BinarySlave's Last.fm Journal

35,000th Track!

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:04 +0000

Scrobble # 35,000 was hit today and it was Alter Bridge with Blackbird ..one of my favourite songs of the moment. Complete fluke it took the 35,000th spot too which is nice :)

I highly recommend the album it comes from too .... Blackbird. Great album :)

Marillion - The Opera House, Bournemouth - 15/11/2008

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:48:49 +0000

Sat 15 Nov – Marillion

To skip straight to the review of the gig, please feel free to scroll down to 'The Main Band' header. If you want to read an intro plus a load of other stuff that happened before the gig, read on from here!

This was my 2nd gig on the bands 'Happiness Is The Road' tour, having already seen them in Bristol earlier in the week.

This was also the 1st proper gig I have taken my wife to. She came to a h-natural show with me last year and also an Oceansize gig last October, but the former was definately very different to a gig and the latter was so small it hardly counts. This was a proper big gig.

I booked a hotel in Bournemouth ages ago, the idea being we could both have a drink. I figured this would at least let Lucy (the wife) have a head start on getting into the vibe of a Marillion gig. However, for reasons I won't go into here and now, she isn't drinking at the moment. Not a huge problem, but she even admits a few drinks would have improved the experience for her.

We had the usual nightmare getting from A to B. Infact, getting to Bournemouth was ok, it was finding the friggin' hotel that took us nearly an hour! When we did find it, we had major problems parking. I asked one of the hotel porters where we could park? as surely they had more than a few reserved spaces, and he gestured towards some houses down the road and said we could park there. Fine, if there was any space there! ....essentially, not the best start, wound me up something chronic and lucy ended up squeezing the car into a non existant gap that more or less blocked other cars in, but we had no choice.

We then checked into the hotel, where we were told given our keys and advised we were in 'The West Wing'. This turned out to be a crappy house down the road! I wasn't impressed! ......needless to say my mood wasn't great, but it soon improved.

We went for some food in a nice italian restaurant, which was pretty quiet when we went in, but quickly filled and i'd say 90% of the people in there had a Marillion t shirt on! made me smile :) We then went to a Wetherspoons down the road, and yet again, 90% of the people in there had a Marillion t shirt on! A regular at the bar said to the barman, 'Why the f*ck is it so busy in here tonight?' ...again, made me smile :)

We joined the queue at about 7pm, half hours before doors were due to open. Lucy was very surprised at the length of the queue (I swear she thinks there are only a handful of Marillion fans in the whole world), and was even more surprised when I told her to turn around to see how much longer the queue had got after we had been there for 10 minutes!

Once inside, we tried to go up the the balconies, and while some people seemed to be let into this area, we, along with several others, were not welcome. I thought this was odd, so queried it with security and they informed me I had to have a VIP pass, be old, be a child or be disabled to get up there. Nice ......

So we got some drinks and settled for a spot right infront of the mixing desk. waited a bit and the support eventually came on at about 8:15.

The Support:
Support was from the rather good Sine Star Project. I grabbed their latest album from iTunes a few weeks ago when I found out they would be the support and immediately liked it. They were even better live, comign across far heavier, which is fine by me! They played a few songs from their latest album aswell, one of which was Playbrown bread, and it went down very well indeed.

During the support I went and got myself 2 pints, thinking this would be the best time to avoid a queue and foolishly thought they would last me all the way through the gig. I asked Lucy to try and keep my spot, but when I returned it was obvious she hadn't been able to. She had tried, but had been completely ignored. No big deal though, I squeezed back in, and made my presence 'felt' :) (i find a belch every min or 2 does the trick!) after a few numbers my space was once again mine! :D

Unfortunately, the 2 pints disappeared in about 20 mins!!! So (after briefing Lucy on how to sprawl her body over my spot so no one took it) I trundled back to the bar and asked for 2 double vodka and Red Bulls, but was told they only had something called 'Pussy' !!! ..yep 'Pussy' !! ...I was advised it was just like Red Bull, so I opted for it. The barmaid looked dead embarrased as I made a few comments about what a weird name it was, and how i hadn't drank 'Pussy' before ...lol .....i guess you had to be there ;)

Anyway, enough of the waffling, this is a gig review not an autobiography!

