| The Parody�s first live performance (Red Nose Day): It�s Tim�s birthday, March 16th 2001 and it�s the day The Parody will be delivering their first live performance. In aid of Comic Relief, Sheldon School organises a fund-raising rock concert for any bands or solo acts to play or sing in. As always we�re kept in the dark about this concert, not knowing when we should go on, but we leave lessons early to set up our equipment. Then we�re standing there at the side of the stage watching the hoards of people flood though the hall doors and that�s when my nerves go, I start to sweat all over, but I�m still very excited. Everyone�s in now and an organiser tells us we�re on first, shit! My hands were shaking, I had difficulty in picking up my guitar. All the other guys looked pretty confident, but I could hardly remember the chords I was meant to play. I turned on my tiny 10 watt amp and turned the volume down due to my lack of confidence, Tom looked very nervous too but that would change after the song. Before we played, a group of Tim�s female fans, including his now-girlfriend Michelle sang him Happy Birthday and he began playing Old Macdonald had a farm on his bass and was joined by friend and fellow musician Nat who played along at the side of the stage on guitar. As the front row kids cheer I looked at Ash and he started playing the opening riff for The Offspring�s, �The Kids Aren�t Alright�. I stood motionless strumming my guitar out of time and out of tune, staring at the floor and occasionally glancing at the crowd. Ash, Tim and Tom were singing although without a monitor so only the crowd could hear them and not themselves and Adam was confidently bashing his drums behind us all. The song finished and we quickly ran off the stage, the crowd seemed to enjoy it though. Around 300 people were clapping and cheering at our performance so we must have done something right. Tom enjoyed it too, he was running around backstage with a transfixed smile pleading to go back on and play �All The Small things�, but we didn�t. The notable group of that lunchtime, however was �Volatile� led by Tim Dawber. They showed us up a treat with their incredible blend of heavy-metal/punk noise. They rocked. After lunch, we received a lot of praise form our friends and people in our year group. We felt fucking popular, like rock stars, it was great. If only we could see we were be praised by most people for playing a popular song and not for being a good punk-rock band. |