Rouge @ The Bowery District

One of this summer’s gigs has taken Rouge to Reading to a fantastic new venue called The Bowery District supporting the superb Subways. Five minutes walk from Reading Rail Station, this brilliant place is a retro-club-turned-performace-venue featuring a very well stocked bar, polite staff and an awesome PA! I can’t stress enough how important it is for a band to be able to hear themselves properly on stage. Armed with an Avid Venue console, the house sound engineer did a splendid job on both the on-stage monitors and front of house.

The girls were on top form, giving the 300-strong sold out event a reason to jump and rock! The show went smoothly without any technical glitches. Rouge’s guitar tech, Tobias (Toby) Edward Hawthorne, was on-site flawlessly setting up Becky’s, Simone’s and Ruby’s guitars and bass rigs. Also assisting is the exceptionally talented Luke Crawford on merchandise. Between performing as Freddy Mercury with Rhapsody – Queen Tribute, Luke has been an incredible friend and rescued us on quite a few occasions with indispensable help.

I was particularly excited about this gig because I had a little secret weapon of my own – a Canon 5D MkII with three spectacular lenses which were graciously lent to me by a dear friend. My first attempt to shoot a live gig wasn’t without its hiccups, but I think I did get some delicious shots – especially of the Rouge Bear which made its debut at this show!

• Rouge