31/08/2026
Finished the summer with a four gig weekend with Banana Island and I am absolutely feeling it today 😂
This weekend contained some of the best and most fun gigs we’ve played
And for me personally, one that healed a lot of hurt
Story time
Banana Island has a flexible line up, which means mostly I’ll play bass, sometimes I’ll play guitar, sometimes I’ll front the band on vocals and guitar.
And one of the gigs this weekend was one of those occasions.
I was so, so nervous about it because on a previous occasion I’d fronted the band, the venue drummed up a load of excuses to pay us less, including that I “wasn’t the lead singer they’d booked”, and took a big chunk off our fee.
Thankfully they relented when they realised that they’d face a legal row from the musicians union if they did so and paid us the fee in full a couple days later.
But to be face to face with the venue owner who is categorically refusing to pay you the agreed fee, and for them to be communicating that *it is because of you as a singer*
Needless to say, it knocked my confidence really hard.
But the gig where I fronted the band this weekend was so much fun, the crowd were amazing, and a staff member from the venue walked up to us and unceremoniously handed us the money, having no idea how much that it had meant to me personally to not feel utterly rejected as a performer 😅
I just wanted to be a bit vulnerable about this because it’d be easy to see the social media veneer and think I just play fun shows every weekend and get to be a rock star and it’s all fun and games
Sometimes it’s not, sometimes you have experiences that make you wonder why you do what you do
And then you have weekends like this that remind you why 🖤
Also we added Jolene to the set for the weekend and it just absolutely went off every single time. Thank you for the music Dolly 🖤
