Rehearsal Diaries: Alexandra Hotel

Rehearsal Diary: 20/03/26

This was our first proper rehearsal, and this is for a gig at the Alexandra Hotel Pub in Withernsea on the 25th April, so we have about a month to nail this set which is a little bit tight but possible if the band communicate and work well with one another. What we have and know already sounds very strong.

We went through Don't Stop Believin', Sex on Fire and The Pretender. Don't Stop Believin' sounded like our best and one we were clearly the most confident in. Sex on Fire also sounded great however there were a few issues with Alfie's vocal timing that meant we had to restart the song a few times. I need to work on Pretender as it is a very difficult and fast song. I had to play the song with Songster in the background. For the next rehearsal, I will have this song learned and complete. I will focus on that song during independent practices.

Rehearsal Diary: 24/03/26

This was a full day rehearsal. I spent a majority of first period running through the full set before the entire band joined the rehearsal. I had a rough idea of what to play for each song. The songs we mainly went through were Money For Nothing, The Pretender, Holiday, and Don't Stop Believin'. The Pretender sounded much stronger than Friday's rehearsal after I'd taken the time to break it down. Holiday and Don't Stop Believin' sounded incredible and they are near-on perfect with just a few subtle timing issues. Money For Nothing does need a bit of work with the drum solo at the start and Declan's guitar tone sounded a bit sloppy for a song as exciting as that. It is our opener, so a lot needs to be done to make that one specifically sound exceptional. All I really need to do drum-wise is to keep running through the set on my own as I have been doing then bring that knowledge with me to the rehearsal. As a manager and organizer, I need to make sure everyone listens to the set as that is where out issues lay which causes several issues during the rehearsal, especially timing.

Rehearsal Diary: 26/03/26

This rehearsal was where we got our first recording of a song we are happy with. We recorded Don't Stop Believin' and that was the song we really tried to drill down as it is now very close to being perfect. It is now my goal to have at least one video of a rehearsal each week as the songs are starting to improve. As well as Don't Stop Believin', we practiced Holiday which was another one that sounded great after Alfie started to understand the timing in the bridge. There weren't many problems that came from this rehearsal besides how long it took for us to set up; I would like that to improve. Declan took his time to make sure his guitar sounded right, we repeated parts that needed work to fix timing or other errors and overall this produced a very successful rehearsal to me. Furthermore, this rehearsal was done in C7 unlike the other two which were in a different room. Using C7 meant that I could get more knowledge on setting up a live band which is one of the skills in my audit that I would like to improve upon.

Don't Stop Believin' ^^^^^

Our next rehearsal has been booked in The Warren over Easter. Alfie is unavailable for this rehearsal so we are using this to focus Under Pressure and The Chain for Jess to sing and focusing on the overall instrumentation for each song in the set. It is a crucial rehearsal.

Rehearsal Diary: 30/03/26

This rehearsal was at The Warren and featured no Alfie. For this rehearsal we mainly focused on The Chain and Under Pressure as they are songs that Jess sings who was available to make it to that rehearsal. We also used this time to prepare the instrumentation side of the set for a much better timing. I felt inspired to change up The Chain as the song doesn't have much included in it: for the outro we decided to add another buildup but this time entered a halftime breakdown which to me works as a great switch-up and matches the vibe of our hard rock band compared to the very soft rock song that is The Chain. Furthermore, we had a look at Creep which we were originally supposed to scrap until we attempted to try it with Jess on vocals which worked way better than having Alfie on vocals for that song so we ended up deciding to keep it on the set. Finally, we spent this time to fix instrumentation and timing for songs with instrumentals, a key one being Money For Nothing as the intro sounded very choppy to me; whether that was to do with Declan's amp settings not matching the song or the intro just lacking the correct instrumentation and overall vibe to it. Either way, we decided to work on that for a large majority of the rehearsal which helped a little bit more as Declan had sound a better sound for the iconic riff and I had figured out how to start the song and transition from the drum solo to the guitar riff.

This rehearsal was very tricky without Alfie as there were a majority of songs that we couldn't get right regardless because of Alfie missing in action so it was mainly a rehearsal for experimentation and finding out what works and what didn't work. For example, adding that half time breakdown was because of this rehearsal as well as Jess being on vocals and the possibility of removing/swapping out some different songs.

Next rehearsal will be on the 13th at The Warren again but this time with Alfie on vocals, another crucial one to figure out a final set on what we want and what might be deemed too ambitious for us to play in a small amount of time; the gig is round the corner now and nerves are high. I would have liked to do it next week but The Warren is fully booked.

