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4 bands for £11 at the Railway Inn in Winchester last Saturday. We went for Gumdrop, crazy Bristolians with a terrific frontman, screechy and even screechier guitar. 3rd time we've seen them (me and my gig-buddy- ex) and they never disappoint. They will know us as their loyal following, if they don't already 😀
By way of contrast, next on the list is Nick Cave and a few other bands at Preston Park at the end of the month.
Sammy Hagar at Wolves Civic last night.
Wasn't he originally scheduled to do a much bigger tour (o2 Arenas etc), but it was canned because of dreadful ticket sales?
Yeah, we had tickets booked for the NEC.
The original reason given was they wanted to replicate what they'd had at the Las Vegas residency with the sound system and lighting/visuals etc.
Then he later admitted it was because of low ticket sales.
Wolves was sold out last night though.
Only downside was Joan Jett didn't support.
Had a great day at Tin Tent Festival at Rock and Roll Brewhouse Bar in Brum with the following bands:-
Moths of the Moon, a duo, weird n etherial, traces of early Floyd.
Soho, Twin sisters singing,guitarist n 3 Korg synths. electro soul. Hit with Hippy Chick about 90/91.
The Other Band, a trio n and an offshoot from Pye.
Shinkansons, only their 3rd gig,reminded me of early Slits.
Layla Tutt, Solo singer/acoustic guitar, brilliant, reminded me of early PJ Harvey.
Nadine Khouri, a duo, guitar/vocals n keys/vocals,French.
Fallen Horse, trio,Keys n vocals,bass n drums.
The Dollcanoes, 4 piece n 4 part vocals, punky pop n brilliant.
Grand Valise 3 piece very funky and band of the day.
All bands had at least one female member and all only played original material. 2 pale ales n 1 dark ale brewed on site by the female co owner. Freedom lager n Hogans still or fizzy cider and a perry. No Carling, Madri, Guiness or shorts.
Sammy Hagar at Wolves Civic last night.
Wasn't he originally scheduled to do a much bigger tour (o2 Arenas etc), but it was canned because of dreadful ticket sales?
Yeah, we had tickets booked for the NEC.
The original reason given was they wanted to replicate what they'd had at the Las Vegas residency with the sound system and lighting/visuals etc.
Then he later admitted it was because of low ticket sales.
Wolves was sold out last night though.
Only downside was Joan Jett didn't support.
I was supposed to be at the Manchester gig last Saturday - until they binned it with the bolloxy excuse and shifted to a different place and different day which made it impossible.
Thankfully I'm certain Iron Maiden won't piss the fans around like that this coming weekend at Knebworth. I'll be there.
Up the Irons.
I had tickets to Above and Beyond for Friday just gone,
the night before a guy on the 90's ravers facebook group posted that he had a pair of VIP going free as he'd slipped a disc... i didn't want to be greedy and explained i already had tickets.. but.......
Anyway, no one else wanted them... so i ended up with a VIP upgrade... Above and Beyond fans, nicest friendliest crowd ever i reckon
rest of this month
Moby
Fatboy slim 🙂
bot on Brighton beach 🙂
Off to Upton Blues Festival tomorrow n hopefully see some new interesting bands. Campfield Stage always thows up a few good ones.
Caught the Cancer Bats as Bat Sabbath last night at rebellion in MCR.
Seeing them again next Saturday at the Parish in huds.
Never tire of them.
Just back from bat sabbath in Glasgow. If was really good, totally bouncing
I wouldn't normally post something like this but it feels important, and I know frequenters of this forum have a big heart...
We're playing a gig in Cheltenham on 5th September to raise money for Charlotte, a friend of the band, who is battling a rare cancer and needs access to specialist treatment.
All profits go directly to her and we really want to sell this out to raise as much as possible.
If anyone fancies a brilliant night of live soul music for a really worthwhile cause, it would mean the world.
More details > TSC present All Together Now
David Byrne at Cardiff Castle was an aural and visual treat. A good mix of solo and Talking Heads songs that had the crowd going from start to finish.
Flaming Lips at Kelvingrove bandstand in Glasgow last night, reliably daft.
Only went because I got 3 tickets below face value on Twickets yesterday (figured there was a good chance - middle aged audience, a Monday night during holiday time).
We were a bit later getting there than planned and when we went in tickets 2 and 3 came up as 'already scanned'. Fortunately the ticket checker was cool and just waved us in, but what gives? I've used Twickets plenty before and never had an issue but it got me thinking - what's to stop the original purchaser downloading the etickets then putting them up on Twickets, selling them, but then using the originals anyway?
Has anyone else had this happen?
Has anyone else had this happen?
Only when I bought a Jesus and Mary Chain ticket from a tout outside a venue once! Ticket checker also let me in. Gig was shit though.
Got Flaming Lips as one of the supports for Nick Cave on Friday. Looks fun 🙂
Got Flaming Lips as one of the supports for Nick Cave on Friday. Looks fun
Id have loved to have gone to see nick cave, I've seen plenty of tickets for resale. However, wife working, I'm working, it's just not going to happen sadly.
