The Bigfoot Farewell Tour
Updated: Oct 2, 2019
Friday the 13th in Newcastle.
DAY 1 – THE CLUNY, NEWCASTLE
Goals For Today :-
1. Make it through work.
2. Get home
3. Get gig stuff ready
4. Head to The Cluny
5. Set Up
6. METAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!
Weekends are always better when you have gigs to play. This weekend was a bit more special than usual, as we had back to back shows in Newcastle & Edinburgh with the mighty Bigfoot, as part of their Farewell Tour.
We were hitting 2 new venues. The Cluny, Newcastle, & Bannermans, Edinburgh. Both of these have an enormous reputation for being awesome venues to play, so we were excited & a bit nervous. We were debuting our newest Lord, Kev Smith as our new lead guitarist, & we really couldn’t wait to get on stage with him.
When I turned up to The Cluny, the guys had already started loading in, so, as the singer, I parked as close as I could to the loading door, to take my guitar and bag into the venue. It’s a hard life being a singer hahaha. We walked in to be greeted by the Bigfoot lads who were busy setting up their enormous merch stall. We grabbed a much smaller table and started to set our merch up next to them.
It wasn’t long before the Bigfoot lads were up to do their sound check. These guys are as professional as they come. They aren’t the kind of band who will sound check for an hour so that the support band only gets 10 minutes or a line check, which happens far too often.
We got up to do our sound check & HOLY SHIT........the sound up here is fkn incredible. A quick run through of a couple of tracks and we were more than happy, & excited to get started.
Doors were opened, & the venue started to fill up straight away. We could already tell that this was going to be a busy one. Stones had arranged an interview with Lixx Media, so the next step was to decide which 2 guys were going to be interviewed. First vote was for me, obviously, because I’m the pretty one. Stones has managed to stay under the radar when it comes to interviews, so after a bit of persuading, he reluctantly agreed to be my wing man, &, apart from getting his words mixed up & calling our new axe man Kev “Docile”, I think he did a smashing job. Haha
Now it’s time to start getting show ready. We still had about 20 minutes before going on stage, so I went to put my stage gear on. This is by far, one of my favourite things about doing gigs. Forgetting everything & becoming something else for a short time, & getting to entertain people along the way is the best stress reliever. From the word go, the crowd were with us. After finishing our first 2 tunes “Forgotten Memories, & Bulldozer”, the crowd erupted, & we were all buzzing with excitement. When we finished our set, we were graced with the biggest crowd roar we have ever experienced. This was by far the best crowd we had played to so far, & we couldn’t wait to get off the stage to meet some of them. The first woman who came to the merch stand announced that we were now here new favourite band. It’s comments like that, that keep us doing what we’re doing.
Bigfoot were up next, &, what can I say. They fkn nailed it as they always do. Watching these guys is always a pleasure. The chemistry they have both on & off the stage is incredible. You can tell that these guys are all good mates, & it comes across in their show. I stayed for most of their set before leaving to get some rest. I always feel guilty sneaking out. But when you’ve been on your feet all day at work, & you have a 6 hour drive, & another show the next day, it’s always best to get some rest in.
DAY 2 – Bannermans, Edinburgh
Jobs For Today:-
1. Wake up
2. Grab gig stuff
3. 3 hour drive to Edinburgh
4. Set up
5. METAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL
Waking up after gig day is always exciting. I was still buzzing from the night before, & my first job was to get on facebook & see if any pics or videos had gone up. I know most people these days can’t stand people with phones recording at gigs, but I find it really helpful, & always enjoy watching them. It gives me a chance to review myself, & pick out anything I need to change.
What I do love about back to back shows, is that all of my gear (as minimal as it is) is already packed. My wife, Emma was coming with me today. We were planning on leaving early and having a wander through Edinburgh, so around midday we set off on the 3 hour drive up the A1. When we got there we bumped straight into Stones and his missus, so we parked the cars and headed to Bannermans.
Edinburgh was absolutely heaving. Not long after we had found a seat, the whole bar filled up. We were a bit hungry so we decided to go out and look for some chips. After finding 2 closed takeaways, & 1 that didn’t serve chips (THATS RIGHT. A TAKEAWAY THAT DOESNT SERVE CHIPS!!) we got sorted and headed back to the venue.
All the guys had turned up by this point, so we went through the whole set up again, & waited for the doors to be opened. Bannermans has always been a favourite venue of mine, so I was really looking forward to getting this show started. The doors opened & it was time to take to the stage. Steve started with his usual drum fill intro, & the lads burst into action. I went to sing my first note. &................Nothing?? As I looked down at my effects unit, it was just turning itself on and off. Stones rig was doing the same. Definitely something going on with the electrics in there. I grabbed Stones microphone & we carried on with the rest of the song. After a quick mic change we were back on track. Even with all of our technical difficulties, we still managed to pull off a great set, & the crowd seemed to respond well to us. This was certainly a great way to break Lord Kev into the band. I am so proud of all the guys I have around me.
Now would be the last time I would ever see Bigfoot live. Even with a 3 hour drive home, I wasn’t going to miss this. They played an absolute blinder. It is a real shame that they aren’t going to be around anymore, but we are more than grateful for all the help and support they have given us since our debut gig a year ago.
We had a great weekend, & met a lot of new friends & fans. We have had so much fun this past year, but the work is only just starting. We will be working on tunes to go on our debut E.P, whist getting as many great gigs as possible. 2020 is going to be a great year for rock & metal music, & we are so stoked to be a part of it.
Our next, & final show of 2019 will be in Lancaster, supporting the awesome Promethium @ The Bobbin. Come and rock out with us 1 last time before we hibernate in the studio until 2020. Check out the event here.
Thanks to everyone who has been supporting us. We really can’t do any of this without you guys turning up to shows, buying merch, & bigging us up on social media. We will hopefully see you at another show soon.
If you have a slate 6 minutes, then please check out our #debut #single & #musicvideo ”In From The Cold” available everywhere.
https://youtu.be/uU_qswlxapM
Lord Dox Docherty