.
Then it’s our turn. Not a single soul has left the building, punters and other acts alike. Everybody is here for the whole event, which is amazing. The organisers have done very well to create a vibe where everybody who comes here wants to enjoy a full evening of live music by quality acts.
We set up quickly and run through a quick line-check before launching into our new intro of ‘Telstar’ segueing into ‘Lucille’. A great start. Since new guitarist Eddie and bassist Buzz have come on board, we are introducing great new ideas and new songs, which is freshening up our sound. Before too long the crowd are out of their seats and up and dancing around the stage with lots of gusto. It isn’t in the set tonight, but as we’re given plenty of time by Andy, I suggest we slip in ‘No Particular Place To Go’, the old Chuck Berry tune. This gives me the opportunity to jump off stage during Eddie’s blistering solos and duck-walk amongst the audience. This goes down great with several people following in my footsteps and joining in. Great fun. We also play several of our original tracks from our album (Drummin’ Man, Rock ‘N’ Roll Good Times, Let It Rock) which are received like old friends, proving that original songs, in the style that we play them, can be just as good as the oldies that we have in our sets.
We then finish our set to rapturous applause and a standing ovation. Fantastic. We’re not going to be able to leave the stage though, so our song about Screaming Lord Sutch (‘Everybody’s Screaming’) comes next. It leaves everybody dripping in sweat. Yet, still they want more. Andy comes on the mic and begs us for another song. We go for ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ and then we’re done. The noise is deafening and the atmosphere is incredible. What a buzz. We set about packing up and meeting the incredible audience. We sell plenty of CD’s and are really on cloud nine as we say our goodbyes to everyone involved (Andy, Michael, Steph, Steph’s mum!) and Ted and I hit the road, making it home a lot quicker as we’re able to use the motorway. An amazing night out.
Lucky