Faithless put on a show on Friday night in Bristol. I felt young again for a couple of hours. Kosheen as support were in fine form but let down by the sound I felt. It didn't hit quite the way their shows have in the past.
Bands that I have locked into my app for next weekend at YNot, that I may/may not see
The Love Buzz
The Ansells
Hard Fi
Ash
The Public Eye
The Slates
The Libertines
The Strokes UK (late night cover band)
Lancashire Hotpots
Taylor Liam Jackson
Matt Hennessy
Reverend and the Makers
H3nce
Berenice
Freddie Halkon
The Lilacs
Royston Club
The Fratellis
Florence Road
Sleeper
Dizee Rascal
The Covasettes
Pale Waves
Radio Free Alice
Finn Forster
Reytons
Kings of Lyon (late night cover band)
Dom Joly presumably doing some comedy
Scouting For Girls
The Rosadocs
Happy Mondays
The Clause
Spyres
The Vaccines
Elvis Lesley
Lucy Spraggan
Kaiser Chiefs
The Enemy
Inspiral Carpets
Foo Fighters GB (late night cover band)
Death of the High Street
Black Honey
Lottery Winners
Masi Masi
Dea Matrona
The Cheap Thrills
Rizzle Kicks
Kid Kapichi
Scissor Sisters
The Skinner Bros
The Snuts
The Bracknall
The Streets
Agree with dove1 about the David Byrne gig. All the hype about the tour "best experience evva" etc. was not far off the mark. Still smiling, lovely mix of ages in there - and nobody seemed to feel or be out of place, and I've just ordered a You May Ask Yourself T-shirt.
Also thinking of painting my Telecaster candy apple red.
Randomly my oldest gig going mate is going to be up from London at the time of Idlewild's 30th anniversary show in Edinburgh, one of the first shows we ever went to was Idlewild at the Cas Rock in 1996 so we're going to rock the **** out every time they play an old song, shout requests for Mince Showercap Part 2, and stand perfectly still with our arms crossed every time they play anything newer than 2003 and just generally be a total nightmare.
(but also secretly like all the new stuff that sounds like REM In Major Chords)
David Byrne
Flaming Lips
Saw both of them at Latitude this weekend. David Byrne was great, but I was totally blown away by the Flaming Lips as I had never had a chance to catch them before.
Other highlights included Self Esteem (5th time seeing her - she can do no wrong), Wet Leg, Last Dinner Party, Adam Buxton Band, Florence Road, Westside Cowboy, Beta Band.
Flo and Joan were highlight of the small amount of comedy I saw.
Two things that I was not really expecting to enjoy but really really did...
Peter Hook - was sceptical, as thought it was going to be a bit 'tribute act', but couldn't help myself getting lost in it belting out the New Order and Joy Division stuff.
..and bare with me, "Alex James's Britpop Orchestra" - thought it was going to be horrific, but as a sunny afternoon singalong it was effing brilliant. Had various guest vocalists including Saffron from Republica, dude from Reef, and best of all - Phil Daniels for a rendition of Parklife.
Self Esteem
"Cut down on your pork life mate..."
Leg
Lips
Busy couple of weekends just gone at Brighton on the Beach
Fatboy slim, what an entertainer.. don't listen to him as a rule, but had the pleasure of one of his shows (in ibiza) and knew it had to be done, winds a few folk up as he is a "lefty", his show did press equal rights, the environment etc, a little... but hey what's music for if you have a stage you say your piece right? we were at the railings in front of the stage right (our left) speaker
Simon Pegg was an amazing surprise, brought so much fun and energy.. a few bad mixes but a definitely brilliant show
The other DJ's were good but not my cuppa, still boogied though
And this week it was Moby...
wow, again, at the railings at the same speaker 😀
violin, cello, drums, keyboards, tom toms a drummer and a couple of vocalists.. great show.... we didn't stop moving... did a short vegan presentation which wasn't rammed down anyone's throat, a view video clips from Jane goodall, then some tunes as some happy cows grazed . My GF didn't think fatboy slim could be topped, but afterwards she wasn't so sure.
Off to Farmer Phils on Tuesday. Upton was great, still £3.60 for a pint of Old Rosie at The 3 Kings, even some decorating has happened. Highlights were Smokin Eskimo, Physco Dahlias, The Copertinas and Gat Decorum.
Off to Farmer Phils on Tuesday. Upton was great, still £3.60 for a pint of Old Rosie at The 3 Kings, even some decorating has happened. Highlights were Smokin Eskimo, Physco Dahlias, The Copertinas and Gat Decorum.
Upton is the most bizarre place. It should be posh, but it's a den of depravity. Made some great friends there though
I was so impressed by the David Byrne gig at Cardiff Castle on Sunday that I bought a "You May Ask Yourself" T-shirt.
I've never bought a band T-shirt before (and at my age probably won't again) so in two ways it's a Once in a Lifetime purchase.
Nick Cave is bloody great... But that "gig" has to be my worst gig experience ever. It was ****ing enormous, can't imagine how many 1000s of people were there. Didn't realise when I booked it would be like that - like a festival crowd, but only 1 stage. Horrible.
