Post-DO Thank You | Pudsey & Bramley AC

Well, the ‘do’ is done and I am chuffed to see we pretty much delivered what we set out to. Cheers for the kind comments and messages, it sounds like people enjoyed themselves which is great. Thanks to all that came and had a good time.

Right from the start, as is fitting with our ethos, we wanted to infuse the club’s personality into it as much as possible. We’re fortunate to have some very creative and talented members and wanted as many aspects as possible to have a personal touch and it sounds like people really appreciated that, so thank you.

From the hand-made decorations, to the art display, to the raucousness of the band (and the audience), I think it was a very P&B event.

As is the nature with these things, lots of stuff goes on in the background, so as well as sharing the photos (link at the end), I just wanted to do a bit of a ‘thank you’ list to make sure appropriate folks are credited.

So, big thank-yous go out to:

Helen Berry and all the FRA team who have been such a pleasure to deal with – sorry we were almost entirely behind schedule throughout but thanks for trusting us to deliver the goods!

Our Treasurer, CharlieMac for doing pretty much all the legwork in communicating with the venue, paying for things, helping sort and arrange medals, and generally moving things forward at various vital points – including on the dancefloor.

Esteemed President Sarah for welcoming everyone as well as additional vocal duties during the awards and medals presentation.

Rach, my better half – not only the brains behind the decorated beer bottles but organiser of the ticket sales, seating, menu choices, table decorations, and a whole host of general meeting, greeting, and people wrangling tasks.

Claire and Niall – key members of the beer bottle production team. The longer they spent sticking tiny runners on bottles the weirder and more brilliant they got! Not to forget, of course, their valuable work in helping decorate tables, herding fellrunners, lugging heavy musical equipment about, and Claire’s amazing action photography throughout.

Debbie and Gary for organising the Wild Boar on Tour race. The idea of putting on a race on the same day as everything else… ugh. Thank you Devines for just making it happen without the need for any meetings or fuss.

Shane Green for constructing the display boards and hanging the work for our mini art exhibition. I’m really pleased we added this in and it looked great. I still think a live chainsaw carving demo on the dancefloor would have been absolutely fine. Maybe next time!

Boff and Joe for being immediately positive about the idea when I first suggested us throwing a band together, and subsequently staying enthusiastic even after our first very ropey rehearsal(!). My long-time friends and band mates James and Carl (drums and bass respectively) who were also up for it. Everyone for putting the time in to learn the songs and driving (or cycling) various distances for late-night rehearsals.

Funnily enough, when you turn up to a hotel to play, they don’t just have a full sound system set up for you. We had to provide all that. So a huge thanks to Lumen (lumen.org.uk), who sorted us out with the PA, and Alex the soundman who did a great job setting and adjusting the levels.

As for me, well I designed the beermats and other bits, and strummed a few chords – nothing that isn’t all in a day’s work.

Additional thank yous go out to everyone else in the club who helped chuck ideas around, searched for venues, and offered of their time. We had a fairly small team do most of the work but I consider it a club effort in as much as there was a strong background presence of support and enthusiasm which helped carry the whole thing.