Gig Report - Ran for Cover at TGS Fundraiser 15 June

On Saturday night my band 'Ran for Cover' played at Takapuna Grammar School (high school) annual Fundraiser - in the School Hall

The band has played this event for the last 5-6 years as Annie one of our singers teaches at the school and most of the band members went to the school many years ago. The school is about 20 minutes from my place

I actually went to this gig last year as a 'spectator' - Steve phoned me a couple of weeks earlier because I had placed a 'bass player available' ad on a website here and their bass player was moving cities, so he asked if I wanted to check the band out - which I did. I think I joined them a month later as they had 1 more gig to complete with their old bass player

The theme for the night was ‘Live and let Dance’ – a James Bond Theme (a take on live and let die). We suggested the theme to them as we’d done a James Bond themed gig last year

Set up was 7:30am – yes that’s AM…. Reason being is unfortunately Steve our Keyboard player had to go to his Uncles funeral on the day at 1pm – and the funeral was about a 3 hours drive from Auckland. So we had basically all set up and sound checked up by 9am. The good thing was we didn’t need to return until 7pm that night.

We arrived back about 7pm and there were only about 6 people there (100 tickets were sold), so we sat at the band table (table 13 would you believe) and enjoyed a quiet beverage while waiting for the crowd to filter in. A lady came up to Simon (guitarist) and told us to start at 7:30pm, but there were still hardly any people in the room and keyboardist Steve had not shown up yet (he did 10 minutes later)

We started about 8:30pm in the end, as the place had filled up nicely and as soon as we kicked off the dance floor began to fill with people

We played 2 long sets (see set list) and had about a 20 min break in between. During the break they had served supper - which consisted of bread rolls and you could fill them with fresh carved ham off the bone and an array or salads / sauces (sorry no photos)

Soon after starting set 2 a lady came up and put bottles of wine on the side of the stage. I wondered if these were gifts for the band, but no – she came up onto to the stage and gave Singer Annie a list. They had a prize giving – best dressed Male and Female and best Male and Female Dancers – each received a bottle of wine.

We had to leave out 5? songs from our second set because we were running out of time (we had to finish by 12am) so we played until 11:58pm and called it a night.

heres the stage set up

The 'axes' - Simons spare Guitar (Yamaha Les Paul copy) 3rd spare guitar (cheap strat copy) that Steve and Annie use for 1 song each, Richards Acoustic and my Squire vintage modified jazz bass - with Griff's Electric Yamaha kit behind us
Simon plays a Telecaster type guitar as his main guitar, but this was next to his mic stand and not in this shot

Steves keyboard set up - he normally only uses the 1 keyboard (top one) but for this gig he had a 2nd one underneath - that was significantly heavier than the top one (I know this because I helped him unload it for set up!)


My refreshment for the night (Yes - we get Mexican beer in New Zealand!). I don't drink more than 1 or 2 a night if I am driving home - I am a responsible Adult!

When we arrived to set up, the table closest to the stage had this name on it - Richard joked that we should rename ourselves 'Band 13'!

this was the only food photo from the night sorry - a bowl of potato chips (I think they call them crisps in the UK?)


Here's the set list for the night - most of you won't recognise some of the songs as about 6-7 of them are songs from New Zealand bands / artists that were and still are popular for cover bands here to play

And here's a shot of the band in action (I'm top right partially obscured by Richard) - everyone dressed up for the night and the lady you can see in the photo with the huge pink feather contraption on her head won best dressed female for the night



Anyway it was a good gig overall - we did joke about Richard forgetting some the words to one song - especially as they are on the i-pad right in front of him! (mounted to his mic stand) Simon said someone took some video footage, so if I get my hands on any I will add it to this gig review

 

We actually do the German Version - Annie and Simon (they are married) lived in Germany for a couple of years apparently - her German is fantastic

 

these are some popular NZ songs - that a lot of cover bands here play
The Exponents - Why Does Love?
Dragon - April Sun in Cuba
Dragon - Rain
Th' Dudes - Bliss
The Swingers - Counting the Beat
Split Enz - I see Red

feel free to youtube them