I often walk down Memory Lane...

The last ever (public) Freakishly Long Mirrors gig took place last Thursday night, and despite a poor turnout from the Oxford contingent (considering it is a different town, not exactly unexpected) there were plenty of people there to sample the very best that we had to offer.

Ok, so it wasn't our most polished performance, there were a few duff notes and some misplaced drumbeats and a little of the singing and timing wasn't quite of the higest quality, but the most important thing was that for all five members of the band there were friends and family present, as well as curious punters from the street present to see what was going on.

First up, all credit to Fat Lils. They've been good to our band, and pretty much every band I've ever seen there by allowing very decent length sets, flexibility and a special sectionned off area dedicated to musicians high-value belongings. The lights were fantastic and the sound crisp and clear, and despite the fact the soundcheck started really late for whatever reason, the whole thing was an excellent experience from start to finish.

Beaver Fuel were on first, and they rattled through their fun filled punk set with about as much professionalism as a Sun journalist, but the whole thing was brilliant fun, musically sound and with stomping tunes I find it hard to believe they're one of the more critisized bands in the county. Maybe Oxford music has to be deadly serious to be considered "good". Well, no matter, I've worked with the guys before and they're a proud and friendly bunch, and considering I could only hear them from behind the door at the On a Thursday gig last month, it was a pleasure to see them live.

Headcount on next and they were tighter and more polished than Beaver Fuel, but altogether less fun. I got the impression they knew what they were doing more, but were concentrating so hard on getting it right their stage presence lacked and the whole performance just started, brushed through the middle and ended without anyone really realising they'd ever been on stage. Certainly not a bad band, but there just seemed to be somethiong missing.

As for us. Well, we weren't at our best. There were more mistakes in our set than either the other two, especially the end of One Vision, but the whole thing was an enormous amount of fun. People seemed to be really into what we were doing, and altogether it seemed to be a brilliant sendoff for the band that will become General Alcatraz in its newest incarnation over the course of the rest of the year.

Once we'd ploughed through 8 of our own songs, we roadtested some of the covers that we're showcasing at the Anniversary Party in July (private gig only), just to see what they sounded like live, which gave me my first live vocal performace since the Lighthouse open mike night and my cover of Coldplays "Don't Panic" with guest Reg Anderson in 2005 (the karaoke of "Without Me" at the staff Xmas party two years ago doesn't count). My sister decided to record this (and a few other songs) and the results are below in the setlist. I missed a few notes, but felt it was ok.

*****

The setlist was:

Mosquito

Together we Stand
Towpaths
What have I become?
Artificial Light
The Leaves Turn Brown

Titan
Falling Down (solo acoustic)
20th Century Boy

One Vision (slightly murdered. Sorry)

Boys are Back in Town

*****

Robs solo version of Falling Down was a real moment. It was the first time I realised that this band was coming to an end. Even though four of us are continuing on to do something new, Robs departure is a huge blow for us. But with that said, I'm confident that we put the old songs to bed well. Some songs didn't get a final outing (Village Bells, I Recall and Following Dreams being the main three), but with a set that spanned the entire time that Grundy and I have been there, we felt it was a fitting tribute to let Rob play the last FLM song solo before moving onto the covers.

We don't know yet what we're doing with the old songs. I think personally Together We Stand, Falling Down and I Recall need to be put to bed for good. They're great songs but there's only one person left in the band involved in writing them, and that means we're one person off being the new Sugababes. And no-one wants that. The songs from the second demo (Artificial Light, Titan and Following Dreams) I don't know. I would like to keep them, but there's only two of the four remaining people left involved in writing those too. As for Towpaths, that was Grundys song from multiple previous bands so I think we'll keep that, and I'll be disappointed if Leaves Turn Brown doesn't have a future. There's also a few new songs we'd started writing months ago but never got around to finishing which could feature ("Labrats" the only one with a name as yet, and I'm working on a project called "Burn"), but it's all up in the air. No one yet knows, least of all us.

So goodbye FLM. Keep fighting them in the trenches.