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I nearly didn’t go to this gig!  I’ve been studying and working at the same time, and this was amongst the time when I needed to have been studying hard for my exams.  However, I’ve recently split from a long relationship, and needed cheering up – how better to do that than let my boys do it for me!  So I booked up a ticket and I was surprised (and obviously pleased!) to find that they hadn’t sold out.  I’m sure this event needs more publicity, going on the acts that they had lined up.

As usual, I was to be meeting up with Shell and Aidan, which I was looking forward to, as I’d not seen them since going to London to see Feeder at the start of May.

We were worried about the weather as it had been raining a lot all over the country, and as it happened, it was pretty wet that day too – it didn’t dampen our spirits though… well… not too much!!

I arrived after Shell and Aidan had, and they’d already got in, right to the front, so I was one of those annoying people who pushed their way through!  But we had a great view, apart from Shell, who’s only Kelly’s height! – we had just one row of people in front of us, so I wasn’t complaining.  (Talking of Shell and Kelly, she and Aidan went to the warm-up gig two nights before, in Edinburgh, so I might encourage Shell to do a bit of a review etc, as she met Kelly and had a lovely photo taken with him – which is how I know they’re the same height!)

Okay, there’s hardly much to say to create an atmosphere of what the scene was like – a cricket ground with chairs round the edge, the grassed area covered over so us varmints don’t muck it up, and a dirty great stage plonked on one side – that’s it really! Oh and grey, grim, cold, windy Manchester skies!!

So up first were 22-20’s and the first of 3 new bands to really tickle my fancy.  If I’d had room, I would’ve had a jolly good dance to this band – fantastic catchy indie rock and I liked it!  Their bass player was totally into his thing, had a mass of curly long hair and had a sort of Justin Hawkins way about him, but with a natty suit rather than terrifying spandex!!  What a star!  The keyboard player was a tad hot too – always good!

Next up were The Stands, emphatically recommended to me by new good friend and gigging buddy Adam.  He said they had a Beatles influence in their music but I’m not very good at recognising these things, so he could be right, I don’t know.  But what I liked about them was their use of 3 or 4 voices which proved to make a really full vocal sound.  Their instrumentals were classic too, and I really am dying to get hold of albums for both these first two bands, just to hear it all properly – the first time you see a band live, you always miss something, if you’ve not heard the album yet, I think.  Fear not, though, I will see both of them again!

Third act for this afternoon was Tim Booth, and I said to Shell “Who?” to which she replied “the singer from James”.  Now as he was coming onstage, Shell motioned to me that over in one of the cricketing buildings to our right, Rich and Kelly were being interviewed.  I looked over, and they were unmistakeable, Kelly in a black jacket, with something red on underneath, and Rich in a black shirt with the sleeves kinda rolled up.  They were sat with a woman being interviewed in front of a camera and so I imagined them saying all the usual rhetoric that comes with being asked the same questions a hundred times, wherever they go!

Because of this though, and the fact that I’d not heard diddly squat about Tim Booth before this, I was obviously a little distracted away from what was going on stage, but Tim’s music seemed to draw my attention back to the front of me.  It was catchy and upbeat, and Tim’s dancing is something to be witnessed!  He really gets into the music and just leaps about like a bloke having a fit, or something – think Jarvis Cocker crossed with Stevie Wonder, and you’re nearly there!

I even took note of song titles, I was paying that much attention by a few songs in.  There was Butterflies Dream, Monkey God, Bone and a stunning song at the end called What Goes On, which they said was a cover.  Not sure who did it first, or anything, but I thought it was amazing.  They have a really hot drummer called Milo, (we were told he’d been voted the sexiest man in Glastonbury, Tim said “and for good reason” and I agree! Seriously girls, check him out!) and for this song he gets up on his feet, stands over one of his drums and does this kinda tribal beat that goes right through you – you’ve gotta witness it to know how sexy it is though – the words escape me!

Incidentally, back in Bristol, the Monday following this gig, I was driving through town after College and saw Tim Booth and his keyboard player walking down towards one of Bristol’s fab gig venues, The Fleece… “hmmm,” I thought “what’s he doing here?”.  I promptly got on the net and found out he was playing, and got down there to watch them again – I’ll do a separate review for that, because it really was something else!

