Gig Gig Gig

This morning our room woke up early, 9.30am to be exact. You can tell we are all final years! We ended up chatting and doing a little work before we all went to Weatherspoon’s for breakfast. I will be honest; the smell of stale alcohol was not very good for our fragile stomachs, but once we had food in us it was fine! Vicky, Bradley and I headed out into Bristol for an explore just after, going down the Christmas Steps, and stopping at both a cider boutique and a spirits boutique…I’m calling them that rather than shops, as it was definitely unique alcohols and with tasters available. We were all mental enough to try them…well, when something is free! Will admit that we were tempted enough to get some on the way back up to the place we were staying…one gallon of Perry to be exact! Before we found our way down the Christmas Steps we ran into a strange sight. An old Edwardian toilet, with a hole cut into some wood as an entrance, straw spilling out of said hole, and with the title ‘#last of my kind’ painted onto it. Turned out that it was actually an art exhibition, in which endangered birds were painted onto canvas, guitars, pretty much any medium actually…with a lot of them themed to a specific (dead) musician…and it was in the last Edwardian toilet left in Bristol. Apt I guess.

Anyways, once we had had a reconnoitre of the artisan quarter of Bristol, we headed to the centre of Bristol and had an explore of the Christmas Market. Pretty standard fare to be honest, all of the normal things…wood carvings, hog roast, candles, those spinney wind things that do tricks with your eyes, toys, mulled wine…why does that make it a German market is what I want to know? I suppose it looks pretty though. We met up with Emma on the way round, and then headed back to where we were staying for a little bit of a nap before the gig in the evening.

The gig we ended up playing was at Bristol Students’ Union, with Bristol University Jazz Orchestra (BUJO) and the Hornstars (the auditioned jazz band for Bristol) and it was…interesting. In a good way! Ish. Well, there was a fire alarm during the second half of our set (set off by their own smoke machine!) in which there were two jazz bands who were rather tipsy, and with instruments. Cue a massive jam in a car park. Massive respect for the other band too, although they kept telling us just how cool they thought we were! That is definitely something we have never been called before…cool? Us. Normally not so! The other bands were both really really good, and it was an amazing night, with loads of people there just to watch. From a musician’s point of view (first half), a great gig…especially when you manage to get people dancing. From a photographer’s point of view (second half), it was a bit difficult to get the photographs with the smoke machine going, but once that had stopped it was a lot easier! An experience definitely, and an enjoyable one at that. This particular photograph was taken from the back of the stage, as there are only so many pictures you can take from ground level.