Southampton to Paris - North to South to North to South

Well I have had the most amazing weekend in Southampton at the Pedalpushers gig.  This gig was a musical send off for friends Minty and Hannah who are going to cycle from John O Groats to  Lands End (they are mad!!) but you can sponsor these amazing people by clicking on www.thepedalpushers.co.uk and sponsoring these very very brave souls.

The night was great and apparently I was a tad drunk (I will deny this of course).  Did not see much other music apart from my 2nd reason for going to Southampton and that was Dlugokecki and full band in what was the rockiest gig I have ever seen them play. 

The band sound to me is improving all the time and it was the first time that the band did not drown out Ben's voice.  WOW WOW WOW.  I got amazing dedication of Ocean which just featured Ben and Andy.  McDonalds with Stu and Boyd.  Alledgedly snogged more than one and woke up with marker pen writing all over my chest.

I do remember though that I had the best ever chicken kebab that I have ever ever ever had.  That was almost worth the trip in itself. 

A PLEA: Please do not post any pictures of this night here as I do not want to see them, especially if they are of me.  (Please Al).

I will post some when I get back from Paris, so any of you who sent me mail, I am kind of busy at the moment so will respond on Friday.  If you plan on calling me, my phone has officially died so I guess I am having a few days off.

Tickets are now on sale for my next charity gig THE CRIMEA on 17th September in Rescue Rooms and tickets are only £7.50 so go and buy some now on www.seetickets.com or I will find you and you will be in trouble!!!

Also come to Leicester on Friday to see ist, Baby Strange, Censored and Starscreen.....I  promise to behave, so be at the Firebug for 7.30pm PLEASE :o)

Ok I am going back to my crepes and champagne and Cedric is not half bad either......lol :o)

Some Jacket, Man Whore and Kerb Crawling with Kate - 22 Aug 06

This day started off with Kate getting excited in thinking that The Henry Road were supporting My Morning Jacket at Rescue Rooms tonight.  Funniest bit about it is that I convinced her to try and blag us free entry as it was a bit steep.  Turns out the guys were just going to watch My Morning Jacket, so must have thought Kate was a right cheeky cow....we went none the less.

Firstly had a meeting first thing and then went to meet Jason at the Cinema (on time as usual lol).  Bless I think he must have thought I stood him up.  I got there and he had gone in without me, which is understandable as it was time for the movie.  We watched Miami Vide and to be  honest whilst some bits were ok, at the end I still kept waiting for something to happen. Definite plus points go for 2 hours of Colin Pwoarrel perving, but that is another story.

We went for a coffee afterwards and Jason went home and I went off to meet Kate at The Rescue Rooms.  We got hassled by the Richard Swift street team member to sign up for the mailing list and duly obliged.  Richard Swift was kind of cool and reminded me a lot of BC Camplight....just a bit louder and the sound was not great for them in there tonight.  It always seemed like there was a humming in the background.

To be honest don't know much of My Morning Jacket's stuff but listened to the Myspace tracks before going out and it seemed really quiet and depressing - Yeah Right!  Whilst some songs were quiet the majority of them were about 8 minutes long and 5 minutes of that being guitar music.  I loved most of it, but could not help thinking that most the songs were too long.

We met up with Ben of The Henry Road and Jamie after the gig next door and had  a bit of banter.  It turns out that Jamie is from a little village I used to live in for 10 years a while back and he got quite excited about toffees, home baked bread and Warsop Carnival.  Ben and I also had a nice long chat and hopefully The Henry Road are going to play their final gig (for a while) for me next Friday - OK its for Kate really :o)  We shared much laughter and hugs with Ben, Jamie, Steph and Toby (I think) before making out way to car park which shut in 10 minutes.

I was so hungry I could eat a small child at this point and had to find a kebab shop or something to eat.  Kate was still giggling like a school girl, I think she had one too many pints of Grolsch.  We stopped at kebab shop, I ordered a pizza of course and Kate got things that resembled veg samoosas and some chips with her tomato sauce.

When next this gorgeous young man steps into kebab shop and starts talking to us.  HELLO! indeed.  He went outside to make a phone call and come back in disgusted that the taxi would take 45 minutes to come.  So I asked where he lived and duly offered him a lift home.  Andrew seemed very nice dressed in his suit and was quite well spoken.

We sat in the car eating our food and the first thing Andrew did was pick up my shoes in the back and started sniffing them lol when I asked him what he was doing, he reckoned he had a thing for feet and noses.  I did not ask about the feet, but was curious about the noses and asked im what kind of noses, he then pointed to mine - strange boy.  We asked him what he did for a living and then told us he worked in Sales for Ann Summers and that he was very good at selling sex. 

