Just a week or two into the course, the message went out for any students interested in playing in the 'house band' to meet up in the Fieldhouse café. Within a week we had our first practice in one of the empty classrooms...and we sounded horrible.
After three months of practices, we performed our first gig after the Taranto mess dinner. We lined up at the far end of the Henderson bar and played our 10 song set list with a few folks dancing out on the dance floor, but most of the 300 or so attendees stayed across the room in the bar chatting.
We all had a great time playing to a live crowd and decided to learn some new songs and prep for the much lower key Christmas party in a few months time.
Along with our regular set list we added some British Christmas rock anthems - of which I had heard none before. The party that day started early as we had a Christmas lunch complete with a hearty rendition of the 12 days of Christmas and other old carols. By the time we started playing at 8, most of the course had been drinking for a solid 6 hours...and everyone was in a good mood to party.
The dance floor was packed all night and we all agreed it was doubly better than the first gig. It was Ian's last gig and Tom's first gig as they swapped on guitar. It was also Jen's last gig for a while as she left the course for health reasons.
The social season picked up where it left off in January as we returned form Christmas leave. We played after the Waterloo dinner and had another energetic crowd dancing. It was here that we unveiled Mr. Brightside and the crowd absolutely loved it. It just so happened that Fish, our main singer, asked someone in the crowd what they wanted for an encore and it matched what we decided to play!
Over the spring we added a few new songs, moved practice locations twice, played at a couple of the divisional date nights, three informal parties in Shag's bar and the cricket pavilion, and finally the RAF Dambuster's mess dinner.
Dambuster's turned out to be the best one thus far since research papers were turned in. The crowd had tons of energy and danced the night away - especially to our finale of Mr. Brightside. It was about this time that I stumbled upon an article showing that the song had drifted in and out of the Top 40 for the last 13 years since it was released by The Killers. This was also the gig where I ceased being the atypical shy guitarist and took center stage for my 'Summer of 69' guitar solo.
Our pinnacle for the year occurred in a one week stretch in July as played at the local village pub in Watchfield, the station's summer masquerade ball and then the station's Fireworks and Music festival.
The Eagle pub gig was a good rehearsal for our big gig at the ball and also just plain cool to rock out in an old English pub. We crammed our 10 member band into a 10 x 10' corner of the bar while the crowd swelled to about 75 people overflowing out into the street and back beer garden. The 7 or so locals who were in the pub early listened to our sound check and enthusiastically sang along to each number in the way only a bunch of men in a pub can sing. 
Just two night later, we opened on the main stage for a well-known UK band called Toploader who had a couple of hits back in the late 90's, early 2000's. We tried our hand at being roadies as we lugged their gear from the basement up to the stage and then narrowly had a sound check before rushing home to change into black tie.
The decorations, lighting and dance floor were incredible and the gig went well with a sizable audience (including most of our spouses) listening and dancing.
A few days later we played at the Music & Fireworks event on the station's rugby pitch. There were 3 other groups performing including the wives choir, a regimental brass band and another local rock group called Fizz. The sound system and stage was quite a step up and felt like Glastonbury light!
The last gig of the year was after the end of course revue two days before the course ended. After the group dinner, we all assembled in the Henderson bar and played our longest set of the year. We had two sets of music of about 10 songs each with a 7 song encore. The crowd immediately started dancing and by the end of our second set we had about 75 people crammed on the dancefloor. Once again, 'Mr. Brightside' was the crowd favorite with tons of energy. We tried a Kings of Leon song for the first time with a really fun solo part. After the gig was over I was filled with a deep melancholy as the realization that there were no more gigs started to set in. It was a great ending to a fabulous year.
The band became some of my closest friends on the course and was my favorite activity the entire year. What an incredible opportunity to have the spare capacity to actually play and practice music so much with such a great group of musicians! Not only did we have a good group, but we had a very supportive class that never hesitated to party and support us at each gig. It was quite a year and Red Light made it one of the best.
Rachel wrote this article for the class magazine and captures the essence of the band experience well.
Back in September, three fighter pilots, three
engineers, a doctor, two logisticians and a policewoman met in the Fieldhouse coffee
room. This eclectic group, from all three ACSC divisions and two continents, also
incorporated two drummers, a pianist, a bass player, several guitarists, vocalists,
a saxophonist and a trumpeter: all the ingredients of the course band. At this
stage, the ingredients were pretty raw; this became clear at the first full
rehearsal at which, with uncharacteristic shyness, the band dusted off their long-neglected
instruments and jammed ‘Let me Entertain you’.
We completely killed it. In a bad way. This
was obvious from the number of complaints about the ‘noise’ from fellow
students trying to prepare SRAs in neighbouring syndicate rooms, highlighting
one of the ongoing challenges faced by the band: of finding a location to
rehearse that would offend the smallest number of people. With the help of the
sound engineer from ACSC19’s band, a location was found as far away as possible
from JSCSC, in a little used training room at the other end of camp.
The noise gradually became something that
might, after a couple of drinks, be described as music and a tentative booking
was made for the band to play after the Taranto dinner on 24th November. The
set list, which included a slightly improved ‘Let me entertain you’ had grown
to XX songs, which, helped by a liberal sprinkling of ‘SRT’[1]
in the preceding week’s programme, provided the backdrop to some enthusiastic
dancing after the dinner.
Having successfully started and ended, almost
together, all XX songs, the evening was considered a triumph and the band
became the compulsory late night entertainment for most of the remaining mess
dinners, two of three divisional guest nights, the purple ball and a number of
informal parties in the pavilion. Over the year, the band has enjoyed the
luxury of playing to a captive audience, albeit one whose appreciation should
be gauged by the tapping of feet whilst propping up the bar, rather than a full
dance floor. Fellow students, meanwhile, have learned to love the repeated
playlist, routine technical hitches, the occasional forgetting of words, or
keys, and the thrill that when watching Red Light you never quite know what
will happen next.
The perfect antidote to the demands of
ACSC, the band became an additional syndicate, brought together by the buzz of
playing live music, that endured the whole year. The band has continued to grow
with new talent, is fortunate to be tolerated by the students of ACSC 20 and extremely
well supported by voluntary sound crew, Tal, Kieran and Rob. Twelve months ago,
none of us would have dreamt of playing a set in the local pub, warming up for
Toploader at the Purple Ball, or being booked for a real, paying audience of
XXXX at the annual Defence Academy Music and Fireworks event. It has been a
privilege and a true pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen, you have been listening to
Red Light: Fish, Rob, Tom, Rach and Ellie on vocals, Mark, Jen and Rach on the
‘horns’, Charlie and Mark on drums, Tyler and Tom on guitar and Paul on bass
guitar. Thank you for your patience, support, singing and dancing – we’ll be
back for ‘five more songs’ at the graduation.
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