So, two weeks on from seeing Tim Booth, I have the album Bone, am hankering for some of the other songs that they played which aren’t on the album, like Butterflies’ Dream and I’d love it if they’ve recorded What Goes On, on some format, and as said, I’ve seen him live again, so as you can tell, I was rather impressed.  In fact, don’t you love that?  Going to a gig, not knowing some of the acts, and coming away finding a brand new love like that?  Tim Booth’s here to stay for me, I think!

Next up was Goldfrapp… who’s idea was that??  I’m not usually a critical person (I hope!), but her music was completely out of place, and so was she!!  I’ll see if anyone’s got a photo of her, because you need to see what I mean here – she turned up in boots half way up her thighs, an army jacket on, a huge t-shirt underneath tied up so that we can see her backside falling out of these big black knickers she had on underneath (and that’s it!!)… remember what I’ve said about the weather people… and the first thing she squawks down the microphone is “It’s cold!”… There’s all kinds of abuse running through my head here, but I’m sure you don’t need me to labour the point.  Unsurprisingly though, there were a number of people in the audience, including me, saying “put some bloody clothes on then love!”.

Her music is dance I suppose, I don’t really take that much interest in what kind of ‘music’ it is, but I noticed she had this weird thing that looked like a radio, and depending on where she waved her hand around it, it made a different squeaky noise, so she kept rubbing it between her legs – probably one of the few things that keeps an audience interested I suppose – the male population anyway!

Moving on swiftly, and oh, we get to the Pixies set.  Now up to this point, we’ve been surrounded by Phonics fans, like me, standing through all other acts just to be up front to watch our boys – we do it everywhere and we are determined little squirts, even if we are usually a fairly young crowd in general, with a high population of girls in the mix.  But as soon as it was time for the Pixies, this crowd got filled up from all angles by blokes of all ages, and they were pushing in, being rude, shouting abuse about Stereophonics, elbowing us out of the way and generally being really shitty – sorry folks but they were.

As soon as the band came on and started playing, the place went mental and I got pushed and pulled further away from the front of the crowd, leaving Shell and Aidan pinned up at the front.  Part of me wanted to get pulled out while I was still near enough to the security barrier for it to be an easy task, but then the belligerent part of me wanted to stand fast and wait to get back for my boys!  However, I didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter, as the security guards got further and further away.  Don’t get me wrong, folks, I’m no stranger to a mad crowd and in fact I’ve been known to encourage it at times, but I guess there were two main differences here.  One was that I didn’t know any Pixies songs, so I couldn’t really get into the music the way everyone around me was, and secondly that the guys getting nasty about Stereophonics had kinda set my mood to dislike the whole crowd altogether, and not want to be part of it.

As it went on, I was getting so crushed up at certain times, I got to the point where I was reminding myself to keep a certain amount of air in my lungs at all times, in case I needed to hold my breathe!  Sometimes I couldn’t breathe in because I was too crushed.  It’s scary to be thinking that, rather than trying to take notice of the music – but I really couldn’t do that in the end.  I must have looked pretty scared cos there were a few blokes there asking if I was alright!!

One song before the end of the Pixies set, I’d been pulled from one row behind the front, all the way through the mosh pit and out the other side!  I decided to pull out and cool down, and it took me a while of sitting on a spare seat, having taken off layers and sitting in the rain in a vest top, before I cooled down enough to feel like getting up again.  Ah well, you never know, this might have toughened me up enough to think a Feeder crowd is a walk in the park now!! Hehe

Thankfully, once the Pixies were done, so were the fans, and they all left.  Usually when Phonics are up next, the fans rush forward and get excitedly crushed up and start chanting and all that.  But after what had just happened, all the Phonics fans were left making the most of their personal space – it was a still a good big crowd, but there was no pushing, people were just standing about, looking dazed.  So I managed to work my way back into the crowd, and got as far as Richard’s side of the stage, maybe about ten people back from the front, before it looked too densely populated for me.

I stood next to a group of people who looked a bit merry and they were having a laugh, so I stayed near them for a bit.  A group of guys went past us at one point shouting for their friend “Dan” so this group with me were shouting for him too!  It was really funny, and that’s what I like about a Phonics crowd, very rarely any nastiness going on.

