Gigs: The Water Rats

I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!

Back in January of 2011 we had the pleasure of playing at the world famous Water Rats Theatre in Kings Cross, North London. Bob Dylan and…ummm…Katy Perry are some of the illustrious luminaries to have taken the stage there. In all seriousness though, it’s a venue with a lot of history, so getting an opportunity to hit that stage was one we had to grab hold of with both hands.

There were issues on the night that were out of our control meaning that, for the first time in our gigging career, we weren’t afforded a sound check. This was the first time we’d encountered this problem (though not the last!), and in true FROM THE ASHES style we used it to spur us on to a higher level of performance. We came on and delivered an absolute barnstormer of a show, full of high energy and the occasional improvsied blues jam (the sort of thing you have to do when one of the guitarist breaks three strings on his guitar at the same time!).

This night was also the celebration of the illustrious birth of a good friend of ours, and as part of the festivities she joined us on stage for the last song of the set. She unleashed on us the most epic of cowbell solos, and gave us the best possible start to our gigs in 2011.