And so… We went to Church… Following the wonderful betwixtmas ELO event January got under way – back to work and the routine of life and work was back to normal. At the end of the first week Graham emailed me for some final promotion details the magnitude of the Tubular Bells event hit me big time – Eventbrite was almost full and I was franticlly looking for any potential places we could squeeze a few more places!
THEN we were in dangerous audio territory, oh dear… Remember although a vast selection of equipment is in the CPVA arsenal it is intended for lounges – although large and suddenly a week before I am bricking it.
The anxiety was sky-high and Jill (knows how to handle my panic after 36 years!) said take a few hours out and set up a system as you plan a couple of days before then you can twiddle and swap if needed what a plan!
Wednesday before at 10.30am prompt up I trundle at Kirkby with a Touareg bulging and on its axles with gear to meet John, Jim & Andy from the VS team plus long-standing mate Mike Merrick – pure genius and fellow of the vintage audio fellowship.
The original plan went a dream and with a bit of a cheat from Mike we added a pair of ¼ wave transmission lines to a 200w Sony beast – now over 500 real watts on the table and sat listening to our own private rendition for half an hour. We had cracked it, a quick room plot with a spectrum analyser led me to concede to a graphic EQ to trim some resonance (oh no please) but wow – magnificent sound you could feel at the back of the room.
On Friday we rolled up, the girls had everything in place and Ann brought a pop up café! Kate at The Shoulder opened a bit early and all tables were full, within an hour we were up and running – in came over 140 guests – still with beer from the pub and after a quick round up we were off.
I warmed up the crowd and a rather nervous Graham Chalmers lead the album profile then dropped the needle and retired to the back, fingers crossed!!!
Karen ran up with a summary half way through – at that stage we had raised just over £1100 before gift aid and wow our original £10,000 target 18 months back was done, still more plus a corporate donation took us to circa £2700 for Friday, Andy will have the total with gift aid confirmed shortly.
It is a night many will remember, so amazing was the sound and ambience of the building some guests became quite emotional – it was a surreal experience.
Having skipped tea a trip to Mc Donald’s drive through at King James was needed and at 11.30pm we reflected on the evening’s fun while watching the local night wild-life at play before returning to the cold the tranquility of Nidderdale at night!
Will I finish Vinylsessions in May – No!
Will we go to church again this year – YES!
Thanks for all the amazing support – you all make it worth it.