Blog: Day Two: Leicester

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Even a band as DYNAMICALLY EFFICIENT and endowed with a Tour Booklet as US sometimes has to behave like a band, and so it took us a little while to get together on Saturday morning - we left the flat only to have to all go back, seperately, because we'd forgotten things, and then stood around for ten minutes at the fountain in the centre of Bristol (a GORGEOUS morning, featuring a Mysterious Queue outside the nearby theatre - X-Factor auditions?) wondering where The Pattisons were whilst they sat mere FEET away in a cafe, wondering where we were. It's an unavoidable part of being A Band On Tour.

After everyone had finished being ALARMED by the fact that I was eating a Baked Potato for breakfast (I hadn't seen a Veggie Breakfast on the list... and unlike Tom didn't think to ask for one. FOOLISH) we went back to The Van, hopped in and indulged in further Band On Tour ACTIOn by getting LOST. Fantastically i TWITTERED this fact and, within minutes, got a phone call from Rocker to tell us how to get to his house. THE FUTURE!

We arrived to find that Rocker's entire HOUSE was a studio, and that we would be recording in his kitchen. Whilst Tim set up his kit I had SEVERAL cups of tea - Emma and Tom went off for a wander so i drank Emma's too - then me and Francis PLUGGED IN to the guitar amps, which were placed under the stairs and on the landing respectably. We gathered to play and found that we had to do everything WITHOUT singing, as it was all close miked, which was a TINY problem for doing Clubbing In The Week because we didn't really know it well enough! We PERSEVERED tho, also doing My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once and Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid to, i believe, a HIGH STANDARD.

I did my vocals next - I was feeling a bit THROATY and asked Tom to collect The Tour Whisky, but instead found succour in some POLISH HONEY VODKA that Rocker had in a cupboard. LIFE ON THE ROAD! When that was done i did a solo version of It Isn't Nice To Eat Your Friends and headed out into the SUNSHINE.

It really was a GORGEOUS day, and I spent the next hour or so sat out on the steps of Rocker's house in the sunshine, CHATTING and reading the paper. The Tiger was next in for his overdubs, with Emma then WHIPPING through her vocals at XTREME speed. We were thus able to say our farewells not long after our Estimated Leaving Time, and were back on the road, this time bound for LEICESTER.

This was our first opportunity to play IPOD ROULETTE - we'd agreed to SWAP between Tim and my iPods on SHUFFLE, changing when they played anything someone in the van had played on OR Paul McCartney/The Beatles (me) OR The Fall (Tim). We never got past four or five plays on mine before a swap, but got through slightly more on Tim's... especially when it turned out it'd been playing songs alphabetically instead.

Back at Tiger Towers Emma leapt into The Pattison Wagon to nip home, then I got dropped off at The Ibis, where I was kipping that night. Everyone else went to The Criterion and I was MOST upset to arrive half an hour later to find they'd unload everything. DEVASTATED, in fact.

We thought Sound Guy was arriving at 6pm and were hoping to get off for an early curry afterwards, but discovered he wasn't booked until 7pm. THUS Tom went to take the van back to us while those remaining settled for BEER and PIZZA. Life On The Road: sometimes it can be REALLY HARD.

The Criterion was having a BEER FESTIVAL, and I found a beer called Pride And Joy which was only 2.8% BUT was also quite nice, so STUCK to it. A GOOD IDEA, as there was MUCH beer between us sitting down and starting playing. As it was we spent a happy hour drawing COMEDY PENISES on our OWN flyers, also haircuts, moustaches and so forth. GOODTIMES.

Sound Guy turned out to be really good and many MANY people had turned up by the time we were onstage, doing THIS:

The Lesson Of The Smiths

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Best Behaviour

Billy Jones Is Dead

We Can Start Having Fun

Clubbing In The Week

All The Good Men

Do More Eat Less

Hey Hey 16K

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

Do The Indie Kid

It Only Works Because You're Here

Easily Impressed

It was MAGIC, definitely the best of the tour and PACKED with fun and GOOD TIMES. There were huge REAMS of lovely pals there, including some people from Tim and Emma's village who, MUCH to my delight, found my constant literal song explanations/introductions (e.g. "This song is about how being happy doesn't make you stupid. It's called 'Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid'") to get FUNNIER every time I did it!

We had a lovely time and once we'd hurriedly packed all our gear into a neat pile in the corner were able to CONTINUE our exploration of the East And West Sussex ALES that were in the festival.

Come closing time Frankie and I went round the corner for the AFTER SHOW - well, that's what it felt like anyway, as half the people who'd been at the gig were there too. It was GRATE. We discussed [TACT]all the people who we'd known from the Leicester Music Scene of ten years ago, none of whom had been able to attend[/TACT]. And then drank some more BEER.

I dropped Francis off at Leicester station for his return to Derby and went back to the hotel to INDULGE in something I'd been looking forward to for the past 48 hours: A MASSIVE KIP. It was GRATE!

posted 28/5/2009 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Can I say (belatedly) what a top gig it was. And I got a free CD too, so all those years learning French weren't in vain after all!
posted 17/6/2009 by Vince

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