After hours live provides live entertainment with a Twist of Faith and is run by Matt who arranges the artists throughout the year. Artists come to The Octavia in Wisbech to talk about their story of faith and how it has enchanted and shaped their lives whilst performing original tracks to an attentive audience once a month. I’m not big into preaching, nor do I like being preached to as we are quite private when it comes to our spiritual beliefs, so this was right up our street and something we definitely wanted to be involved with. Getting to Wisbech a twin county I might add (yes that would have been handy for the Sing For Your Supper Tour last year) was a challenge in itself.
We had started the morning by travelling from Liverpool to Wisbech via the M62 up to Yorkshire that had proved very busy and almost dangerous at one point. Getting over to the A1m and then traveling right down towards Cambridgeshire proved difficult. As soon as we joined the A1 from an already heavily used M62 we instantly got stuck in a turn your engine off and get the ukelele out traffic jam. Having just returned from a tour where the M62 was shut following an overturned lorry shedding it’s load, we had hoped that this journey would be plain sailing. How wrong were we. As we waited in the traffic jam in the intense heat wave, a patch of sunlight was sitting right on the accelerator on the van and intensifying the heat on Andys driving foot. His foot was already sun burnt (following the previous weeks weather) and it was making it feel burnt even more and there’s not really much you can do when you have to have your foot there. Obviously this made me laugh (very loudly at times) but I helped how I could trying to find something to cover his foot up, and the towel covering his foot then made his foot sweat, ha ha it was one of those strange little impossible predicaments that life throws at you, it did keep me entertained for a while in the traffic jam. Andy kept wishing a HGV would pull up besides him to divert the sun, but it wasn’t happening. It was exceptionally hot though and the traffic wasn’t moving unlike the clock which was moving fast against us. It was the middle of the afternoon and we needed to be in Wisbech in a few hours, we normally allow for traffic, but nothing like this, as we looked on ahead it seemed to go on for miles.
Luckily we found a shortcut around the traffic cutting out much of the jammed up A1. 6 hours later we arrived just in time found the car park and walked round to a sign that said Octavia. When we approached the sign it was the wrong one and carrying the cumbersome equipment meant we would have to ask where to go, luckily a landlord from a pub showed us the way and let us walk through the pub to shortcut our way round, he pointed us in the right direction and we thanked him and hurried over to the Octavia Cafe. Typically we had done a full circle with the equipment only to find we were parked opposite where we needed to be in the first place.
Once we arrived we met Matt who had been waiting on our arrival, we introduced ourselves and he set us up with everything we needed including a large fan blowing on us that was most welcomed after that traffic jam. The cafe itself was upstairs and is part of a larger building that provides shelter for the homeless as well as social support for people in need, it’s a great idea and stops homeless people sleeping rough. Our performance was due to start and folk had been pouring in to sit and listen to the music. This was a listening audience and as we had a faith story to tell we thought we could tie the story in with the meaning begin the songs. Our own songs and personal circumstances were inexplicably linked to the music and this provided a focal point for us to communicate to our audience. I think its the first time I’ve been able to talk about where our songs have come from to an audience and it was enlightening. All the songs I’ve written have meaning behind them, whether they are about other people or myself, yet I’ve never really talked about it in depth.
It felt so nice to have an attentive audience to listen to your music and our story, a lady prayed for us in the break, praying for safety and prosperity in what we do, I think she felt a bit nervous when she asked if she could pray for us, but to be honest positive energy and beautiful words can sometimes just be the tonic you need, whether you know it or not. We also sold over 15 CD’s and people were fascinated with our story behind the music and thanked us for being so open and honest about our circumstances. It was quite emotional at times as the past was brought to light with stories of struggle and stepping out in faith. It was a fantastic gig and we would love more like it, our audience understood and respected us, we were not judged on our past and when someone tells you that they want your CD because your music has touched them, as cheesy as it sounds that’s all I could ever wish for.
As we wrapped up our last few songs in the set Matt thanked us for coming and we chatted to the folk for coming over, hopefully out story might help steer someone into faith through an Alpha Course or perhaps it will strengthen their existing faith we hope so, because to be honest admitting you have a faith can be the scariest of things as there is always a fear of being judged by others.
Once we took our equipment down we gave Matt a lift with his gear and then packed our stuff up in the van. It was a late finish and meant finding a MOTO near Derby and driving through the early hours of the morning for our next gig in Derby. Drive on machine, drive on. Thanks to Matt and all at Octavia Cafe for making us feel so welcome and keep up the good work x