Lord Liam’s Ascension
Another normal morning at work, at my desk, keeping busy, turning things off and on again as is tradition in I.T. I pause for a moment to check my phone to see what’s going on in the “real world” to see a message from Lord Steve-O checking in, asking how things are going and if my bass playing is still sharp. At this point it doesn’t take a genius to put things together and figure out what he’s after, though at the time I was overdue my 2nd morning coffee so it took me a while.
Most people would jump at the chance to join such a promising project, but I was a bit on the fence. My heart said yes, but my head said no. It had been only a few weeks since my previous band AWOKE called it a day, and I thought I would take a break from music for a while since my passion for it had been dwindling for the past year or so. Maybe joining LOR could bring it back?
A few days later I met up with Steve so we could talk about this properly. Pretty soon all my main concerns were diminished and the longer we spent talking and listening to LOR material I was more and more convinced that this was something I wanted to do. Every day after that I was listening to the songs while at work and every evening I would be learning them to prepare for my audition. As a guitarist I got the parts on guitar first to get the idea of the songs before picking out the bass patterns. Lord Glass Bach was kind enough to send tabs through for some of the trickier songs.
By the time audition came around at the end of that week I had learnt 3 songs, so we played those a few times over and made some corrections where required. Overall it went brilliantly, the rest of the guys were so welcoming, helpful and more than happy with what I’d learned so far. After that I knew that this is what I truly wanted and told them that if they thought I was the right dude for the job then I was ready to give it my all, 100%. Days later I got the message from Steve: “If you still want the gig, it's yours. You are the new Lord!”
Fast forward a couple of months to my first LOR gig at Trillian’s rock bar in Newcastle: a legendary venue in the underground music scene and yet even during my time crewing for Die No More this venue always seemed to slip me by. This would be my first time stepping through its doors, let-alone playing a headline show there and as if that wasn’t stressful enough, I had to deal with Newcastle city-centre rush hour traffic on the approach. Nightmare! As well as that, while loading in I smacked my head on a ceiling-mounted speaker when jumping off stage. Ouch! Suddenly I got flashbacks to Bannerman’s Edinburgh where I had done the exact same thing a few years back. Some things never change. New band, new venue, same luck.
Midway through our set we debuted a new song “Universal” which starts with a bass line and served as a great segment for Dox to introduce me as the band’s new bass player, but in that moment I nearly forgot that it was my cue to begin the song - I think I just wanted to hear more nice things said about me. Nevertheless, the rest of the set went down without a hitch and finished with big cheers and applause. Not bad for a debut gig. Thank you, Trillian’s! Next on the gig calendar was Call Of The Wild. Been looking forward to this one. It’s a Friday and it’s scorching outside. We aim to arrive at the site as early as possible so we can get our bearings before hitting the Cloven Hoof stage at 7pm. Myself and Steve-O convoy down the motorway stopping at the services for a leak and a snack, as you do. Now as many musicians know it isn’t a true gig journey experience without at least one hiccup, so as fate intended I return to my car to find it decided to take a leak of its own and see an orange puddle forming underneath my car’s engine. Fortunately, when you have a car that is nearly old enough to buy beer legally, you get accustomed to random problems that arise so I knew exactly what it was – coolant leak. On closer inspection we found that the coolant tank itself had a crack in it, but we concluded that we can simply keep it topped it with water until I can get it to a garage. Onwards to the festival!
We arrived at the festival site in my leaky car. Followed directions from gate staff which may or may not have been correct, but I nearly drove into somebody’s camp, so I assumed I wasn’t quite in the right place. A quick chat with the boss man Raz White seen us directed to main car park, but first we hit the main reception to collect our artist passes. 7pm soon arrived and the Lords smashed through their set in front of a keen crowd. It was over in a flash and we packed away quickly to join the rest of the festivalgoers for a night of music, beer and laughs. What a life!
- Lord Liam