The Main Band:
Marillion came on stage at about 9:20ish and kicked off with Dreamy Street which segued seamlessly into This Train Is My Life. This was a different opener to the Bristol gig, and other gigs up until Manchester on this tour. I wonder if the band bowed to the opinion of the fans on this one? as the previous opener of Nothing Fills The Hole wasn't proving a popular choice. Tonight it came 3rd on the bill, and to me seemed to fit much better.

I still don't rate Dreamy Street as a great opener though, but it's better, and as the new album opens with this tracks I guess it'll do! It definately starts in a more natural way. As such, Nothing Fills The Hole definately felt more natural when it came around. I really do enjoy this song on the album, and never had anything against it as a song, I just strongly disagreed with it as an opener.

Woke Up came next. I love the guitar riff of an intro to this track, infact, i'd stick my neck out and say this should have been the opener! It also rocks a big phat one!

We were then treated to PlayThe Other Half, from the much maligned Somewhere Else album. This one works well live, H seemed really into it, and it does showcase his voice very well. It's got such a catchy chorus that it's almost impossible not to sing along to. I love the piano parts leading onto the guitar aswell.

PlayFantastic Place was next, and whislt it's a brilliant track, I have to confess to being a little bored of it now. I think they have played it at every gig I have been to now (all 7 of them). Time to rest it methinks.

Essence was superb, and I was very pleased they played it after I heard they omitted it from the Manchester gig. It really is an epic (one of many Marillion epics) and comes across so well live. I love it.

Once Essence was done, Lucy nudged me to say she was dead uncomfortable and was going to find somewhere to sit. Fair enough, she had been stood there with me for the best part of 2.5 hours, all through the waiting and the support, for a band she doesn't even like. So I didn't object.

Up next came some treats from the magnificent Brave album, Mad followed by PlayThe Great Escape, both of which are personal favourites of mine. I have always had a very special connection with the latter however, and hearing/seeing god himself absolutely nail the guitar solo at the end was one of the highlights of the night.

PlayAfraid of Sunlight was very well received, another personal favourite for me, although again, i've heard it live quite a few times now and have tons of other tracks I have yet to hear.

Then it was back to the new album, with The Man from the Planet Marzipan and the rather brilliant Asylum Satellite #1. Both are great tracks on the album, but Asylum Satellite has some superb live moments in it. The physchadelic mid/end guitar section is just magic. A real treat to see Steve Rothery at his absolute best, and he really really looks like he is getting off on playing it. Superb.

I predicted the next track would be The Invisible Man before it's opening sequence began to pound. At this point my view was starting to get restricted and I really needed a trip to the loo ..so decided to do just that and go and see if my dear wife was still in the venue or had decided to feck off back to the hotel.

After a little searching I found her perfectly happy perched on some steps near one of the bars, along with a few other women who had undoubtably been dragged along by their husbands/boyfriends.

I elected to watch the rest of the show with her, the view was so so, but the sound was fine, and I was absolutely cooking as it was so hot. It was a welcome way to catch the last few numbers.

PlayThe Invisible Man was as great as ever, I have nothing bad to say about it, except i've heard it live a fair few times now. It does showcase the band particularly well though, very modern progressive, so it's good they are playing it.

The first encore had Whatever Is Wrong With You (far better live than on the record!) followed by quite possibly the best Marillion track of all time - PlayNeverland. This is one track I will NEVER get bored with. The abilities of Steve Rothery as a guitarist just shine all the way through this. The man is a living legend.

