We arrived at Camberley football club and had to double check that we had the right place, it was tiny to say the least !

Three Quarters arrived and we went into the club, well I’ll call it a club, it was not much bigger than the average living room and the stage area was covered in nasty flowery carpet. Apparently this venue holds 150 people but it’s hard to imagine where they would all fit.

The Army of Freshmen arrived at 5.30pm looking very tired after a rough night in York the evening before, their reaction to the venue was pretty much the same as ours, one member of the band walked in and said “ok then where are we playing ?” his face was a picture when he realised that this was it. They went through to their dressing room at the back, which is the ‘visitors dressing room’ for football matches, it was covered in mud and the shower was even worse. Being the true professionals that they are they carried all their equipment in and just got on with setting up and sound checking.

The crowd started to arrive and it was soon time for Three Quarters to take to the stage. There were quite a lot of people in the room by now, with an average age of 15 and all seemed to have been drinking rather a lot, never the less they were in good spirits and eager to watch the bands play.

Nik, Chris (W), Dan and Chris (A) took to the stage and sprung into life, they blasted out all their greatest songs and the crowd were loving it. They were bouncing around and making the stage shake, their energy was filling the room and everyone was singing along to songs such as “Lullabies”, “Made Up Girl” and “Empty Days”. The boys were really on top form tonight and it was great to be right at the front to watch them play. They have so much energy and really know how to interact with their fans. Chris (W) asked them if they were looking forward to seeing Army Of Freshmen and loud cheers went up from the crowd, he then added that he thought Kai from freshmen was very sexy, and the girls in the room all seemed to agree with him. Most of the Army Of Freshmen were stood by the side of the stage watching them play and judging by their faces , they were enjoying watch Three Quarters as much as the crowd were.

The set continued with lots of jokes and more really great tunes such as “All I ever wanted” which was clearly a favourite with the fans before they finished with their soon to be released single “Hopeless Romantic” which was excellent live. This is the first time we have heard them play this track and it sounds exactly the same as the recorded version that we have heard previously. This song really will make these guys famous as it is sure to be a huge hit. All too soon it was time for them to leave the stage, but not before the room showed it’s appreciation with loud applause and cheers.
After a short break it was time for The Army Of Freshmen to start their set. By now the room was full of people eager to see this band play and they were not to be disappointed. The room suddenly filled with the pounding sounds of their instruments exploding into life and belting out the fantastic “Uniforms” while they were thrashing about on the tiny stage area. Chris Jay went out into the crowd and sang and this was very well received by the fans who were loving every second of the performance, as were the Freshmen. It was quite surreal to see them play in such a tiny venue after watching them on the Bowling For Soup tour playing to over 2000 people a night but the reception from the crowd tonight was just as great and they were quickly won over to the unique style of the band and their limitless energy.
At one point Chris picked a small boy from the crowd to come up onto the stage area and sing with them and I am sure the lad will remember that for many years to come judging by the smile on his face that spread from ear to ear.
More tracks followed with great songs like “ At the end of the day” “Road less travelled” “No engine” and “Last dance” which had the room jumping up and down and screaming for more.

Chris decided that it would be fun to climb on someone’s shoulders and have a fight with another couple of people doing the same, whilst he was still singing a song, this soon ended up with 5 sets of people all locked in a big towering hug that suddenly collapsed into a heap on the floor with everyone laughing and loving every second of the show. It was hard to see who was enjoying the night the most, was it the fans or the band ? The Freshmen seemed to be in their element tonight and loved playing to the small crowd, interacting with them even more than normal and teaching them the words to the songs and encouraging them to “do the biggest ‘pogo’ that Camberley had ever seen” and of course the crowd obliged with tons of enthusiasm as they all bounced up and down and nearly brought the polystyrene tiles off the ceiling. Now that leads me onto another funny incident……. Kai spat into the air and it stuck to the ceiling and just stayed there, dangling down about 3 inches. Chris asked the crowd to say how long they thought it would stay there before it fell down and they came to the conclusion that it would last for the rest of the night, and it did, but by the time the set had finished it had been joined by a nice spit stalactite that Chris created.

The Freshmen really did excel themselves tonight, every time we see them they seem to be even more full of confidence (if that’s possible) but tonight they were in their element and really seemed to love what they were doing and totally enjoying the whole ‘Camberley Football Club’ experience. The crowd was small and the venue was small, but tonight the room was full of so much love for this band it was radiating out across the whole town.

The Freshmen are back in the UK in the spring and from what we have seen of them on this trip, they are going to have no problems selling out all their shows. The UK fans have embraced them totally each time we have seen them and many fans new and old will join us in saying come back soon guy’s, we miss you already.