A tale of events following his favourite band on tour
By Steve Passmoor (registered idiot)
Certified mad with more money than sense © members of the Ginger and the Sonic Circus/ Wildhearts message board
Our tale begins on Saturday 19th September, Chutzpah had been released 19 days previously, the author had only had possession for 16 days due to a postal strike in the south. Nottingham was the first stop on the trek…. Read on….
Left home on the beginning of the mammoth trek that was The Wildhearts 2009 Autumn tour. Caught the bus outside the Black Horse pub in Chester le Street, main street very busy full of shoppers in the warm sun.
Using the bus pass I use for work saved me the near £3 fare to Durham, but that was thankfully a shield to the £4 I had to pay to get myself to Newton Aycliffe. All around the houses we went until I finally reached Aycliffe. I was warned not to get off at Chilton, or I’d never be seen again!! Saw a handball in a football game that was going on next to the road on the way that was more blatant that Maradona’s hand of god in Mexico 86, like that famous incident, the referee in this game didn’t give the free kick either.
Col picked me up from outside the late night bar called Blakes, apparently, the only place for miles around that stays open after midnight!!
Back to Col’s while we waited for Martin, Lisa, Ashley, Jason and Karen to turn up, Col’s wife took their kids to the grandparents to be looked after over the weekend and when all had turned up, away we went.
Following Jason & Karen’s VW Beetle wasn’t too hard as there’s a bumble bee on the radio aerial (I think it completes the look Jason, if you’re reading ;) ha-ha)
The A1 was quite busy and the roadworks where the A1M is being lengthened further north from the stretch that already exists around Wetherby kept us down to what seemed like a crawl at 50mph.
Stopping at Woodall services for refreshment brought a smile to my face as I learned that Sunderland had lost to Burnley by 3 goals to 1, now for Newcastle to beat Plymouth (a game I was missing to take in this gig) and the weekend would be sorted.
When Nottingham arrived, we found the direction to the hotel pretty easily, but Nottingham’s one way system is notorious (once on the way to the match in Derby, we took a wrong turn and saw the castle in Nottingham 3 times as we didn’t have a clue where or how to get off the one way system)
As we were heading away from the hotel, it was decided a quick u-ey was required, so both cars turned around in the middle of the city. Finding the car park on St James Street, our car got parked up and proceeded to cross the road and into the hotel. We were eventually joined by the other carload about 15 minutes later, turns out they’d parked up about three planets away and had had to walk back to us.
After checking in, the others went and found the nearest bar, as the hotel bar didn’t open until 5pm. I had decided I needed to shower and change, so joined them in a short while (after a visit to Subway, in which I ended up with a cheese and honey mustard sub, instead of the club sandwich I’d ordered)
Onwards to the board meet in Speakeasy, where, it seemed the whole pub was filled with Wildhearts t-shirts. Old acquaintances were quickly greeted and a game of pool started between Martin & Jason. I slipped my Pound coin on the table to play next while I chatted to VickyP, her husband James, Davejnick & Wilddan1. Jason won the pool so I was playing him, the people who run the pub couldn’t have put the table in a worse position, there was no way to comfortably get down to any shot as there was no more than 2 feet of clearance around the table, and indeed I found there was even less at the baulk end as I went down to break and almost ruptured a kidney on a shelf perched 3 feet off the ground attached to a pillar.
After winning 4 games, I was finally defeated by Martin and as I retired to the players lounge via the bar, I was introduced to Firedup, by the very man himself, who although now lives in Nottingham, grew up in Chester le Street and went to the same comprehensive school as me. Time was spent recalling teachers and their ways, some of it was fuzzy to both of us, as I had left around 2 years before he started.
Whilst this happy chat was happening, firedup introduced me to nig1012 and the talk soon turned to me and my mad tour, how many I was going to, how much it was costing, how many times I’d now seen them (which by the way now stands at Wildhearts 21 times, Ginger solo 6 times, Ginger & The Sonic Circus 1 and Silver Ginger five 1) etc.