The final encore started with Three Minute Boy, a song that has made occasional outings over the years, played twice at gigs I have been to where there have been technical problems and they are trying to fill time till such problems are resolved... eg unrehearsed and unplanned. I would hazard a guess that the fan reaction to it has been good enough for the band to actually include it in the set, as it's been played over the last few dates and has been well received. Infact, tonight was the best rendition of it I have heard, and even more so was the crowds reaction to it. They bloody loved it and lapped up the whole thing. It does help that there are some good singalong moments I think, and again, another smattering of God himself with some superb bluesy soloing towards the end. The song has admittedly never been a favourite of mine, but I think that has now changed!

The gig ended with the title track of the latest album, Happiness Is The Road. Aside from being a really great track, it has a very good message within it. Don't go busting your ass trying to live for the past or the future, live for today ..live for the moment. Live for now. (these aren't lyrics btw, just my summary!) I think that is advice that can't ignore. Of course, whats not to like about another Marillion epic where H's soaring vocals are showcased to the max.

The band do a very clever thing when finishing off this track. They slowly stop playing, one by one, bit by bit, whilst H is encouraging the audience to 'Sing it back' (eg 'Happppineess Iiiiiiiss The Roooaaad!!'). Eventually the band are no longer playing, the audience are providing the show, and the band leave the stage with the audience literally on cloud 9.

To put it in perspective, when we left the venue and set off back to the hotel, we decided to head back to town for some takeaway food. We got back into the area of the venue about 20 mins after the gig had kicked out, and there was still people in the street belting out 'Happppineess Iiiiiiiss The Roooaaad!!' on the tops of their voices. The vibe that the band create with the ending of that track is immense. Yes, it could get boring ....but at the moment, it's not .. it's flippin' brilliant!

And that was that .... Lucy thought the gig was ok (result) and I absolutely loved it.

Finally, a few words about the venue:
Too many people, too little space ...2 huge balconies upstairs that spanned the whole place that were only used by a handful of VIPS, old/disabled or kids ..... bad idea and pissed a lot of people off.

Sound wise - great, amongst the best gigs I have been to. All in all, a great night!

Now if you are still reading this, then thankyou :) You deserve a medal and really should know that once I start writing a review I really struggle to stop. I like detail. Thanks a lot for reading and please feel free to leave a comment :)

30,000th Track!

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:20:33 +0000

Shocks me to realise I hit 30k scrobbles earlier today!

The track was Marillion's 'Half The World' from their new album 'Happiness Is The Road'. Purely coincidental that it was played at 30k, but pleasing as it's one of my fave tracks at the moment! :)

Pineapple Thief - The Orange Box, Yeovil - 13/06/2008

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:36:20 +0000

Fri 13 Jun – Pineapple Thief

This was my first gig in 6 months and boy was it good to go to one again.

I've seen Pineapple Thief once before, at the launch gig for Little Man back in 2006, and to be honest I have very little memory of that gig due to the amount of alcohol I had consumed before the band came on (they had a 2 hour delay!). As such, it was really nice to see them in a sober state this time around.

There was one key difference this time around, in that they have lost a member. Wayne Higgins who was a secondary guitarist is no longer with the band and they are now a four piece. That said, they looked and sounded like a much tighter unit and looked really confident in what they were doing. It was good to see them this, way. The recent rise in gigs they are playing is obviously helping their playing gel that much more.

The material they played was mostly from the new album Tightly Unwound. It's an album that I haven't invested much time in as yet, and if I am being honest, from the few listens I have had it hasn't grabbed me at all.

Hearing some of these tracks live has gone some way to helping me appreciate them more though and i've listened to the album on my iPod since and really enjoyed it.

I thought the turnout was pretty poor if I am being honest. I'd say there were no more than 100 people there, and they were dotted around the place. There seemed to be pockets of people who knew each other and stood together chatting through most of the gig. I've been to this venue before to see Oceansize and there was probably double the amount of people there for that and they all gathered infront of the stage to watch the band. It was just weird for that not to happen this time.

