Sunday Driver’s 10th birthday party

Are band years like dog years? Then we're about 70. It feels like it, sometimes.

I find it hard to believe – because in my mind I’m still about 15 years old – but Sunday Driver have been together for ten years. That’s longer than most marriages…

A decade ago, a much younger Kat, Joel, Mel and Chandy nervously tiptoed onto the stage at the now-defunct Boat Race in Cambridge (if memory serves me correctly, though it might have been the Portland) and played our entire repertoire of 4 songs. I may have even sung one of them, before everyone realised that it was probably for the best if I never ever did it again.

Along the way, we’ve played some brilliant gigs – and some truly awful ones (Willow Walker, anyone?). We’ve been through more drummers than Spinal Tap, and we’ve learnt exactly how to push each others’ buttons – in good ways and bad.

So to celebrate our first decade together, we threw a party at the Portland Arms in Cambridge – our spiritual home. We also used it as an excuse to raise money for a Cambridge charity who help disabled children get involved in the arts.

There were party decorations:

It looked a lot better than this in real life, honest

And (of course!) cupcakes and brownies:

Yummy!

There was jamming in the beer garden:

Jamming. And drinking beer. But mostly jamming.

There were support bands:

A guy with a guitar and some nice songs. Can't for the life of me rememebr his name, sorry...

Mel, the Sunday Driver bassist, does a turn.

Local band Moose (or Moosevaark?)

Joel's old band, Murff, resurrected from the dead after 10 years, plus sitar and tabla. Awesome, especially the Alice in Chains cover

And we played an absolute blinder:

The Sunday Driver boys rock out

Chandy, lost in her own little world

(Sunday Driver photos pinched from Tony “Perfect Yellow” Coleby)

Such and incredible night. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the memory of everyone letting off party poppers and blowers in the last song. Or the sound of a drunken Scotsman yelling “FUCK YEEEEEAAAAH!!!” in the middle of our sacred Sanskrit mantra. Awesome. Just awesome.

Huge thanks t0 everyone who came down and made it such a great night for us all. We raised over £100 for the arts charity, and had an unforgettable time. Here’s to the next decade! Or at least, the next album…