Blog: DAY ONE: Bristol

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At Paddington Station, waiting for my train, I got a text from Tim - the first song on the iPod Shuffle as they set off on the album tour was the TITLE TRACK, "Regardez, Ecoutez Et Repetez." SPOOKY! Then I bumped into Delia From Mambo Taxi (and countless other band) -surely these PORTENTS OF ROCK were pointing in the direction of GOOD TIMES?

It certainly appeared so when I got to Bristol Temple Meads about 15 minutes late but JUST in time for The Validator Van to swing by and pick me up. UNITED we zoomed to The Mother's Ruin where we UNLOADED and set to out first, MUCH DESERVED, pint. At this stage we were all still a bit in Work MOde, and personally I was very much finding myself still trying to organise things. The past 3-6 months have been FULL of preparation and sorting stuff out but AT LAST it was time to start ROCKING. Gradually, but with increasing speed, I ceased worrying so much and began having fun.

We soundchecked - during which we were asked by the management NOT to play unless absolutely necessary, as people didn't want to hear that sort of thing, and Tim should learn to play a bit more quietly - then split up, Pattisons for their hotel and the rest of us to find our Apartment. It was in a slightly RUM area but VERY luxurious, and the Proper Bristol Accented chap who showed us round seemed VERY pleased with it. As well he might!

Back in town we found an excellent place to park and went off for an Italian Meal, which was GRATE - eating properly is VITAL for Tour Health, and is also much MUCH nicer than our former Tour Staple of Chips & Cheese. We is DEAD SOPHISTICATED!

We saw The Pattisons strolling by so got back together and headed to the venue, where we found several lovely people had turned up, and watched Horowitz, who were dead good the words were much more audible than usual, so you could hear the Proper Pop Songs within the Trademark GUITAR SWIRL much more clearly.

The next band reminded me of several from long ago, though The Rhythm Section said they sounded like The Pixies, which i suppose is the same sort of thing. They'd bought a bunch of friends with them, including one who was dancing like MAD. It turned out he WASN'T actually a friend of theirs, rather a LOCAL LEGEND - BIG JEFF. He was BIG, also GRATE - he stood right at the front throughout our gig too and danced THROUGHOUT. It made the whole thing even more EXCITING as HIS dancing got ME dancing more NB I say exciting for ME, my extra dancing may not have been so for anyone else. Here's what we DID:

Red Black Gold

Best Behaviour

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Where Is My Torch?

All The Good Men

Hey Hey 16K

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

Do The Indie Kid

Easily Impressed

We then had to pack up at high speed and HOPPED into the van to drive to Rocker's house - that's Dandelion DJ Rocker, who'd not only organised the gig but had got us in for a SESSION the next morning. We PILED all our kit into his house then ZOOMED back to the pub for a last pint before saying our farewells and heading once more to the flat, where me, Tom and Rob enjoyed some TOUR WHISKY and had a long chat while listening to Belle & Sebastian and WINGS through the Ceiling Speakers.

A GRATE start to the tour!

posted 28/5/2009 by MJ Hibbett

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