I felt the turnout was a bit of a letdown, but then a band as small as TPT (even though they are on the ascendence) playing in a town in the middle of Somerset ...well lets say that Yeovil is hardly the gigging capital of the UK, so I think it was mostly faitful locals (the band are Yeovil based) and some hardcore fans in attendance.

The crowd didn't seem that appreciative either. They was a good few seconds delay after each track ending before the applause filtered out, but that could well be a sign of people not being wholly familiar with the new music and not realising it was actually the end of a track.

That said, I still enjoyed it and would definately see the band again.

Setlist - I am rubbish with remembering that sort of detail, especially when I am not all that familiar with their latest album. They mostly played the new stuff, interspersed with bits from Little Man, 10 Stories Down and Variations on a Dream.

What I can say though, is that Too Much to Lose was absolutely awesome and worth going to the gig for on it's own!

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take any photo's at this gig. I left my damn camera in the car and didn't realise until the band were already on stage. Oh well .......

Free Marillion MP3's!

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:14:29 +0000

Marillion have uploaded a collection of their finest songs 'Crash Course' for free download on LastFM.

http://www.last.fm/music/Marillion/Crash+Course

Somewhere Else
Faith
Neverland
Fantastic Place
You're Gone
Estonia
Afraid Of Sunlight
The Great Escape

If you enjoy these, you can find out more at www.marillion.com

'The Other Half''s Xmas Pressie!

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:04:22 +0000

My 'Other Half' couldn't care less about music or my fave band Marillion, but she got me one heck of a thoughtful marillion related xmas pressie this year!

Its a picture of H in Neverland mode that I took at the Wolves gig on the recent xmas tour - she's somehow found the pic and had it put onto a large canvas for me!

The quality of the above pic doesn't do it justice AT ALL :D

I was speechless for a good 2 minutes when i opened it this morning! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Marillion - Cardiff University, Cardiff - 04/12/2007

Thu, 6 Dec 2007 13:07:05 +0000

Tue 4 Dec – Marillion

Two Marillion gigs in 3 days? Yep! :D Makes a grand total of 5 Marillion gigs in 2007, which pleases me enormously as I hadn't seen the band live at all until January this year, despite being a fan for donkeys years!

So the gig was In Cardiff University, which is only a 64 mile trip from the edges of Somerset. The journey was pain free, aside from the seemingly obligatory wrong turning we just have to make on every trip. We got there in plenty of time, found a place to park relatively easily and went searching for some food and drink.

I only attracted a small bit of local abuse aswell, which is a result compared to Wolverhampton. When we sat down inthe pub I took my wallet and keys out of my pocket and put them on the table ...a guy turned around from a seat near us and ordered me not to jangle my keys! Do I have 'please have a go at me?' tattooed on my forehead or something? :)

The bloke was paraletic and shouting abuse at anyone who dared to pass/look/be near him. In actual fact he was abusing thin air a lot aswell. Poor bloke .....what a sorry state to get into.

We joined the queue about 10 minutes before the doors opened and held no hope of a decent spot once inside, but at the same time we were not too bothered.

As soon as we got inside I went straight to the merch stand and asked if I could exchange the long sleeved shirt I bought at the Wolverhampton gig. When putting it on for the first time earlier that day it ripped right down one side, straight down the seam! They were more than happy to exchange it once they saw the damage and told me it must have been a manufacturing error. I'm just pleased I got it replaced. Thanks guys!

After the merch stand I glanced around to find a decent spot and noticed that the front row wasn't completely occupied! There was a load of space on the rail about 3 foot to the side of where Steve Rothery would be! RESULT! Needless to say, we occupied this spot immediately, taking it in turns to go to the toilet/bar whilst the other guarded the territory. The only drawback was we were right infront of the left speaker stack. Oh well!

The Band:
The wait for the band to come was a bit of a drag, probably because we were expecting them on 1 hour after doors opened, as had happened at the other dates on this tour. It wasn't as bad as the waits we have had at other gigs though. Blackfield earlier this year springs to mind as a REALLY long wait.