Nick Cave is bloody great... But that "gig" has to be my worst gig experience ever. It was ****ing enormous, can't imagine how many 1000s of people were there. Didn't realise when I booked it would be like that - like a festival crowd, but only 1 stage. Horrible
It was fantastic 5 rows back from the front. I'd no idea how many people were there till It came to leave!
Bet you didn’t see that the screens, which are basically there to show the performance cos you can’t ****ing see it, were in some kind of monochrome/sepia for Nick Cave. What was the point of that? Ooh, art. Nah, my normal £20 limit will be adhered to in future!
Next one is 1000 Rabbits instore on Weds… £5 a ticket and I’ll enjoy it so much more!
It was fantastic 5 rows back from the front
Interested to know, having never been to anything like that before - how do you get 5 rows from the front in such a massive crowd? Do you stand there all day in the blazing sun to keep a spot, or fight your way through the heaving throng later?
Either that, or just shamelessly push to the front at the last minute, perhaps claiming you've been there but just went for a piss* and now you're going back to where your mate is stood, pissing all the option 1 people off.
I'll confess I've done a bit of both over the years but I don't do big gigs now so for me at the back is still usually about 50 feet away. Last two bigger gigs were both at Brixton Academy where they have crush barriers, so getting there early and taking a place on those means you can't really get shovelled back as the option 2ers arrive.
Elsewhere - seen a few recently; Florence Rd were great, got Lemonsuckr again in a couple of weeks, saw Basht, an up and coming Dublin band at Amersham Arms on Thurs, and daughter is hopefully starting an internship shortly at an artist management agency specialising in new indie acts as well as some that were up and coming but are definitely here now. Don't want to scupper it, so not saying who but you'd have heard of several and maybe seen them too.
Interested to know, having never been to anything like that before - how do you get 5 rows from the front in such a massive crowd?
We just walked down the left hand side as English Teacher were finishing as my partner wanted to get a bit closer to the front for the Flaming Lips. No pushing or shoving needed and no one else was trying to force their way in. Frankly we couldn't believe just where we ended up.
Even more miraculous than the parting of the crowds though was that my old man's bladder lasted so long! 😂
Bet you didn’t see that the screens, which are basically there to show the performance cos you can’t ****ing see it, were in some kind of monochrome/sepia
I did and being at the front I really liked that contrast, it worked really well. But of course that's not to say it was great for for those in cheap equally expensive seats
Hmm, yeah at normal gigs I'll push my way to the front without a qualm, but there it was just too much of a task! And standing in the sun, nah. I watched English Teacher for about half an hour and that was enough sun for me. Preferred them at the Wedgewood Rooms 🙂
Anyway, my partner had a great time, so I managed to keep my misery contained! Turned out my brother was there too. Dunno how I missed him! 🤣
Even more miraculous than the parting of the crowds though was that my old man's bladder lasted so long! 😂
The gig nappy. Discuss
Had a slightly traumatic round trip on ( or not on as the case may be ) the M5 up to Bristol to see one of my current faves The Young Hearts and young Brum band Wood and Nails on Thursday.
Wood and Nails are pop- punk. Young Hearts are like 59 sound Gaslight Anthem if they grew up in Kent. Lots of sing along choruses and really nice people to boot.
they're both playing for free in Leeds at the Packhorse tonight and at Spoilers in Birmingham tomorrow. Would 100% recommend for a night out…
https://www.instagram.com/theyoungheartsofficial/?hl=en
YNot festival this year was quite possibly the best one yet.
4 days of sunshine, loads of mates, loads of laughs, loads of bloody brilliant bands.
Unexpected standouts - Dizzee Rascal and Rizzle Kicks
Fully expected standouts, but even better than expected - The Reytons and Scissor Sisters
Saw many many more and I don't think there was one disappointment - apparently The Streets and Happy Mondays were a bit rubbish, but we didn't bother with them anyway
Our expected return to small gigs was quashed last night as the traffic was so shit we couldn't get to Brighton to see 1000 Rabbits 🙁 Next is now end of the month - the Rally Rally Rally festival in that there London, lots of weird electronic stuff but also YHWH Nailgun who I saw 2 days in a row recently. Not sure how their screeching guitar madness fits in with the theme, but I shall ensure I catch and mosh to them, even if the headliner, Blood Orange, leaves me cold.
Still smarting at having failed to even try for Nick Cave Brighton tickets. Forgot to set a reminder and they sold out in a few hours. A mate from Colchester got one for £20 30mins before doors open and drove down. He was down in the front 20 rows or so as well. I had to settle for listening to the Live God release that I'd missed. Well worth a listen
However, we spent that weekend in Margate for
Saint Etienne -a band I love, who had a run of early albums that were fantastic as well as some late career highs - "I've been Trying to Tell You" is a lovely album. But they've always completely disappointed me live and this was no different
Belle & Sebastian who I'd not seen live before and were great. Stuart's voice is strong and the gig felt over far too soon. Highly recommended.
