Blog: Nottingham

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Off to Nottingham last night then, for date ONE on my Accidental Tour. A pleasant train journey and a pointless by lovely tram ride (it'd probably be quicker to walk than take the 1 minute trip to Hockley from the station, and certainly cheaper, but HEY! TRAMS!) found me sat in The Lord Roberts, where I was soon joined by Legend Of The Indie and All Round Good Guy Mr Phil Wilson. We had a couple of PINTS, a bit of a DISCUSS, and then nipped over the road to Lee Rosy's tea room, where we started to get stuff set up. Mr Frankie Machine arrived soon after and the three of us spent a happy fifteen minutes STARING at various wires in the PA hoping that, through QUANTUM PHYSICS, the act of LOOKING HARD at various plugs and THINKING at them would get them to work. Eventually, through use of Computing Good Practice (trying EVERYTHING turned on and off, one by one) we discovered that one of the speakers wasn't switched on. AHA!

Tim arrived and we began setting up GEAR, then we soundchecked Phil, by with time The Frankie Machine Big Band had arrived. We'd just about sorted them out when Tom and Emma arrived in The Tigermobile, by which point it was pretty much time to get started. I RAN over to the pub for a much needed half as PANIC was setting in. Sam Tasty had organised the night, but had verged on cancelling it as he had a Work Thing come up that he had to attend - the night was resurrected by ME taking over promotion, which was GOOD in that it mean it all happened, but NERVE WRACKING in that I suddenly found myself Promoting A Gig. I HATE promoting gigs! It's worrying, frightening, annoying and WORRYING (again), even when it's Totally Acoustic or something, so The Fear was digging in. Still, Young Jamie offered to do the DOOR for me, and once The Frankies had kicked off things felt a bit better. I've never actually seen them playing as a full unit before, and it was really rather good, especially when the SHAKER came in. I don't think the shaker gets enough credit in ROCK!

Next up it was US, and we did THIS:

The Gay Train

Do The Indie Kid

Looking At My Hands

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Hey Hey 16K

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

It all seemed to go pretty well - "hilariously" we did Hey Hey 16K pretty much CORRECT all the way through for the first time in AGES and by COMMENTING upon this fact pretty much ensured that i would a) almost forget to play and subsequently b) forget half the words when we DID play Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid. DOH!

With us done it was time for a refreshing cup of tea and Mr Phil Wilson, who was once again GRATE. Having known him in a generally NON-ROCK way it's still a bit weird seeing him go on stage and TRANSFORM into THE Phil Wilson, especially when he is ROCKING OUT and dancing about the place. It was BRILLIANT, also brilliantly LOUD, but my favourite bit was when we went on stage with him at the end. "Unfortunately" Phil was using my amp, so I couldn't play guitar, so had the FANTASTIC opportunity to, basically, stand at the front and WATCH The Validators. I pretended to share the other vocal microphone with Emma, but really I was just stood thinking "Wow, this is REALLY good!" especially when everyone went into full-on Velvet Underground MODE on "In The Rain".

They sound good, The Validators, when playing with someone who can actually sing. NEVER TELL THEM I SAID SO.

Afterwards we got packed up, said our farewells, then me and Tom went over the road to join The Wilsons (featuring Pam who was BRAVELY out despite being Proper Poorly) for a last drink before heading home. HUGE WAVES of RELIEF flooded over me as my body realised it had all gone OK in the end AND I was now no longer In Charge, and I looked back, as I say, on that last little bit in particular and thought "Cor! That was BRILL!"

posted 2/5/2008 by MJ Hibbett

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