The band finally joined the stage at 20:30 and kicked off with the first 4 tracks from Brave, as they had in Wolverhampton.

Infact, the set was pretty much the same, so as such I won't go into the detail that graced my Wolverhampton review.

The main difference was that they dropped Genie & Circular Ride and added This Strange Engine later in the set instead. That meant 2 epics in one set as it came straight after the This Town trilogy. Pretty cool!

The sound was ok, although as you might expect from being infront of a speaker stack, it wasn't fantastic. However, that's a sacrifice we were willing to make.

One thing that was mildly annoying was the security guard who was on our side of the stage spent most of the gig stood infront of Steve Rothery. We could still see the top half of Rothers, but it would have been better better to have a proper front row view without an obstruction. He moved periodically though, and I managed to take a few pictures that didn't include him!

The crowd were much better than at Wolves aswell. They seemed much more up for it and there was a definate party vibe in the air. Great to see ..just wish I could have had a few beers and joined in a bit. I find I can never really let go at a gig unless I've had a few pints. It's just the kind of person I am, fairly reserved when sober, but bouncy and annoying when drunk! :D

I caught a kazoo thrown by Mark before the final encore aswell! Something else Marillion related to treasure!

All in all - a very enjoyable gig. Not quite as good as Wolves simply due to our positioning, and maybe because we knew the set, but still really good.

Setlist:
Bridge
Living With the Big Lie
Runaway
Mad
Fruit Of The Wild Rose
Out Of This World
Real Tears For Sale <>
Somewhere Else
Seasons End

Interval!

Hooks In You
Most Toys
Cannibal Surf Babe
The Other Half
This Town
The Rakes Progress
100 Nights
This Strange Engine

Encore #1:
Quartz
Neverland

Encore #2:
Let It Snow

So 5 times in 1 year ....still can't quite believe it!

Xmas card from Marillion!

Tue, 4 Dec 2007 14:45:23 +0000

Was just opening mail and came across my very first xmas card of the year ..... and its from Marillion !!!!!!!!!

To say it has made my day would be an understatement!! :D

Its because I entered a competition on their forum to receive one ..so not like I am buddies with the band ....I wish! :)

Marillion - Wolverhampton Civic Hall - 02/12/2007

Mon, 3 Dec 2007 14:58:14 +0000

Sun 2 Dec – Marillion

This is one mammoth review ...again, once I started I could not stop! Sorry!

So Marillion decided to head out onto the road once again for a little Christmas tour. I have already seen them 3 times this year but as soon as the tour was announced I was determined to catch them at least once.

The closest venue was Cardiff @ 64 miles, but Wolverhampton wasn't that far either @ 124 miles. So I thought 'Sod it! I'll go to both!'

I arranged to go with my gig buddy Leigh again and he arranged the tickets (cheers mate!). I elected to drive and yesterday afternoon @ 2:30pm, off we set for the Midlands!

The journey, for once, was pretty much trouble free. Getting to the outskirts of Wolverhamption was a piece of piss & we only took one wrong turning on the outskirts of the city due to the AA route finder instructions being completely wrong yet again. Common sense prevailed though and heading for the city centre seemed like a good plan. Not long after we picked up signs for the Civic Centre so just headed for them, which led us straight to the venue and the carpark opposite it! Woohoo! This was easy for a change!

Of course nothing is ever that easy, and something or someone has to piss me off at some point, otherwise things just wouldn't be normal!

When entering the car park we had to take a ticket, and on the top of the ticket there was some text saying to give the ticket to the car park attendant when leaving the car park and to make sure your car was locked. THis was part of the same piece of text, so I assumed I needed to go find the car park attendant. I don't know what he needed the ticket for ...some car parks are weird though and I didn't want my car clamped or anything so I did what it said!

