I've now been playing with The Barking Spiders (previously Unforgiven) for about 8 months. We've built up a set list of about 20 covers, some more polished than others. We feel we're almost ready to play a gig now, so we need to start talking to some local venues. We decided it was about time that we invited in some friends to our rehearsal venue to hear us play and did so on Tuesday.

It was a small audience, though bigger than at some pub gigs I've been to, but was still a fun evening. We borrowed a PA system to make the vocals audible and proceeded to play through all our songs. There were a few mistakes, but the response was pretty good. This was the first time that my family had seen me with the band and they were impressed. They've been putting up with me going out most weeks to practice.

We won't get many sessions with the whole band over the next couple of months due to holidays, but we plan to learn some more songs anyway. So keep an eye out for gigs in the autumn.

I recorded most of the session, but need to sort out what is suitable for sharing with the world. Tracks may appear on our site or possibly elsewhere. We have a Facebook page, but I don't like the fact that only those registered with the site can see it properly. I'm looking at other options for getting us known. Suggestions welcome.