Blog: Cambridge

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A stroll, a tube, a tube, a train and a taxi ride and I was at in Cambridge on Saturday afternoon. Rather than try and DASH BACK via the last train after the gig (which I would have missed anyway) or go back to Tom's then trek home in the morning, I realised it would be easier AND cheaper to get myself booked into a B&B, so that's what I did - it was GRATE! No hassles getting to and from the venue, I could hang around as long as I liked then leave if i wanted to, and next morning i gots me an OMLETTE! B&Bs are ACE!

Having unpacked and had the traditional Cup Of Coffee Whilst Watching You've Been Framed (an essential part of any bit of WEEKEND ROCKING away from home - ask BONO) I nipped down the road to The Portland Arms. What a LOVELY pub - the venue bit was GRATE, the PUB bit was a proper pub, the BEER was DELICIOUS, and they even did GRUB. I should like to play there again!

Colonel Bastard were already there and The Validators soon arrived, full of FUN but for one slightly TERRIFYING sight: Tom's arm is, once again, BANDAGED UP. He has been ROCKING TOO HARD! Hopefully this week it'll get a chance to heal up a bit before we do our Radio One session, but he's got a concert at the weekend, so we are a bit WORRIED about him. If you see Tom this week, please be gentle with him.

We soundchecked and then sat down for GRUB, discussion of The Football and some BAND ADMIN (including passage of Receipts from Mr McClure to me - we are Very Organised), before we GIRDED ourselves for writing the setlist. I'd spotted someone in a Hey Hey 16K t-shirt so asked him to pick a song from the Big List Of Songs We Theoretically Know (which is something I'm hoping to do at every gig - not just ask that particular chap [he may have other commitments] but to find someone before to PICK one) and it all got written TERRIFYINGLY EASY.

During this time they put the telly on in the pub for the football... and showed a brief glimpse of "Doctor Who". Half of the pub ERUPTED into shouts of "NO! I'm VIDEOING IT!"

This was followed by a lengthy period of Bumping Into People, including Kat Our PR Lady, her PALS, someone who MANY years ago was part of The Shady Organisation Known As The Lunch List, and, slightly oddly, Mr Daniel Boschi, who I knew at school, and who usually I see once a year at The Beer Festival! It was all rather GROOVY.

The first band on, Karmadillo, were rather lovely, but somehow ran a bit late so it was a MAD DASH to get on stage. Tim suggested that, to save time, I do all my between song banter FIRST while Tom was plugging in his pedals, which i DID do. It seemed to work rather well, allowing us to FLY through the following set:

Billy Jones Is Dead

Better Things To Do

Born With The Century

The Gay Train

Payday Is The Best Day

Leave My Brother Alone

Hey Hey 16K

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Half from the new album, half from our first album! It was an unusual set for us, but seemed to go pretty well and we REALLY enjoyed it. I did ROCK STAR TRICK NUMBER ONE a couple of times (NB allowing Audience to sing the chorus instead of me doing it - BRILLIANT!), didn't chat too much, and instead expressed my emotions through the medium of DANCE. It was a whole LOT of fun i must say, and really cheered us up after our slightly ropey performance in Sheffield.

With Cambridge safely ROCKED we packed up swiftly and fell into more Wandering Around and CHATTING, with me speaking to quite a good few dead nice people who'd come along. The only problem with this was that i missed most of Colonel Bastard, who were apparently GRATE, and certainly had been when I HAD managed to get in to see them.

After that The Vlads had to SPEED HOME, with calls of "See you at The BBC!" echoing down the A14, and I went back into the pub for more delicious BEER and discussion of Dr Who, Belle & Sebastian, and the gradual transformation of MANI into VERA DUCKWORTH.

It was a lovely evening - being on tour is GRATE!

posted 10/7/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Hi! I was the guy in the Hey Hey 16K t-shirt!

Thanks for a great evening, hope I didn't put you off too much shouting out COMMODORE 64 in the middle of Hey Hey 16K.

Here's a scan of the set list and my I VALIDATE badge:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h236/merman1974/validators_8july2006_edit.jpg
posted 10/7/2006 by Merman

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