All too soon it was time to go to the gig and what immaculate timing we have, a couple of minutes spent at the merchandise stall (where Dunc wasn’t handling the madness of it all too well, with people thrusting notes into his hands for merch that he wasn’t sure of the prices of etc) my Chutzpah football shirt was purchased, along with a sweatband. That timing as I said was immaculate, as we entered the main room, just as Black Spiders were preparing to take the stage. I’m glad we decided to leave the pub when we did, I’d have been gutted to have missed Black Spiders, as they proved to be, throughout the tour, a very welcome addition and a fabulous 40 minutes or so of down and dirty rock, with great riffs and greater vocals from former Groop Dogdrill singer Pete Spiby.
My first visit to Rock City and I have to say, Newcastle could do with a purpose built venue of this size, it fits in perfectly between the O2 Academy and the Bassment at the King’s Hall, at the University.
A feature of this tour was that once Black Spiders had finished, there wasn’t a great deal of, for want of a better word, fucking about, Black Spiders would help the road crew dismantle their equipment and take it out, then Dunc, Hot Steve and tour manager Dave, would get to work getting the Wildhearts gear ready. It was always around 15- 20 minutes after Black Spiders had finished, that The Wildhearts came on.
The house lights go down, and the synthesised chorus of title track Chutzpah blast out, as the band enter the stage, launching straight into The Jackson Whites, then proceeding to go through the aforementioned album track by track in order, a quick break and then onto the ‘classics’ set.
I won’t bore you with minute details of the gig, you’ll more than likely have read about it on the board and other online sites, plus your own view of it (if you were there of course)
It was during the break that I decided a pit stop was in order, as I moved to the back, I passed Col’s wife and she told me that Martin had fallen down the stairs when returning from the bar, to be honest, I’m not sure how several others hadn’t done the same thing, as the steps were painted black and had no reflective or even metal edging to which you could have judged where the actual steps were.
Apparently, security had thought that Martin was merely drunk and lifted him up and escorted him out to the foyer.
At some point they realised he wasn’t drunk, and at the same time, managed to throw up all over his t shirt. A swift visit to the
merch desk followed and a competition winner t shirt was bought.
Chutzpah set was a straight run through of the UK version of the album with a Bon Jovi interlude between You Took The Sunshine From New York and Mazel Tov Cocktail.
The ‘classic’ set consisted of…..
Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes
I Wanna Go Where The People Go
Nita Nitro
Sick Of Drugs
Suckerpunch
Caffeine Bomb
My Baby Is A Headfuck
29 x The Pain
With a line from the title song for the kids programme Peppa Pig thrown in towards the end of I Wanna Go.
Regrouping at the back after it was all over, Col just couldn’t stop laughing at hearing about Martin. He and Lisa had left to go to Junktion 7 to see Illuminatis for the umpteenth time. We hung around while they got the main room ready for the club night and we spoke to Ean, Trudi and Jason.
The main room and the room downstairs eventually both started up their club nights and there were a variety of artists being played in both. To these tainted ears, being honest, I didn’t recognise a single track played in either room when we were there apart from one Rage Against The Machine song from their self titled album.
At one point in the downstairs room, the dry ice machine lobbed out that much, I was unable to see more than a foot or so in front of me and it was as if you were enveloped in a cocoon. Spoke to Mattie from the board too in the main room, (as we changed rooms regularly to see what was going on in both) my apologies for my poor conversation man, the combination of deafness, the loud background music and the alcohol meant I wasn’t picking up everything you were saying
It was at this point that the first glass dropping occurrence of the tour happened, somehow Col managed to drop his pint in the middle of the dance floor, a mop swiftly appeared and soaked up the liquid.
Eventually, we decided we’d had enough to drink and food was now required, ending up in McDonalds after midnight is a new experience for me, as well as eating a big mac meal at the same time. We were surprised to see a branch of Greggs that was open at this time too, apparently, the notice on the door said closing time of half midnight, now everyone loves Greggs, but a nuclear hot pasty at that time of night, no ta!!
Next morning found me going to find Bunters café, which I’d googled before we left home, this was the closest café to the hotel (being honest, I wasn’t prepared to pay the £7.50 the Travelodge were charging, just for bacon, sausage and scrambled egg that had been cooked about 2 hours earlier and kept warm in a buffet server.
Rounding the corner onto Upper Parliament Street, I thought I must have passed it, as I ended up opposite the theatre royal. Retracing my way back, I eventually found the said café, but it had been stripped of all fixtures and fittings and looked like it had been closed for a number of months.