Rehearsal Diary: 13/04/26

This rehearsal was done at The Warren with all 5 of us this time. We spent it going through the set one-by-one in order and honestly it went quite well in my opinion as we did start to fly through the songs with very few errors instrumentally by the end of the rehearsal. There were several slip-ups however from Alfie which in my view just isn't good enough for how little of time we have now before the gig, a huge problem with this set is that Alfie won't listen to the songs and therefore won't learn lyrics which is a huge stress factor for me if I want this gig to go well. There was progress musically but not vocally, if anything it felt like a step back vocally as there were songs that Alfie previously did well in such as The Pretender where he seemingly forgot where to come in and kept coming in at the wrong time which through us off time instrumentally which proves to me he hasn't listened to the set much during the Easter which we ideally would've wanted. However, there are more songs that are perfect and don't need much work to them now besides practice just to remember what we play. For example: Holiday, Don't Stop Believin', Under Pressure, The Chain and Hold the Line sound incredible to me now and these will be recorded during future rehearsals once we break down some other songs which we are doing for the rest of this week. The Middle also sounds very strong which has impressed me a lot considering that song was a late replacement, however I would like to work on it's timing just a little bit more to completely solidify it.

This was a very strong rehearsal for me despite the moments from Alfie which he really needs to work on: we have more songs that sound great compared to last rehearsal with the band (there are songs that don't sound bad but aren't necessarily there for me yet and other songs which sound genuinely bad such as Rebel Yell and The Trooper).

We are rehearsing all week this week to break down every song that needs work until they sound exactly how they should: I do believe we are below target for this set but only barely. I will be grouping next week's rehearsal into one diary as they each focus on the same idea to improve the sound of the set.

Rehearsal Diary: 14-17/04/26

These few rehearsals were a very mixed bag for me. We didn't rehearse for as long as I would've ideally liked with Will and Jess mostly doing their own college related things and Alfie still not knowing lyrics. Me and Declan felt like the only ones who were there for the full rehearsals each day, although I don't have much worry for Will and Jess, Alfie really needs to be there for the full rehearsals. Tuesday and Wednesday really weren't there for me and felt like a major step back with lyrics being forgotten once again, guitar lines being butchered or me sometimes getting lost in song structure. Tuesday and Wednesday felt like all our progress from previous rehearsals had gone to nothing, there wasn't anything great to come off of from those rehearsals compared to Monday. Furthermore, Alfie, Will and Jess weren't really present during Wednesday's rehearsal which isn't helpful vocals-wise which are very behind, though it did help me and Declan work out and break down the guitar for Since You Been Gone, Cum on Feel the Noize and More Than a Feeling which do sound great to me now.

Thursday was okay rehearsal-wise, it was nowhere near as bad and stressful as Tuesday and Wednesday and we spent our lessons on Thursday breaking down Rebel Yell which is our worst song by miles. We repeated verses, instrumental breaks and other sections of the song until we got it right. There is still room to work on for this song but it is sounding better than it ever has before; the method of breaking the songs down section by section really works. Finally, Friday which is our busiest day on the timetable, gave us a lot of time to rehearse which we did. We went through the songs that really needed work. We focused more on Rebel Yell, Cum on Feel the Noize, Since You Been Gone and more than a feeling and made the decision to remove the solo in Since You Been Gone as we simply didn't have the time to import it in as Declan needed to focus on the other, more difficult songs in the setlist that needed full attention i.e Money For Nothing which I also believe still needs work guitar wise. 

However, Friday was by far our best and most productive rehearsal and the songs listed haven't sounded better since so it proves to me that we have been working hard and there is a lot of work done since our first rehearsal. The only problem coming from all of these rehearsals is that Alfie is still behind with remembering lyrics, and it is getting to a point where we are considering letting him use a phone stand; while it doesn't look the most professional and is something you would never see at The Adelphi or Polar Bear, I feel we could get away with using one at a pub as most pub singers I have seen use phone stands for their lyrics, and on top of that, I would much rather Alfie be confident in what he sings then to forget the lyrics and panic on stage.

This coming week is the home stretch for this gig and will consist of my last rehearsal diaries and some recordings and photos from rehearsals for this gig before moving onto rehearsals and research for The Polar Bear and Tamarix Lodge for the teenage and elderly-focused gigs. We are breaking down every song in the set and going through them one-by-one as it is our final chance to get everything completely right.