I found a guy near the entrance and asked him if I really needed to give him the ticket? And his attitude surfaced immediately. It went a bit like this

attendant: 'now why would you want to give it to me?'
me: 'because it says so on the ticket?'
attendant: 'no it doesn't'
me: 'yes it does!!' (i proceeded to read out loud what it said)
attendant: 'well its blatantly obvious it means when you are leaving the car park!'
me: 'I am leaving the car park!!!!'

The only reason I questioned it was because it advised to lock your car doors as part of the same sentence! So it was only natural to assume it meant when you left your car in the car park as opposed to leaving for good (why would you lock your car doors then?).

Anyway ..a bit of a slanging match later and I had to walk away as my angry side was getting angrier. My discussion with the attendant continued as I walked away (i walked away??!!!) I really am getting old!

We then went to a KFC down the road for some food. I looked for a toilet, and could only find a disabled one, so I used that. But some jobsworth told on me! He literally told a member of staff I had gone into the disabled loo! Do people in Wolverhampton not like me or something?! lol

Anyway ...this is a gig review and not a whole world against me rant :D

The Gig!
We decided to join the queue @ around 5:45pm. It was tiny with about 20 people infront of us, so we figured it was a great chance of getting right to the front. The weather must have been keeping people away from queuing too early (as is the norm at every Marillion gig I have been to so far). It was very cold and very windy. We braved it though and it turned out to be a wise move, as we ended up getting a spot right at the front, on the rail, right infront of Pete Trewavas! Result!!!!!!!!

There was no support on this tour, instead Marillion were due to play an extra long set. They hit the stage at 8:30pm to a rapturous applause and kicked off with the the first half of Brave. I kind of wish I hadn't gone looking for the setlist of the previous 2 shows on this tour, as the set did throw up some real surprises. Then again, if they played the first half of brave without me knowing they were going to, i'd have been majorly disappointed when they stopped after Mad. At least this way I was prepared for it.

During Runaway (or it may have been Living With the Big Lie) H did a very girly impression of someone showing their tits and then flashing their arse. I was at the front and he wasn't far from me, and it tickled me pink! I pissed myself laughing as he pushed his arse backwards and he caught me laughing! ..he threw a glare at me as if to say 'what are you laughing at?!!'. I looked straight down ..felt like I had been told off! :D

The first few tracks were a bit weird aswell, as we were so close to the band that they could see you looking directly at them. Occasionally they would see you looking and its SO surreal to have your icons look back at you! I found it difficult to keep looking once they caught me looking and had to avert my gaze! As the gig went on this seemed to pass ...so much so that I spent much of the last half staring holes through H whether he happened to glance over or not.

As Mad ended, they merged seamlessly into Fruit Of The Wild Rose, a track from 2001's Anoraknophobia that hasn't been played since that tour. Its a great bluesy/jazzy number with a superb bass line throughout. Stood infront of Pete Trewavas watching him play was a real treat during this song.

Steve Hogarth then announced the flow of the evenings proceedings. He said that the show would be broken into two sections, the first being 'art' and the second being 'fun'. He made several cracks about all their songs being about death and water and wanting to get them out of the way first so that we didn't leave the gig all depressed. He is infact correct, I can name a handful of their songs about death and water!

They then launched into a song about death and water! out of the world, I don't think I've heard this one live before (apart from on CD/DVD obviously) and it was again one of the nights many treats. The only let down was the guitar solo was a little quiet when it really mattered, this is a very minor gripe however.

We were then treated to a brand new song! Real Tears For Sale. H told us that the song was from the next album ..but after a few seconds said 'unless we change our mind!'. It was actually VERY good. Really enjoyed it. It had some classic Marillion moments and a great bit of guitar towards the end. Like a lot of my favourite Marillion tracks it seemed a bit of a rollercoaster ride, culminating in big climax. I hope it ends up on the album.

Somewhere Else was as stunning as ever but was outclassed by Seasons End. I never thought i'd ever get to hear this one live. I am no woolly woofter, but it was hard to fight back the emotion during this track.

