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The Saracen`s Head,Daventry....19th May,2001..Saturday nite...11.30pm The air was electric.The atmosphere was so intense you could carve it with a knife. The crowd where flying high,indeed some of them were. Crowd surfing at the Sarey`s! What`s that all about? Near the end of set 2,Funky launches into the familiar guitar hook from the 1977 Sex Pistols classic "Pretty Vacant". The crowd go wild,they surge forward,they bounce.Crowd Control and the mad bird at the front start to push people back. Its no good..they give up,jump into the mass and start po-going with everybody else. The night is a success.The back room is packed.Everyones happy.The bar is out of beer.The police where starting to take an unhealthy interest in what was going on. If you was there,you was part of something special. Not bad for your first gig |
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1..A New Home Anyone that walks down the High St towards Sheaf St in Daventry today will think what a sh*t hole the Saracens Head now looks. In March 2002 they closed the doors for the last time and this listed building was due to be turned into a Wetherspoons pub.Its still standing disused now. A decaying tribute to all the dodgy characters from Daventry that used to gather in this seedy,violent drug haven. That was the myth about the Sareys.Mostly it was true.But it was also a great pub and a lot of the people that went in there were good folks. This pub also became our second home from April 2001 until it was closed down. |
| 2..What about a name? It was around this time that Kev came up with the bands name. "What`s worse than a Catch 22?" It had to be a Catch 23. Much better than the original idea of "Dis the Gecko".How ironic that name is now. Also around this time we started using our legendary nick names.Andy became Gecko because of his long tounge,Phil became Funky Fingers because of his nifty chord work,I became Les Dawson because of my brilliant solo`s and Kev became Phat Man due to his huge fat sound. |
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3..Happy Birthday After playing a one off gig for Phil`s birthday on 27th January 2001,we carried on rehearsing at the church hall.We realised we needed more than 13 songs to do a full gig so we set about learning more. Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams) Hush (Kula Shaker) Spiritualized (Finley Quaye) Song 2 (Blur) Keep On Moving (5ive) Lucky Man (The Verve) Yellow (Coldplay) Heroes (David Bowie) Rocks (Primal Scream) Ciggys & Beer (Oasis) Closing Time (Semi-Sonic) Buck Rodgers (Feeder) Pretty Vacant (Sex Pistols) Our first gig set list and picture on the left in the back room at the Coach and Horses Daventry,Sat,27 Jan 2001 |
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4..Spread The Word We where also getting fed up with practising there and started to look for another venue,preferably a pub. It was this search that led us to the Saracens Head pub, affectionately know as the Sarey`s. At that time is was run by Dave and Nola.For 15 quid a nite they let us use the back room to practice. It was here in the dodgiest pub in town,amid the taunts and abuse and p*ssed up gits,that we built the set up and devolped a great tight sound. By about April/May we had got enough songs for a complete set and persuaded Dave to let us have a gig. We then set about telling everybody we knew and hyped it to f**k. |
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5..THE Gig May 19th 2001 will be a date I`ll never forget until I die. It was a hot evening,the back doors were open and by about 8.30pm,it was f**king packed. We were nervioulsy hovering around,chatting,tuning guitars,thinking "sh*t" Phil took my beer away.."no drinks till later" At 9pm everyone just walked inside and stood waiting.I had to walk round the outside just to go to the toilets,you couldn`t move inside Then it kicked off and we didn`t come down until way after the last number had finished. Crowd surfing,moshing,you name it,we had it all that nite.I`ve got no pics from that nite,but Phil has some cam-corder footage somewhere. I have never played a gig like it and probably wont again.It was the best ever. We had arrived,we had the sound,we had the following and we had a saying...EVERYBODY SAY ARSE |
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6..The Legend Grow`s After that gig we had the confidence to go out and get more.We found loads of pubs eager to rebook us after we played there once. Complete gig history for 2001: 1.Coach & Horses-Jan 27 2.Saracens Head-May 19 3.Fleur De Leys-Jun 16 4.Wheatsheaf-Jun 30 5.Saracens Head-July 14 6.Beech Towers-July 21 7.Fleur De Leys-Aug 26 8.Saracens Head-Sept 6 9.Maltsters-Sept 22 10.Saracens Head-Oct 13 11.Wheatsheaf-Oct 21 12.Maltsters-Oct 27 13.Wheatsheaf-Nov 3 14.Saracens Head-Nov 24 15.Embryo`s-Dec 6 16.Maltsters-Dec 8 17.Fleur de Leys-Dec 29 |
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7..A Good Year For The Rose`s Things got better when Brian and Karen took over the Sarey`s.Free rehearsal`s,a cellar to keep the band kit in and free beer after practice. 2001 was to be vintage year for the band.In the early days we used to rehearse at Beechtowers,have a meal together,then go to the gig. Happy days indeed. |
