Beatles Tribute Bands: Like The Beatles

As I approached the crossroads between East Avenue and Orford Road, there it was – our destination. Our goal and venue for tonight’s gig – Orford House Bowling Green. The bright floodlights making the white building shine in the surrounding darkness of the early evening.

There, by the front doors, was our van. The rest of the band had just finished unloading all of our gear and it was time to set up for our evening show. Together again. United.

Where had I been? Funny story.

Tonight’s gig had been booked through an agent. When that happens, there are some things you have to take on faith, including the name and address of the venue you’re playing at. This isn’t usually a problem – how difficult can getting an address right be?

Let’s rewind to 3pm. The van fully loaded and all the band present, it was time to hit the road. We pulled out our copy of the contract with the venue address and duly typed in the postcode on the Sat Nav. Only 60 miles to the venue! That’s nice and local for us.

Just over an hour later, the slightly sarcastic voice on the Sat Nav was insisting that we had reached our destination. According to the contract, we were looking for Waltham Borough Bowls Club. All we could see was a residential street. Odd, but sometimes a postcode can cover quite a large area, so we weren’t worried yet.

We checked on Google Maps. There was a Waltham Borough Bowls Club nearby! In Lloyd Park, which had been named as part of the address on the agent’s contract! After driving around the perimeter of the park several times, we concluded that the only stumbling block was that the venue was in the middle of the park – somewhere we wouldn’t be able to get our van anywhere near.

So I volunteered to go into the park and find the venue so we could come up with a plan for unloading the van. It was getting late and we were running out of time, so we agreed that one of us would phone the client to explain we were a bit lost (and ask for directions!) at the same time.

Leaving the others with the van, off I went.

Lloyd Park is nice, spacious and has lots of modern facilities – including no less than two bowls pavilions – one of which is Waltham Borough Bowls Club! ‘Hooray’, I thought. It turned out that both bowls pavilions were tightly locked shut for the winter. It was very clear that neither were the right venue. We had been sent to the wrong place.

I made my way out of the park and found a newsagents. I asked a family standing outside whether they knew of any other bowls clubs in Waltham Forest. Luckily, they knew of another – Orford House Bowling Green. But it was 2 miles and 20 minutes away on foot – on the other side of town. The family gave me directions, wished me luck and off I trotted. A quick call to the rest of the band and the van was heading in the same direction.

Fast forward 20 minutes and there I was, reunited with the rest of the band at the right address. The balloons tied to the front door confirmed it! Luckily, we weren’t even late – fortunately, the ‘get in’ time on the contract was wrong, too.

In the end we had a great gig with a great crowd and we were fed fish n’ chips! You can’t really ask for more than that. Except maybe the right address… And venue.