Walking around I thought about a café I’d visited when I’d been in Nottingham some 5 years earlier for a stag do, as the streets seemed to be covered in Caffe Nero, Starbucks, Costa, Burger King, McDonalds, anything but an ordinary, common or garden café. I found a street that looked like the one we’d walked through to get to it, got so far down it and then dismissed it as not being the one, I turned around and headed back towards the city centre and came across a Wetherspoons, I decided that was good enough for me. If only I’d kept on for another 20 yards, I’d have seen the side street that said café was on, never mind, I know for my next visit to Nottingham. Half an hour later and a fiver lighter I’m heading back to the hotel.
Midday found us on the road home and we stopped at the new services just north of Wetherby for coffee and refreshment.
Col dropped me off outside the Garden Farm with 20 minutes of the Manchester derby to go, I thought it’d be rude not to call in for a pint and watch the rest of the game (and we all know how that ended!!)
How would I survive the next week before the next gig? I had been on such a high after Saturday night, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it……
Saturday 26th September
Survive I did, but marginally, it was hard getting through the week at work, when you knew what you were going to see at the weekend.
Ten minutes to 2 saw me on the platform at Durham station, ready to get on the train to Leeds, the first of my bargain train trips (£11) 75 minutes later and I’m pulling into Leeds station, past the Travelodge hotel that I’ll be staying in. After booking the hotel, I’d looked on the map to see where the Cockpit is and it just couldn’t have been better, it was right next door to the hotel.
Finding the hotel was a doddle and after checking in and finding my room, the laptop was quickly set up so I could watch the BBC football coverage as they were showing qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on BBC1.
After the results had come in, I’d gone down to the bar to order a pizza to eat in my room and while it was being made, I had a stroll round to the back of the Cockpit, and had a quick chat with Dunc, I requested two way idiot mirror in the second set (didn’t get it though :( )
Back to the hotel and pizza in hand, back up to my room, where the Ipswich vs Newcastle game had just kicked off, victory would put Newcastle top of the league.
The halftime tribute to Sir Bobby Robson was outstanding, being honest I was more stunned that we were 3-0 up, I can only imagine how incensed Roy Keane was, soon be time to get the dog leads out again I think!!
Into the gig after the game and was surprised at how small the Cockpit is, bottle bar at the back, another room of comparable size to the main one right next to it and a third, comfortable bar room after that too. Met up with Col and Martin once again
No security barrier at the front and indeed no security, I wasn’t to think about the consequences until later when up popped a crowd surfer during the Wildhearts set, he had nowhere to be carried, so ended up shunted off to the side till he managed to find a big enough gap in the crowd to slip, or should I say fall into.
Again, the Black Spiders were excellent, and used a great crowd tactic to get people to the front by asking everyone in the room to take 4 steps forward.
Again, not boring you with the main details, but the Wildhearts came on, Martin had managed to get right to the very front, resting an elbow on the stage, I was right behind him, right in front of Scott.
In between The Jackson Whites and Plastic Jebus, I managed to get his attention to ask him what the black eye shadow under his eyes was all about (I still never got an answer) During the set break, I took advantage of the bottle bar at the back to get a beer and some Lucozade, I was sweating profusely and was in need of refreshing.
The second set was taken in from further back as to avoid the ever increasing mosh pit that formed at the front.
By Steve Passmoor (registered idiot)
Certified mad with more money than sense © members of the Ginger and the Sonic Circus/ Wildhearts message board
Our tale begins on Saturday 19th September, Chutzpah had been released 19 days previously, the author had only had possession for 16 days due to a postal strike in the south. Nottingham was the first stop on the trek…. Read on….
Left home on the beginning of the mammoth trek that was The Wildhearts 2009 Autumn tour. Caught the bus outside the Black Horse pub in Chester le Street, main street very busy full of shoppers in the warm sun.
Using the bus pass I use for work saved me the near £3 fare to Durham, but that was thankfully a shield to the £4 I had to pay to get myself to Newton Aycliffe. All around the houses we went until I finally reached Aycliffe. I was warned not to get off at Chilton, or I’d never be seen again!! Saw a handball in a football game that was going on next to the road on the way that was more blatant that Maradona’s hand of god in Mexico 86, like that famous incident, the referee in this game didn’t give the free kick either.