Rehearsal Diary: 21/05/26

For this rehearsal, we were unfortunately in Rats which is the smallest of the rehearsal rooms and consists of a very dodgy electric kit which wasn't really cutting it for me. This was a very short and sweet rehearsal however where we went through the first half as best we could despite how challenging that room is to use (the surfaces on the e-kit are very small and hard to do fills in). We only rehearsed for first period as I wanted to gather some research by interviewing peers during the next period. There was definitely a little bit of progress, and only small slip-ups on the guitar which shouldn't be there at this stage of rehearsals but is nothing that can't be fixed by breaking down sections Declan may be struggling with. Alfie still needed lyrics in front of him but he tried his best to use his lyrical prompts as little as possible which is also a sign of progress. Another reason we didn't use the next period to rehearse was because we all agreed that Alfie should use this lesson to try remember lyrics and the melody to each song which therefore helps us stay in time. Hopefully tomorrow we are able to go through the entire set without stopping and restarting as much.

Rehearsal Diary: 22/05/26

This has the chance to be our penultimate rehearsal due to a college trip tomorrow and Saturday having equipment and rehearsal space unavailability. The change from Tuesday to today however was drastic and I think letting Alfie use that time at the end of yesterday seriously paid off, on top of that, we are much more comfortable in the main rehearsal room of C7. The songs that he couldn't sing well such as Pretender suddenly started sounding like one of our best songs. We flew through the first half, only needing to stop and restart a few times due to subtle errors that still didn't sit right with me regardless such as in Livin' On a Prayer where either Jess came in too early for the verse or I came in too late (it was hard to tell) and Since You Been Gone which did need a little bit of time to go through and break down again. The 2nd half was a little bit less powerful than the 1st half though it wasn't anyone's fault in particular, we just needed to break down More Than A Feeling properly as Declan had forgotten an instrumental section and I missed out a verse. The structure was all over the place for that song.

Since we only had one lesson to rehearse and the set is an hour and a half itself, we unfortunately didn't manage to go through the set fully and needing to stop at Hold The Line. 12 songs that sound up to it though is a great place to be come Friday which will be our final rehearsal, and another almost-full timetable day which is plenty of time to go through the rest of the 2nd half and maybe even the full set once more. We had also managed to get plenty of photos and videos from this particular rehearsal which is something I should have documented more for this gig.

  Zombie

 Livin' On a Prayer

 The Chain

The Chain (halftime)

Tomorrow is our final rehearsal and the final rehearsal of this entire log. We will be going through the set one more time.

Rehearsal Diary: 24/04/26

This was our final rehearsal for the pub section of Gigs4Generations with the gig round the corner now tomorrow and there were several positives and negatives to come from it. I'll start with the negatives: so we hadn't had much rehearsal time during 1st period, and to add onto that, we weren't able to be in C7 which is our preferred practice room, instead being sent to Rats, a much smaller room with an electric kit which I am not a big fan of playing. However, we fought through the room difficulty situation with there only being around 20-30 minutes left of the period at that point. We spent a majority of the lesson focusing on sections of specific songs rather than full songs as a way to break them down. For example, we went through the intro for Money for Nothing, parts of Rebel Yell and then played where we left off from last rehearsal being Hold the Line and Don't Stop Believin'. By the time we had finished that, the lesson was over and it was time for lunch, where had C7 back and set up in there to actually run through full songs from start to finish. We spent a period of lunch going through the 2nd half of the set, given we had played our first half yesterday, and our 2nd half was much more difficult. We flew through Holiday, which is one of our easiest and best sounding songs, then made it to Rebel Yell, by far the song everyone had the most trouble with. We spent the rest of lunch trying to perfect Rebel Yell, and it did sound a lot better but problems arose within the next 2 periods. There was a rearrangement happening in C7, with a stage being set up in there and equipment being shuffled around which hindered time a little bit as it took plenty of time moving everything about, then waiting to be able to set up in C7 again (Rats was already taken at this point). Once we finally had the chance to set up in C7 after setting up a new PA with help from Lewis, we went through Rebel Yell a few more times before playing the remainder of the set. Energy and morale was already low however, so the remainder sounded very choppy to me (barring Smells Like Teen Spirit which is another song that sounded great to me). With morale and energy low, everybody simply tried much less during the final 4 songs we still needed to run through and we all lost focus, with arguments happening throughout each song and band members getting frustrated. We did finish going through the remaining songs, but nowhere near up to the standard I would've liked and it was overall a huge negative to end the rehearsal on what was overall a positive and strongly sounding rehearsal as a whole. 

Tomorrow is the gig day, and personally my confidence isn't the highest, and the sound of the set isn't how I would like it to sound for a judgy atmosphere like a pub. I will be spending all night and morning tomorrow listening to the songs to make sure I as an individual sound good to try numb any damage from mistakes that might occur during the gig.