Chapter 4 - The Imaginarium 15/2/25

I pulled up to the bar and walked in to see a sea of people. So many people, I could barely move! Ok so not all of that is true, but some of it is. I walked in and saw people. Four people, not including the bar staff. Not exactly what you'd imagine on a Valentines weekend right? I'd driven through Spalding town centre to get to the venue, and it was almost like a ghost town. Perhaps people can't afford valentines days out, and want to save some money? Or perhaps it was the cold weather and rain? Or perhaps both? Who knows?

So I started to unload the car and set up the PA gear. An audience is an audience, and it can be four people, or four thousand people, I will still play to them. I've found sometimes you can have more fun playing to a smaller crowd than a bigger one. The show becomes a lot more personal in a way.

So by half 9 I was set up and ready to go. By now another table of two had come in, a whole 6 people, this is getting crazy now! I opened with my usual song of Air Hostess by Busted. By the end of a song, another group of six people came in. We're now at a dozen people! Wow! This needs to calm down now! haha. I recognised three members of the group, who had been in just before the Christmas in 2024. They were big fans of Blink-182/McFly/Green Day, to name a few. When they came last time, they had asked for a particular McFly song - "Falling In Love" which is my absolute favourite McFly song. (See the post to the right). So, I made a joke of how I remembered them from last time, and how they wanted this song, which embarassed them nicely! But, as I said, it's my favourite song by McFly so it would be rude not to play it again right? Plus, the song is called Falling In Love, if you can play a song about falling in love during Valentine's weekend, when can you play it?

The rest of the gig went on as it usually does at the Imaginarium. The club up stairs was having Russian night, and so the dance room above the bar was open. It helped offer some really great interlude music between my songs, and also the chance to do some Dad Dancing (see to the left).

Some singing along from people, a random person coming in who had maybe had one lemonade too many and was swiftly asked to leave, and of course some jokes. I made one joke that although me and the bar staff found funny, it seemed to fall on deaf ears with the crowd. Maybe they didn't get ot? Maybe it was too rude? I dunno.

In short (and I will be keeping this as clean as possible), and i'm going to change the word to "CLUCK CHAIR", so hopefully people who know, will understand what im saying. There was a large chair left at the side of where I was playing, literally next to me the whole night. There's a running joke that all hotels come with a "Cluck Chair" for people to sit on and watch as people... wrestle. Anyway, I made a joke about if anyone wanted to come sit in this Cluck Chair and watch me up close? The bar staff laughed, i laughed, the audience was a mixture of faces who didn't understand, and I think people who thought it a bit too rude. When you grow up listening and watching Blink-182, I guess this kind of childish/toilet humour is the norm. So anyway, we very quickly moved on from the joke, and it was never mentioned again. I just played with my empty chair next to me. If you looked closely in the Dad Dancing clip, or the Mambo Number clip (below) you can see said Cluck Chair in the bottom of the frame!

The gig carried on and a few people came and went, and by 11 there was a table of two to my right who had been there since the start, and a table of four to me left. Eventually the table of two left and it was me with the table of four. They were mostly chatting to themselves but listening in at times. They asked if could play Wicked, so i did a quick rendition of Defying Gravity to destroy what was left of my voice at the 2 hour gig. Just as the show was coming to an end, we got visited by another very drunk person. I had just played "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk The Moon, and he said to me:

"That is not your song"

To which I replied

"You're right, it's not. It's by another band called Walk The Moon"

He then said

"No, I mean, it's not YOUR song, you're not feeling it, when singing it"

So I finished by saying

"Well, I have been playing since about 21:30 so I'm a bit tired now"

Not quite sure what he meant? It's a song about pulling a girl randomly in a club isn't it? What does he mean not feeling it? There's 5 people in the room at this point! Did he want me to walk up to one of them sing it in their face in the hopes they turn and start dancing with me? Who knows?!

Anyway, I think he may have been friends with the previous guy who came in and got kicked out. They were dressed very similarly, and had a similar look. Not to judge a book by it's cover of course! But I like to think they went out that night together, got seperated, and then found each other again at 3am in the chippy. Exchanging stories of where they had been that night!

The gig ended and I shared a hot chocolate with one of the bar staff, which seems to have become our tradition. I packed up my gear and the loaded that car. Staying for a bit longer to chat to the staff while they closed up. Then at 1:30am, I headed home and slept like a log!

Thanks for reading, see you in the next Chronicles of Cardiac Carl!