​My first gig since my world got turned upside down!

So after my little dalliance last month back in the rehearsal room, things have naturally moved on… I played my first gig!

The first gig post baby was something I had been thinking about since I first got pregnant.
Along with all the worries motherhood would bring, I had many doubts with how - and if ever, I’d gig again – somewhat dramatic you may think but with a load of hormones flying round my body and no time for any practicing for months it was easy to get on the worry train and ride it to death.

So, what was the gig? Well, it was a cross between street drumming and Stomp!
A brilliant drummer friend of mine – Katie, has created a 2-person percussion show called Bang on! She has been running workshops and gigs for about 15 years and the two of them have been all over the world drumming on dust bin lids, buckets – and pretty much any household object they can lay their hands on!
I got the call to stand in for her friend and had about a week to prepare.
I was flattered that she thought of me and wanted to do a great job. The only way I know how to go into a job and do it well is to prepare, prepare, PREPARE!

I think it was a Gavin Harrison (amaaaaaazing drummer) video where he was interviewed about gigs he’s got and he said it was all down to being prepared.
Well, since I’m a mega fan of his and of the mindset that I always want to do my best. I was pretty much transcribing drum parts as soon as I was off the phone having accepted the gig!

Now, having a baby and preparing for a gig don’t really go hand in hand BUT thankfully, she is of the age where she is napping roughly (on a good day mind!) About three times in the day.
So there I was, baby down for a nap? Music paper out and headphones in!
Within a few days I’d managed to write everything down and was now using nap times to have a bit of a practice on my practice pad.
In an ideal world I’d go practice on my drums but we’re between houses at the moment (long story – and perhaps another future post?!)
So, I made do with my practice pad and was looking forward to the upcoming rehearsal and gig.
Because of said housing situation I thankfully could leave baby with the inlaws whilst I went to rehearse.
The rehearsal went really well, Katie showed me lots of cool grooves, how the show works and made me feel totally at ease.

Gig day arrives and I’m up at 5:30am! The gig is a day time thing, up past Birmingham so we needed to set off early to make sure we could set up in time.

We were expected to do three shows and three workshops throughout the day and I have to say, it was a lot of fun!
Lots of grooves, laughs and audience participation!
This really felt like the perfect gig to have post baby, not only did I get a few goes at the show throughout the day but with Katie’s relaxed attitude all I ended up worrying about was whether my breast milk would leak through my top!
Seriously! I hadn’t left the baby for that long without a feed before*

(*don’t worry kids, she was being looked after by her father and is totes used to a bottle!)


But yeah, all day, no feeding equals ouchie hard rock boobs – not fun!

So after a very fulfilling day of drumming on a pretty cool rig of buckets, trash cans, old guitars and pots and pans. I returned to a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a sleeping baby and the task of hand expressing my breast milk.
How rock n roll am I?!

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