Some Poor Fat Bloke Named Sam Had His Place Invaded by Students

Now this week we had some great excitement! Wednesday was our big gig at Fat Sams in Dundee.
I can't wait to see the video :) of us all strutting our stuff. As you will see from this post, it was a great chance for me to exercise my skills on my path to becoming a professional performing musician.

My band "(insert name here)" had a last minute rehearsal in the morning, showing our commitment to the cause. We tried out an idea of mine in one of the songs but in the end we were better off just playing it as is, this showed, however, that I am not adverse to putting across my ideas to peers (people skills and confidence). They were willing to try it out and we worked as a team trying many ways to make it work and decided as a group to keep it simple (teamwork).
I headed on the train to Dundee with my friend Calum Bryson who I have known for many years and is studying sound engineering on the course. Bryson did the live sound for the band of Claire Komar, Jamie Stewart, Katy Forrest and Lauren Cooke that day. At the station we met Jenny Baillie and she joined us on our journey. We arrived (and met Katy Forrest) with plenty of time for lunch (timekeeping- oh yeah!) before we had to report to Gav at the venue. Thus being reminded of my dislike for Subway (I seem to be alone with this view), but that's another story.
I would like to point out at this time that it really is a shame that the gig had not been able to happen before now, as there are other students on the course that I hadn't really had the opportunity to socialize with as they are in a different class. I am confident in saying that on Wednesday I did make new friends and contacts (networking).
When my fellow band chums had arrived I took a strong stance with Gav and negotiated that we play after six o'clock (when my friends would be able to come along) this showed initiative and negotiating skills (people skills and self-reliance).
When the first band started at 5 I decided not to sit back but to go and stand at the stage and watch their performance where they could see that I was supporting them. I did this for every band because I felt that it was important that they had a captive audience, I certainly would have hated to have had to perform to a vast empty space. This also helped as when it came to our turn I pointed out the fact that I had given the an audience and suggested they might like to do the same, we ended up with one of the biggest crowds of the night in front of the stage which made it a lot easier to perform with confidence and a lot more enjoyable. (confidence, people skills, customer orientation)
As for the performance itself, I'd like to think it went well for us. The first song "Big Ten Inch" went according to plan although in hindsight I probably could have played it up a bit more. Our second song "Empty Walls" was very different from our other choices and the most challenging vocally. To be honest I cannot tell you for sure how this went as I had difficulty hearing myself over the monitors. As a result of this, during our last song - Cee Lo Green's "F**K You" (a song that is already quite ridiculous and cheesy) I was very over the top and played up to my audience of peers and friends. I had a great time performing it and they seemed to enjoy it also, and the guys in my band were wonderful. (confidence, self-motivation, teamwork)

I loved being able to hear what the other bands had done, I was very proud to be among such talented and passionate people. Congratulations to you all, see you in Creative Industries...
LcB