The ‘Hogg play the Roebuck.

Well , where do you start with this one ? Its been a run of outrageous gigs and sometimes I feel as though I’m making things up on these reviews but believe me there is always an element of truth ?!?!?! So , I’m first in and meet up with the guys from Greene King , today they will sponsor me……….
I’m fresh today and after yesterdays exploits at the Bike fest Trudy is demanding that she drives and touches no alcohol what so ever !!! Ok , I can cope with that. Set up includes me sound checking the drums as Charl is still at work , don’t think I impressed anybody but I am only on my 4th lesson. Me and Matt are getting excited about the Abbot , a little bit like 2 kids at Christmas , all a little sad really but who cares. Dave has returned the Frampton CD and made a really crap job of covering up the fact he thought it was rubbish ! Oh well , he does like Iron Maiden ????? After a bit of Bike fest chat Steve dropped a great comment , ‘at least in this band there’s no drug use’ LOL !!!!
Anyway , cut the waffle , on come the band , couple of numbers in and the fatigue of 20 shows in 4 weeks starts to take its toll , no set list , well played Dave , lets bumble on then !!! The Abbot is going down nicely , I keep getting the nod from the sponsors, Matt’s cleaned a few up as well. Half time comes round and Si offers to buy at the BBQ on the rain terrace. Now , when I was 13 I used to try and impress my Dad by doing daft things like eating mustard or horse radish neat , well , bring on Si and Matt with the burgers , Matt had every relish possible on his and Si had half the pot of chilli relish on his , is it called attention seeking ?????
Second set gets under way , crowd happy with the show , couple of Charls mates propping up the bar , it basically flies by for me and all of a sudden the band are off !! Well played indeed after the slog of the previous day , don’t know how Si and Charl in particular pulled through . So a few beers are flying around , I’m sure I pulled a managers beer yet again , Si is driving so rather than drinking and spilling , drinking and spilling he is twiddling around with some riffs and that riff comes up that nobody is allowed to play in a guitar shop , ‘Smoke on the water’ , Matt orders the band back on stage for a totally off the cuff version , its all too much for me and I climb on a stool and do the ‘Rog has had plenty of Abbot , arm in the air thing’ !! Crazy train next and some others I can’t remember , the Roebuck is having its socks rocked off !! I think I maybe exposing my lean stomach at some point , (proud of it , paid for) , don’t even know whether there was 20 or 120 in the house at this point. After the impromptu 3rd set there were more beers and all of a sudden from absolutely nowhere me and Kim are doing the ‘tonsil hockey’ thing , how did that happen , did I think I was back at school again behind the bike sheds , were we encouraged ??? Don’t remember agreeing this with the Greene King people , did Matt do some kind of voodoo on us ?? Noooooo , what now , Ian’s pursed his lips and is heading for Trudy , Christ , the ‘hangers on’ are swingin’ !!!!!!!! Clair is inconsolable , how embarrassing for her , 2 gigs back her parents sit it out with a bag on and now look , Matt adopts her for the rest of the night !! Charls fine with it all , she is so hammered she hasn’t noticed !!! The internal paparazzi are on mine and Kims case , these pics could well be all over the internet tomorrow !?!?! Think it was 23:00 when we left after a 17:30 gig , outrageous !! A medal to Trudy for not filing for divorce. A medal to Julie and Martin for putting up with us ! A medal to Trudy for not killing me and Charl as we showed no interest what so ever in packing the drums away ! A truly great night , if Carlsberg did gigs they wouldn’t this good, this was an Abbot gig!!!!!