Turns out we had a man whore in the car with us no less.  Ok he used the word Escort, but we all know what that really means.  He was complaining how it was a "bad time of the month", which had Kate and I in stiches.  But this was because kids were of school and women were not able to get out of the house.

We got Andrew to direct us to where he lived and he took us on a shortcut through the red light district and we were followed by the police for sometime before being pulled over.  Policeman asked if we were lost and I said that I was giving the gentleman a lift home.  He then told us how this was the red light district and that we were pulled over on suspiscion of kerb crawling LOL!  Well I tell you I could not make this stuff up if I tried.

He told us to drive safely and we could not stop laughing all the way home.  This young bloke must have thought these two older women are mad, well he is right but it was funny.

Imagine picking up a man whore and being pulled over for kerb crawling....all in a night around Nottingham!

Thanks Kate for making me laugh so much that I ache, what a fab night....watch out Manchester :o)

Festivals and other stuff

Well its a known fact one should blog one festival before going to the next, but I have been so inundated (with work honestly) that I have not had chance to do any of it justice.

Last weekend was at V at Weston Park and the weekend before it was Summer Sundae in Leicester.

I will blog each separately of course and I have so many pictures and videos too.  Have to mention though that out of the two weekends, my favourite performance was that ofThe Crimea, which forced me to miss half of Starsailor and Starsailor forced me to miss Paul Weller.

Also been organising my next charity gig which will take place on 17th September in The Rescue Rooms so check back here for more details in a couple of days.

There is also an excellent chance of another biggie in Rock City end of November but I will let you all know as soon as its confirmed.

I am 5 weeks into chemo and its been pretty rough most days.  What gets me down is just the lack of energy and motivation I seem to be suffering of at the moment.  Not to mention constantly feeling tired and the throwing up has just become part of the routine.  Still there is only 7 weeks to go and lets hope that is the bloody end of this!

Ok moan over....

Its 06:18 and I have still not been to bed and I have a meeting this morning, a lunch date and cinema this afternoon and then My Morning Jacket with Kate this evening, so apologies Kate if I am half asleep.

Goodnight :o)

Purple Turtle Camden Adam Smith, Tim Reid, Recreation, The Four Last Things & The Warm - 9 Aug

Ok so I was a little bit apprehensive before this one as my previous out of town gigs have been just a bit too intimate for my liking, so was not quite sure what to expect.  Especially since nobody was really from London....  We started off with Adam from Edinburgh via Derby, then Tim who hails from Melbourne, Australia, the The Four Last Things from Leicester and Recreation and The Warm from Southampton.  I love London!!!

As the flyer says 5 reasons to visit Purple Turtle, well it should have said 5 BLOODY AWESOME reasons instead (taking note Simon?)!

Helen has done most of the work on this blog so read hers here its great!

Sat in the box office for early part of the night and sadly did not see much of Adam Smith but could hear them perfectly well he sounded mighty fine to me.  Personally love the final song "Do you know what I'm saying?" the most.  Forgot to give Helen the camera to take pics so only caught Adam at the end of his set for pics. 

The bits I did see included some spontaneous dancing from some I believe Latvians in the audience.  I have never seen anybody slowdance to acoustic acts before, so refreshing.  This carried on right through Tim Reid's set....see below!

It was great to see Tim Reid again after the IPO which believe it or not was in May!!!  Glad my gig was his first one since, although we definately need more of these real soon.  Tim was outstanding and it was great to hear "Any Given Day" again.

Up next was Recreation whom I have not had the pleasure in seeing before but loved the Myspace tracks and heard many a good thing about them from my other Southampton lovelies.  Well they certainly did not disappoint me!  Personally loved "Please don't Leave" and also witnessed most obscure cover ever as they sang Britney Spears' "Toxic".  Took me a while to put my finger on which song it was.   

The Four Last things now took the stage and for a bit of this swopped jobs with Mark in the box office so I could see these guys live as my friend Carl recommends them higly.  Well I loved the sound and certainly was not disappointed at all!  Did not catch many of the song names on the night as I was swanning in and out but been listening to my CD since and love "Anything Goes" - title very apt to me :o)

Well next is the highlight of my night and what I was looking forward to most as The Warm is a band I am totally and utterly in love with.  Everytime I hear these guys I want to move to Southampton, just so I can be close.  Was especially loving dancing with Jack "the voice" Sangster, fellow Warm fan who turned into drunken roadie!

The Warm sounded great again tonight and loved "Nothing left to Say", "All that you are" and then finishing on the best ever rendition (well apart from the one at Rock City) of "Swim" which Nick dedicated to me so kindly.  I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it!

