Blog: The Waiting Room

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I was back on the (again very crowded) train on Sunday afternoon and way to distant MIDDLESBOROUGH. When I arrived i got a TXT from Mr Bob Fischer saying he was running a bit late, so I thought I'd nip and sit in the pub over the road... but very soon realised that The Pub Nearest The Train Station is ALWAYS the same, wherever you go, and hastily LEFT, to calls of "AAAH, GIVE US A TUNE!" from the scary-faced men near the door.

Bob was soon there and we nipped over to BBC Cleveland, where we recorded a SESSION for his show Gobstopper, as follows:

A Million Ukeleles

The Gay Train

I did A Million Ukeleles because we'd just been talking about the new album - which, frustratingly, Bob hadn't got his copy of yet. I posted 50 of them AGES ago and NONE of them seem to have got through yet! ARGH! Anyway, we chatted of this, also THAT, and somehow got onto the subject of The Gay Train, so i DID it. It should be going out this Thursday, I think.

That done it was back to the car and his house for a cup of tea before ZOOMING over to The Waiting Room, a really rather nice Veggie Restaurant. I was STARVING for some reason and watched them soundcheck through EYES OF HUNGER, so when my tea arrived i FELL upon it - there was Bread & Butter Pudding with GRAVY on the menu so i had that. It was nice, tho a bit disconcerting. This was ACCOMPANIED by a glass of beer - Sam Smith's! It felt a little strange to have come so far to drink something i can get from about 30 pubs within half an hour of here, but it IS local to there, and it was very nice indeed!

Soon it was ROCKING time, and Bob and his band (who'd never met each other before) did a GRATE set - bits of it were very doo-woppy, bits were a bit Macca, lots of it was funny and there was a FANTASTIC skiffle version of "Don't Pass Me By" at the end. It was BRILIANT!

That done we had a short break before my turn. The room wasn't very big so I thought I might as well do it Totally Acoustic, so DID. Luke, the owner, stood up and introduced Bob introducing ME, so that I then felt like i ought to introduce someone ELSE... but instead did THIS:

The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Hey Hey 16K

It Only Works Because You're Here

Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine

The Gay Train

I Did A Gig In New York

Billy Jones Is Dead

Do The Indie Kid

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

Clubbing In The Week

Boom Shake The Room

It was a LONG set but good fun - people seemed to be CRANING FORWARD to listen to the words, and there was a LOT of me gabbing on between songs, but nobody seemed to mind that too much. I FORGOT a great big chunk of Boom Shake The Room in the middle, just because the Audience Participation "BOOM" was REALLY funny - everyone seemed to say it as if it was absolutely and positively their FINAL statement on the matter.

Afterwards there was time for some CHAT and another beer before we headed back to Bob's. He's a bit of a SCI-FI fan - indeed, he's just finished writing a BOOK about it for a Proper Real Life Publisher, which is VERY exciting - so, as I've not SEEN one since they were first broadcast, I asked if we could watch a Tom Baker Dr Who. He and Drew, who was also staying over, had a DISCUSSION and then we watched a couple of episodes of "City Of Death". CRIKEY - old telly is SLOW! Where now Characters would say "Now let's go to the Louvre!" and we'd CUT to an ESTABLISHING SHOT and then them BEING there, in OLD TELLY you get to see them STROLL all the way there, with long lingering shots of the streets before AND AFTER they've walked down them. People say Old Doctor Who involved a lot of running down corridors - i think some RUNNING would have been ALMOST TOO EXCITING!

Next day I got dropped off at Darlington Station, where DAVID BELLAMY stood next to me on the platform and sat in my carriage all the way to London. It was VERY exciting - I kept hoping he'd say "Gwapple Me Gwape-Nuts!" but, BIZARRELY, he didn't.

posted 16/10/2007 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

i have a feeling city of death is so slow because they were all like "DUDES, we have one times location budget for the first time ever!!!!"

also tadcaster's almost to LEEDS, which is Some Distance from boro to say the least. Masham is considerably closer for Black Sheep and Theakstons and (if yr desperate) there's always Camerons, which is just the other side of the river in Hartlepool ;)
posted 16/10/2007 by CarsmileSteve

TRUE on both counts, but a) ALL old telly is like that, we have The Beiderbecke Affair on DVD which is at LEAST 50% Long Lingering Shots Of LEEDS and b) the Sam Smiths is a LOT more local there than it is in The London!
posted 17/10/2007 by MJ Hibbett

City of Death is ace! Douglas Adams script and an excellent DVD package.
posted 17/10/2007 by John Kell

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