On came Stereophonics and I really can’t remember things like what they were wearing and all that – I was just soaking up the music, jumping around with the people I was stood with and singing my little lungs out, knackered as they were! I started jumping around and got separated from this group of people, so I just went with the flow of the tide and tried to see what I could of the band.  They seemed a little “less” than normal, Rich wasn’t crowd-flirting the way he often does, but that said, there wasn’t anything lacking in their enthusiasm.  I think what it was, was that this was the end of the tour and they were probably a bit road-weary by then – more on that later.

We were treated to all the major numbers which are all now classic crowd pleasers, but the crowd weren’t expecting an oldie to be thrown in, unless they’d been to the warm-up gig (Michelle!!).  They threw in Too Many Sandwiches as if they’d always played it – I was brimming at this point and the whole crowd tried their best to sing along to the lyrics!

Although I’ve never been a fan of Step On My Old Size Nines, I had to admit that the crowd were chuffed to hear it, and what they didn’t do this time around was have an entire bums-on-stools section with Handbags, Size Nines, a dreary slower acoustic version of Have a nice day… nothing like that.  In fact, they didn’t play Handbags at all (thank you SOOOOOOO much!!) and it wasn’t missed!  I’ve probably said in various other reviews how I hate that whole mushy dreary part of their show, so I’m glad they’ve scrapped that – they’ve also scrapped the backing singers. *Big cheer from the back of the room*

Traffic was as wonderful as ever – my all time favourite, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, and the crowd duly did their bit and sang their little brains out while Kelly backed away from the mic stand, smiling on his adoring thousands.  I love that bit, every time, I’ll never tire of it!

At the break for the encore, I was feeling a bit weary again, and decided to get out of the crowd a bit.  I’m glad I did in a way for the treat that was to come, because I could stand in my own space and watch Kelly, all on his lonesome in the centre of the stage, singing another old favourite Billy Davey’s Daughter – wow!  I can honestly hold my hands up and say there were happy tears at this point.

A much more jovial, more upbeat, more lively version than normal of Have A Nice Day came up next, or maybe it seemed that way after the gentleness of Billy Daveys’.  Then I was able to have a good sing along to Maybe Tomorrow, which is one of the few recent songs that is a classic for me.

Before the last song, Help Me, Kelly came to the mic, to have a quick chat.  He said this would be the last song of the night, then went on to thank the crew for sticking with them over the last 18 months.  He thanked us for putting up with the crap weather, which I’d forgotten about by this time!  He then said that this would be their last gig until next year!  They were off to record another album, so they would probably see us next spring.

Well, as it dawned on me that this was my only gig for this whole calendar year, the tears began to flood!  I needed to find Shell and have a hug, so started texting her, but she came back saying Don’t come over yet, watch the boys do this last song!  And I turned to the band once again, weeping as Kelly went mental at the end of Help Me – giving it his all completely.  His hair was going everywhere, his guitar was too, it was ace – he doesn’t often let go like that, so when he does, it’s wonderful.

So I found Shell after the gig, by the burger stand outside, for a tray of chips-with-curry-sauce and a hug.  Shell took some photos which I'll try and get on the site as soon as possible for you.  Check out the "last updated" section on the front page, and I'll let you know if I've put them up.

I know that I will be bridging the gap with other artists, I’ve seen Stereotonics this year, and they’re playing again in September, so that’s kinda nice to go to.  If you squint a bit the singer does kinda look like Kelly – even if it’s all just cos of the way he’s dressed!!

But I’ve had to wait for my boys before, and I’ll wait for them again – it’s always worth it.  Now... time to get excited about the new album folks!!

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Vegas Two Times

A Thousand Trees

More Life in a Tramp’s Vest

The Bartender and the Thief

Movie star

Jealousy

I’m Alright

Too Many Sandwiches

Mr Writer

Step on My Old Size Nines

Madame Helga

I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio

Traffic

Roll Up and Shine

Just Looking

Local Boy in the Photograph

Encore:

Billy Davey’s Daughter (Kelly solo)

Have a Nice Day

Maybe Tomorrow

Help Me