I was amazed at tonight's turnout and thanks to my friends who joined us, and especially Richard Snow driving all the way from Nottingham and back for the show.  Rhakee and cousins, Chris, Mark, Elena & of course Roadie/Photographer/Moral Guide/Spellcheck Helen.

Had great banter with Jack and some Warm fans outside by the car before heading off back to hotel via off licence as I had not had a drink all night.  Got back to hotel and ordered some room service and all we could get was sandwiches £6 a sandwich!!!  Then of course we had some fun with the self timer on the camera, took a few shots to get it right though :o)

See you next month in Camden!!!

twenty5stories, Dlugokecki, Censored and Richard Snow & Inlaws @ Junktion 7 - 28 Jul 06

Well what was supposed to be the Snow Patrol Support Bands reunion gig, turned out to be a bit of a thin line up as to originally planned.  To say that one was stressed on Friday is a little bit of an understatement.  For once I did not even want to go to the Venue, I was that disillusioned by it all I just wanted to get in my car and drive....fearing the worse.

I arrived at Junktion 7 to be greeted by the twenty5stories boys who were already setting up and slowly but surely loads of familiar faces arrived.  People were still congratulating me on the Snow Patrol thing and it was nice to hear people's stories of the night.

We opened doors at about 8.15pm and about 40 people from the bar went upstairs.  By the time twenty5stories hit the stage there was a good 60 people in the venue.  twenty5stories set tonight was amazing, it was the best I had heard them play and the couple of new songs they played were really great.  After they finished their set Gaz and Ross stayed on stage and did a few acoustic songs including "Sneakers" and fab version of Seal's "Kiss from a Rose".

The crowd were in for a treat next as Dlugokecki (minus band) marched onto the stage with a coke in his hand.  Coke always spells trouble as he does not need the sugar rush to make him hyper at all.  Ben was outstanding tonight and it was a proper request slot as far as songs are concerned and he kept everybody happy.  Helen got We are the losers, we had Perfectinistical, Barricades and a few covers including Me and Julio, American Pie and of course Bettys song You can call me Al.  Ben is a terrific showman and had the crowd in stitches many times.

Next up was Censored who really got the crowd dancing, it was a great set with the boys doing what they do best.ROCKING!  We had Crazy Feet, All You Got to do is Ask and of course Your Eyes are made of Gold to name but a few.  Matt broke up half the set to do acoustic version of Dutch Courage it was cool!  Every single person inside the venue enjoying Censored.

Last but not least we had Richard Snow and Inlaws who continued the dancing theme by opening up with Red Song.  It was a lovely responsive crowd and people were enjoying Silent Girlfriend, Lonesome Cowboy and of course my fav Expectations and Helen and my tune Girls on the Tube.  Richard finished off the set acoustically with REM cover Losing My Religion for which he was joined on stage with Ben and the harmonies were fab.

Unfortunately Sam was snapping so vigorously with the camera that we have no pics of The Inlaws as the batteries died.  Anybody with any pics of them at Junktion 7 please send them to me, or add them at the bottom.

We had a couple of more from Richard including hilarious Simon and Garfunkel cover that Richard and Ben murdered a little but it was great for entertainment, before making way for Matt to come and do some Kula Shaker.  Ben obviously liked it on stage and joined Matt for some of that too.  Everybody was having so much fun.  Matt sang Anarchy in the UK which we all remembered fondly from 10 Bands.  Also sang Your Eyes are made of Gold with Richard joining him on harmonies. Then some Oasis where Nathan joined him on stage and birthday girl Sally was trying to sing along to Stand by Me.

Now it was the turn of Gareth the soundman for some Foo Fighters with some more singing from Ness and Linda too.  Then a very drunk Ben went back on stage for a couple of songs but the soundman eventually decided to rescue everybody as the karaoke started getting out of hand, it was now 2.30am.

It was one of the best nights I have ever had, the atmosphere at Junktion 7 was indescribable and it was exactly what I had hoped for the Snow Patrol aftershow party to have been like.  Everybody inside commented on the wonderful night and the atmosphere and now looking to repeat this on a monthly basis with our newest Junktion 7 night called The Great Escapemore details to follow soon.

I want to thank all of my mates for coming, in particular Tommy who drove all the way from Plymouth and all the bands that played.  Sam for taking 100's of photos (very badly) with my camera and everybody at Junktion 7 who made us most welcome, what a lovely bunch of people! J

Ben, Sally and Linda came back to the house and we had some more drink and chatted till the early hours....well I don't really remember much more to be honest ;o)