17 May 2012 was our first gig at Boscombe Down Sgt Mess and the name Break Cover was coined for the first time.

7 years and 200+ gigs later we are still going strong. If anything we are having more fun now than we did when we first started!

We often get asked what our favourite gigs were so a seventh birthday feels like a good excuse to post our top 7 gigs.

The problem with that is we can never agree which make the top so there might be more than 7 in our top 7!

1. The Bridge Music Festival, Stockbridge, June 2014.

A charity music festival to raise money for Alex Lewis who lost all of his limbs following a cold! Memorable for the great range of bands, the incredible crowd, a great stage, insane lighting and the way that the whole event lifted when the sun went down and it just felt like a party for every second we played. The band were on fire and the crowd fed off that ; the band then fed off the crowd’s energy creating the magical feedback loop of joy which you can never plan for. Terry winding up Jim Davidson but making the PA feedback every time he spoke was hilarious too. A truly memorable night.

2. John Coghlan’s Quo, The Barrington, November 2016.

Supporting a big name band is always going to be good fun but Craig and Simon are massive fans of Status Quo so getting to support the original Frantic Four drummer was always going to be even more special. It turns out that John is a terrific chap and his band are really lovely too. We had a great laugh with them and were made to feel like part of the family. The guys at The Barrington could not have done more for us as well. And then there was the audience… hugely appreciative, applauding the songs before we played them and really kind and open with feedback in the bar after. Another truly memorable night.

3. Salisbury Christmas Light Switch On, November 2015.

Playing in Salisbury is always a treat as Salisbury audiences really appreciate live music. It turns out an audience of 14,000 really appreciates live music. Salisbury market square absolutely rammed; a huge stage; a massive PA; a huge TV screen and a crowd that massively appreciated what we did. A huge buzz for everyone on stage. Getting the Evolution Choir, Santa and Rudolf up for “Merry Christmas Everyone” at the end was electric. Not one that we will ever forget.

4. Qudos, 2014

2014 was a remarkable year for us but one of the most memorable things was playing in Qudos Music Bar & Grill on Castle Street Salisbury a total of 9 times in that one year. Qudos is a very special place for us. Simon was the first guitarist ever to play there in a previous band at the business launch. On top of that we have played there more than 35 times since our first gig in September 2012. The most outstanding feature of the venue – the audience. These guys are always up for it and it’s a joy to play here – every time. It helps the atmosphere is as hot as a Louisiana swamp at midday. A year to remember.

5. Firsfest, August 2018

We have played at the Firsdown Music Festival in Winterslow (better known as Firsfest) before 2018 but this was the first time we had played the Social Stage. The last act on the main stage was All Floyd who had started late due to previous bands running over. This meant we had to start our set as they were still playing. Not expecting too much we launched into our set. We were joined very quickly by an extremely energetic group of people who were keen to party the night away. An hour or so later and more encores than we should have played and we looked back on one of the most energetic and appreciative audiences we could remember. A festival night to remember forever.

6. CarFest, Salisbury, September 2018.

Salisbury Market Square is good to us. Probably because Salisbury audiences are absolutely fantastic! However, we approached this one a little nervously as Salisbury had never had a CarFest in the Market before and we had to play from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. Well we needn’t have worried – the weather was incredible, the cars were brilliant, the stall holders were amazing the audience was absolutely out of this world. More than 15,000 people attended the day and they could not have been more fun to play for. A CarFest to remember.

7. The Talbot Inn, Calne, May 2019

The most recent event to make the list was set up by the Celtic Crew MCC and took us to North Wiltshire for the first time. What made this so special? Two things: the people who ran the pub looked after us really well and the atmosphoere from the audience was tremendous. All of the gigs on this list were made memorable by the audience that we played to. When the audience feeds off what we are doing and we get high from their feedback and that makes us play better and the audience picks up on that… it’s what Wilko Johnson calls “a secret conspiracy to have a good time”. All of the gigs here had that but this last one was such a complete surprise that it had the band flying. A bike night to remember!

Just outside…

Truthfully, it’s impossible to pick a top 7 and if you ask us again tomorrow it will probably be different. Across 200+ gigs there’s always going to be those that just stand out so the following deserve an honourable mention as they are probably in that top list too…

8. Figglefest – a village festival which is superbly run, has a terrific atmosphere and is a joy to play.

9. Durrington Music in The Rec – previously organised by the late, great John Mills this is always a lovely family atmosphere event tied to an annual Vintage Vehicle weekend.

10. Amesbury Carnival – maybe it was the whether but it was probably the audience – just a superb atmosphere and an all round beautiful day.

The main theme here is that it is the audience which makes each gig memorable and we have been lucky enough to play some terrific events to some incredible people.

Thank you all so much for your support over the last 7 years! You are the reason we do this.

Please join us for our seventh birthday party at Qudos in Salisbury on Friday 31 May 2019!!