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I didn't think I'd ever been to Tunbridge Wells before (I was wrong of course, touring has brought me to most major towns in the UK at some point and I seem to have been there on the tour of 2005). And not sure that I'd ever played the Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall Theatre (so many names meaning the same thing and so close to having the acronym TWAT), though I thought I recognised the bar area.
This was the first gig to get under 200 ticket sales (it sold 180) and also the first to not have sold at least 50% of the tickets (the capacity was about 1000 so I'd fallen far short of that), but I was up against Barry from Eastenders doing karaoke in town (Barryoake) which had sold 1000 tickets. Maybe not much crossover in audiences, but at least I had an excuse.
Luckily overall the sales are OK (I've sold about 45% of the entire allocation, which isn't bad as there's still a lot of time to sell tickets and there's a few rooms that are much too big for me).
And I was confident that the 180 would be a good crowd and they absolutely were. Not only did both shows go very well, but seemingly everyone in the venue queued to see me and the book sales were almost a tour record (impressive considering Birmingham had 750 people in).
Bec Hill and Robert Bathurst were terrific guests, though I was flagging a little, coming down with something. I'd had a personal training session this morning where I felt strong and fit, but over the course of the drive to TW I'd started feeling tired and getting a sore throat. It's been a full on schedule of working and parenting and the mornings have all been early this week, so maybe it's not surprising.
My biggest revelation of the day of research was that there are two Tunbridges. Or at least a Tonbridge (pronounced Tunbridge) just three or four miles from Tunbridge Wells. Tonbridge came first and was called Tunbridge, but then they found a spring and that became Tunbridge Wells (and later Royal Tunbridge Wells) and so Tunbridge changed its name to Tonbridge to avoid confusion. But still pronounced Tunbridge. What a shit show.
All these tour shows have been fun and it's so cool to meet the people who listen to my babbling. It's quality not quantity. Though it'd be nice to have both!
