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Last night I’d been asked to engineer for Littlehampton Community School’s Battle of the Bands. This was mainly as ACC has a far better sound system than the school. After a morning planning everything, including printing copious amounts of paper work so that each bands settings could be restored without any problems.

The plan was to meet at 13:30 ready to get the hall set-up. Five of us, plus a few helpers from ACC, opened up the container and started wheeling equipment over to the main school hall. An hour later and it was done. Sound checks could begin.

Sound checks are an art - They’re very easy if you’re regularly playing and know what you want to hear, however if you’re not…they can be a real pain in the bottom. Having made my way through seven bands it was time to count down the hours until enough of guest band Retrofect (my real reason for being there) made it to make soundcheck possible. First Ben, then Jamie, then Joel and then, well nothing: The two final members Adam and Josh didn’t make it there in time for sound check. So I’d be doing that by the seat of my pants.

18:05 doors open. Hyperfuse on my iPod. Mood, relaxed. As the seven acts played through I was mainly controlling vocals through FoH, things were no louder than they would be at Church on a Sunday morning. Then it was time for the ‘fect. Suddenly moods switched. Desked lined up, check. Foo Fighters on, check. Blackout, check.

At the end of “The Pretender” the boys started to rock and rock they did. Ben and Josh are an incredibly tight rhythm section and although Ben seemed determined to destroy a tree’s worth of sticks and Josh hit a few dodgy notes they were still incredibly tight. Jamie’s synth and key lines resonated through the venue. Even the lighting guys seemed to be having a bit more fun as Joel sung his heart out and Adam played guitar like I’ve never seen before. And the sound well, I won’t give figures but I broke out of Sunday mode and gave it my all. It was loud, it rocked, and it felt like a gig.