The band then announced they were leaving the stage for 10 minutes to have a curry (out of a can!). And off they went! .... whilst they were absent, a screen was erected centre stage ...it atyed there for 7 or 8 minutes and was then taken down. Not sure what the point in that was, but nevermind!

The band then returned and launched straight into Hooks In You ....and f*ck me did the crowd seem to go nuts. This is one brilliant track to raise the energy levels. Following on from the subdued (albeit brilliant) first half this was the perfect antidote and the response the band got afterwards was, from where I was stood, amazing! H even commented that they would have to skip the next song as we wouldn't like it as we were all a bunch of rockers! ....he relented though and they kicked off with Genie. This was a bit of a change in pace from Hooks, but when it got going it really did rock aswell! Hard to think it would as on the album it doesn't come across as that rocky at all.

At some point during the 2nd half there were calls from the audience to turn the vocals up, then another call to turn the bass up. So H shouted at the front of house guy to 'turn everyone up!!!' ...which I think he did!

Unfortunately, this resulted in distortion in places and towards the end of the gig it was so loud at times it was painful. I've seen some much heavier bands than Marillion, but last night they became the loudeest band I have ever heard. It all added to the occasion though.

Circular Ride and Cannibal Surf Babe were great, as was The Other Half. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the night though was the This Town trilogy. I was hoping they would play this and was not disappointed. It's strange as in This town isn't a major favourite of mine, but 100 Nights is, and it would never be complete without the others. It's hard to remember much from this part of the gig though, although I was aring rather intently at Steve Rothery throughout. God does live ..he plays guitar for Marillion.

Quartz headed up the first encore and whilst I really enjoyed it, it was just too loud. I actually felt like I was going to pass out during this song ...it was painful. As such, Neverland wasn't as enjoyable as it might have been. Of course, with a fan favourite such as Neverland I could be having root canal surgery without anasthetic and still enjoy it!

The final encore was the strangest experience I have ever had at a gig. Mark Kelly and Pete Trewavas came back on stage with a small carboard box full of plastic kazoos! They threw them into the audience. I almost caught one but it rebounded off my hand!! :(

Mark announced that for the final track the members of the audience who had kazoos would have to play along. He gave a brief blast on the keyboard of what they needed to play, and asked the crowd to repeat after him. OF course it was nothing like what he asked for, and Pete, with much sarcasm in his voice said that we were the best at this so far on the tour. He gave a great kazoo demonstration and then on waltzed SANTA CLAUS!

Steve Hogarth dressed badly as Santa (think of the film, Bad Santa!) with a bottle of Becks in his hand (which he was spilling all over the stage!) was a hilarious site! He asked the audience where 'H' was? and then made sure we had been brieffed on the Kazoo-ness. The band then launched into the christmas classic 'Let It Snow', with accompaniment throught from Kazoos.

Part way through snow started to fall from the top of the hall .... being at the front during this moment was magical. It was beyond brilliant and quite simply the weirdest ending to a gig that I have ever experienced.

To sum up - this gig was absolutely superb. I had a brilliant time. This was probably reflected by the fact me and Leigh barely stopped talking about itfor nearly an hour on our 2.5 hour journey home!

Setlist:
Bridge
Living With the Big Lie
Runaway
Mad
Fruit Of The Wild Rose
Out Of This World
Real Tears For Sale <>
Somewhere Else
Seasons End

Interval!

Hooks In You
Genie
Circular Ride
Most Toys
Cannibal Surf Babe
The Other Half
This Town
The Rakes Progress
100 Nights

Encore #1:
Quartz
Neverland

Encore #2:
Let It Snow

So we have Cardiff tomorrow. Of course the element of suprise will no longer be there, but it shoul still be a great show. I can't wait! :)

20,000th Track!

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:15:59 +0000

Blackfield - My Gift of Silence

This one was fixed I am afraid! :) I noticed I was a few tracks away from 20k so decided that my favourite Blackfield track had to have the honour of being the 20,000th scrobble :)