Songs: A Song For The Soundcheck

notes / gigs / releases

This is a song for the soundcheck
Trying to get the levels right
It won't be a difficult soundcheck
We won't be hear all night
Can you hear the words?
Can you hear guitar?
Do they come together in song?
Then this is the end of the soundcheck
I said it wouldn't take too long

I haven't started yet
This bit is not my set
That will be coming next
This is the soundcheck

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

On Thursday 17 August 2023 I was practicing for a gig - the 20th Anniversary of Joyzine - which was coming up at the weekend. It was going to be at an all-dayer, which meant I'd probably be doing a linecheck with people around, and every time I do that I always think "I should really write a song for this eventuality, so I've got something to play that isn't in my set."

I actually DID write a song called This Is The Soundcheck for precisely these purposes some 17 years ago, but sadly it was TOO BORING to ever play, and had wandered off into other directions. However, later that evening a MUCH better version of this General Idea entered my BRANE while I was in the shower, leading to the traditional PANIC that I would forget it before I had a chance to get it written down. I thus LEAPT out, VIGOROUSLY dried myself, and the POUNCED upon a notebook to get it all written.

Next day I got out the AXE and worked it out as two slightly different BITS. The first part if the MAIN version, and the second is an added extra just in case. The very next day after THAT, at the aforesaid Joyzine gig, I had exactly the soundcheck I'd expected and employed the first part of the song, much to the DELIGHT of the soundman. I hope to delight many FURTHER soundmen with it in future!