23rd January 1999 - The RAFA Club - Penrith

What more could you ask for I wrote at the end of the Mary Casies review....Well this actually!! Wipeout's best gig to date. There was something for everyone at the RAFA club. With the visit to the club by the Carlisle branch it was made extra special for BeeJay (he's a member of the Carlisle Branch you see!!) The audience was magnificent, we were made very welcome and when we're made welcome we work harder still! The audience did not want to stop dancing and we did not want to stop playing. We played our normal set and a more Troggs version of wild thing this time and it still worked. Because of the physical location BeeJay used the Peavey amp this time as it's easier to carry upstairs but really the Twin would have been better suited. Mike's run of bad luck continued by snapping another string on his main strat, again early on in the first set but this time the 25th anniversary strat came to the rescue to bail us out until the break, but what a difference in the sound between the two guitars, you would not believe they were both the same type of guitar at all. Confidence within the band is obviously rising as the communication with the audience is better each time. The vocals sounded particularly good this time with some excellent harmony work from both Mike and Laurie and more control from BeeJay. Not only is the vocals a big improvement but the rappore within the band when on stage helped make this a memorable night for all. Yes there were mistakes but few, and the ones that were made were countered by some excellent music, and lets face it even the likes of Clapton make mistakes...and he put it out on video!!!

30th January 1999 - Fletchertown Social Club

Another Great Night! We were told that the club was a little wood hut, with excellent access and a so so audience. Yes, Yes, NO. the audience were absolutely superb, giving us one of the best receptions we have ever had. And when we have a good audience....we have a great night. We play the songs that people enjoy and we get the rewards by their reaction. An unusual night in having 3 sets, 1 forty five minute and 2 half hours. This really worked well as our Rock'n'Roll second set sounded much better split. Votes at the end of the evening...4 to 0 thought that the venue, access and audience were amongst the best we've played at/to 3 to 1 thought that this was our best gig ever with only BeeJay going against the vote (he thought the RAFA club was with this a VERY close second). It seemed to apppeal to the club to...they booked us again for June and September see our gigs page for details. Luckily this time Mike did not break any strings.....he broke a plectrum!! Laurie tried out BeeJay's new Trace Eliot SM150 bass Amp with excellent results!

31st January 1999 - St Margaret Mary's Social Club - Upperby

Notice the word at the end of the line above? UPPERBY, so what? you ask, Well I had been told, by many people that this club was in CURROCK so when I welcomed everyone to our evening at Currock I was nearly lynched!!! Never mind. The differences between this gig and the one the night before at Fletchertown were amazing!! The stage was much smaller but deeper, the room was plush and the crowd less responsive. Don't get me wrong the crowd were having a ball but there was NO dancing in the first set at all! And was it hot!! We have never played under such hot stage lights before with poor Charlie almost collapsing by the end of the second set, that guy really works at his music and it takes it's toll by the end of the evening. With the slow start we think it upset our confidence, we played well...very well, better infact than the gigs at the beginning of this month but not up to OUR current standard and we all agreed that this was not one of our best performances. Isn't it funny how your standards change? this time last month we would have been raving about how good we were by a performance like this one, now it's just OK

12th February - Down-a-gate, Warwick Bridge

This weekend was destined to be difficult from the start. Charlie phoned up to say that he was loaded with flu and probably would not be playing at his best. When he came along he looked like death warmed up, he was ill. Now I have always said that professionalism is an attitude some have it, some don't. Charlie cirtainly is a professional he played his heart out to a very sparse audience on a difficult night. We had altered the set slightly to alow him a small amount of leeway but some physically demanding tracks had to be played and Charlie did not let us down. By rights we should have cancelled and we would have been totally justified in doing so but the fact that we did not was totally down to Charlie's total professionalism!

13th February - Irthing Centre - Brampton

The night we have all dreaded Charlie too ill to make it!! If you look at the previous gigs review then you sould see just how bad Charlie was. I think I'm fair in saying that if any of the rest of the band was ill we could probably make it as a three piece, Laurie could do a reasonable job at BeeJay's work, BeeJay could do a pretty good job for Mike or Laurie etc. We'd get by!! but Charlie...well that's another matter. Now we have NEVER missed a gig yet and we still have not. We decided not to charge but we still delivered almost four hours entertainment. Many thanks to Tim McVittie and Jerry King for giving up their time to deputise in the band for the night. Again a very poor attendance spoiled it for the locals though!

27th March - Penrith Golf Club

It's been a difficult period. The low feeling that we all felt after the Downagate and Brampton gigs left us feeling bad. The break didn't help to boost morale either as practicing new songs without being able to play them live is soul destroying. We came along to the golf club nervous for the first time in months. How would we do? Are we going to be too rusty? Well we set up and had to wait for the meal to finish which seemed to take ages. We could not do a soundcheck for fear of interfering with the meal next door (unprofessional) so we set up the best we could. An unusual but pleasant room both acoustically and layout wise. The gig got underway and we immediately relaxed back into the act. The nerves disappeared and we had a great night. The audience were fabulous giving us a great reception and joining in with the sprirt of the show. We obviously did well, the compliments we recieved were greatly appreciated and they even asked us to play at the clubs President's evening in November which is their BIG night of the year, we of course said yes.