A Return To Wigan

1st May, 2009: The Tudor House, Wigan

I am, as usual, first to arrive at the venue (though followed very closely by Martin and Rob, who attempt to enter via Wigan Bus Station). Loading into the Tudor I am reminded of my days of playing in Wigan bands (Cava, Strange Weather to name but two), and wondering why we have left it so long since Jelly's last graced a Wigan stage.

Once we're loaded in I start setting up the Wigan Music Collective drum kit; a battered old thing which I last played over two years ago, but which after all this time still manages to sound decent. It is obvious that someone has maintained this kit with loving care!

Paul arrives and we then proceed to perform the sound check. I cover the drums with electrical tape (we didn't have any Gaffa tape to hand) to stop the ringing, and we're struck by the quality of the sound. Also the stage looks great, with a blue velvet curtain covering the sides and back... however this means tonight will be a hot one...

We soundcheck with two new tracks, Closing Shadows and Monochrome Memory, tonight marks the first live performance of the latter, so we need all the last minute practice we can get. Then we make way for fellow Prestonians Boy Genius who soundcheck while we nip into town for some food... avoiding all pie shops we end up guilt-ridden at the nearest McDonalds.

Returning to the Tudor, the lads go to find a cash machine whilst I chat with Chazz and the rest of the Boy Genius boys about Jack Penate's new look, then we gather around the pub quiz machine. Pretty soon all members of both bands plus the sound engineer are gathered around the small machine, and I am occasionally chipping in with the wrong answers.

Then I see Karl, my former band mate from the Cava days; we spend a while catching up and before we know it Boy Genius have taken to the stage. They play a pretty awesome set to a fairly small crowd, but everyone who is there loves it!

We're enjoying the gig when two girls in front of us turn around and unashamedly take a picture of Paul, Martin and myself. Martin plays it icy-cool, whilst Paul and myself turn to each other bemused.

"Fans?"
"I think so, why else would they be taking our picture?"
"They must recognise us from our pictures on Myspace!"
"Maybe it's that girl Penelope that emailed us about the last blog!"

Then the girls turned away and carried on dancing to Boy Genius. Strange, they didn't even say anything.

Eventually one of them turned to Paul and came out with "Don't take this the wrong way, but...", (which you always know is a bad sign) "...you look just like that guy from the Big Bang Theory".

In the Jelly's Last Jam camp, the jury's still out, but what do our blog readers think?


Paul was pretty mortified. He has just got one of those faces, I guess. Like Ben Stiller. The girls take one more picture of us, with Karl (on the right), then I get to say a quick hello to my Aunty Kath and her partner Dave, who have just arrived, then it's time for our set.

Setlist was:
Parasite
Undefined
The Past and I
Alibi
Closing Shadows
Monochrome Memory
Smash and Grab
Checkmate

Closing Shadows and Monochrome Memory are both new songs, and they both sounded great at this gig; I'm looking forward to introducing them to our home crowd at Preston's Mad Ferret this Friday (8th May). The set went down well, though it seemed that half the audience was listening from the bar. The people that were there, however loved it! We got a lot of response via email and myspace, and sold a fair few CDs. Once we had packed up (and I had cooled down!) it was time to go; I had arranged to stay over at my parents house in nearby Leigh, so Paul and myself nipped to ASDA for some post gig booze and ended up watching a film until the early hours.

All in all, had a pretty ace night and will definitely return to Wigan pretty soon!