What I Learnt Gigging on European Cup Final night

What place has the final of the Champions league got in a blog about getting a playing gigs? You may well ask.

With the final in Rome some 2 hours away it reminds me of the significance of the one and only gig I've ever played on the same night as the final.

It was a couple of years ago with Liverpool having their re-match with A.C. Milan. We were playing a fairly well known venue in the North West (The Limelight in Crewe) and were to go on after the game had finished.

I'd been after a spot at this venue for many months and so when the offer finally came, we agreed to play on a Wednesday night. Normally, due to other commitments we only played at weekends and we'd have rain checked this one too because of the football too I guess.


It wasn't a great turn-out on the night. Those people in the place seemed to only be there to watch the match on flat screen TVs. The game ended in defeat for the local side and twenty minutes later we trudged onstage in front of an already depressed scattering of drunks who had stayed on beyond the final whistle.


This was one of the first gigs we'd played since losing our extrovert front man and it was also one which we videoed. The reason for the video was the creeping feeling that since our change in personnel we were failing to connect with crowds the way we once had.

Watching the lack lustre performance back later was the inspiration which ultimately led to the Rouse the Crowd Ebook .Without our front man and with a crowd in serious need of rousing, we went down like a sack of the proverbial.


The night led to acknowledgment that something had to be done about the visual side of the band. About the audience interaction. Looking back, any front person would have struggled with that crowd and on that night. But, much study of other bands, successful front men (and women) and performance research followed by us.

Mercifully the rest is history. I'm fairly sure thought, that without the Champions League final and the recording of our cringe-worthy performance that night we would have folded the way so many other bands do due to audience indifference.

Tonight though, my guitar stays in it's case until Friday and I'm watching the game instead.