Col picked me up from outside the late night bar called Blakes, apparently, the only place for miles around that stays open after midnight!!
Back to Col’s while we waited for Martin, Lisa, Ashley, Jason and Karen to turn up, Col’s wife took their kids to the grandparents to be looked after over the weekend and when all had turned up, away we went.
Following Jason & Karen’s VW Beetle wasn’t too hard as there’s a bumble bee on the radio aerial (I think it completes the look Jason, if you’re reading ;) ha-ha)
The A1 was quite busy and the roadworks where the A1M is being lengthened further north from the stretch that already exists around Wetherby kept us down to what seemed like a crawl at 50mph.
Stopping at Woodall services for refreshment brought a smile to my face as I learned that Sunderland had lost to Burnley by 3 goals to 1, now for Newcastle to beat Plymouth (a game I was missing to take in this gig) and the weekend would be sorted.
When Nottingham arrived, we found the direction to the hotel pretty easily, but Nottingham’s one way system is notorious (once on the way to the match in Derby, we took a wrong turn and saw the castle in Nottingham 3 times as we didn’t have a clue where or how to get off the one way system)
As we were heading away from the hotel, it was decided a quick u-ey was required, so both cars turned around in the middle of the city. Finding the car park on St James Street, our car got parked up and proceeded to cross the road and into the hotel. We were eventually joined by the other carload about 15 minutes later, turns out they’d parked up about three planets away and had had to walk back to us.
After checking in, the others went and found the nearest bar, as the hotel bar didn’t open until 5pm. I had decided I needed to shower and change, so joined them in a short while (after a visit to Subway, in which I ended up with a cheese and honey mustard sub, instead of the club sandwich I’d ordered)
Onwards to the board meet in Speakeasy, where, it seemed the whole pub was filled with Wildhearts t-shirts. Old acquaintances were quickly greeted and a game of pool started between Martin & Jason. I slipped my Pound coin on the table to play next while I chatted to VickyP, her husband James, Davejnick & Wilddan1. Jason won the pool so I was playing him, the people who run the pub couldn’t have put the table in a worse position, there was no way to comfortably get down to any shot as there was no more than 2 feet of clearance around the table, and indeed I found there was even less at the baulk end as I went down to break and almost ruptured a kidney on a shelf perched 3 feet off the ground attached to a pillar.
After winning 4 games, I was finally defeated by Martin and as I retired to the players lounge via the bar, I was introduced to Firedup, by the very man himself, who although now lives in Nottingham, grew up in Chester le Street and went to the same comprehensive school as me. Time was spent recalling teachers and their ways, some of it was fuzzy to both of us, as I had left around 2 years before he started.
Whilst this happy chat was happening, firedup introduced me to nig1012 and the talk soon turned to me and my mad tour, how many I was going to, how much it was costing, how many times I’d now seen them (which by the way now stands at Wildhearts 21 times, Ginger solo 6 times, Ginger & The Sonic Circus 1 and Silver Ginger five 1) etc.
All too soon it was time to go to the gig and what immaculate timing we have, a couple of minutes spent at the merchandise stall (where Dunc wasn’t handling the madness of it all too well, with people thrusting notes into his hands for merch that he wasn’t sure of the prices of etc) my Chutzpah football shirt was purchased, along with a sweatband. That timing as I said was immaculate, as we entered the main room, just as Black Spiders were preparing to take the stage. I’m glad we decided to leave the pub when we did, I’d have been gutted to have missed Black Spiders, as they proved to be, throughout the tour, a very welcome addition and a fabulous 40 minutes or so of down and dirty rock, with great riffs and greater vocals from former Groop Dogdrill singer Pete Spiby.
My first visit to Rock City and I have to say, Newcastle could do with a purpose built venue of this size, it fits in perfectly between the O2 Academy and the Bassment at the King’s Hall, at the University.
A feature of this tour was that once Black Spiders had finished, there wasn’t a great deal of, for want of a better word, fucking about, Black Spiders would help the road crew dismantle their equipment and take it out, then Dunc, Hot Steve and tour manager Dave, would get to work getting the Wildhearts gear ready. It was always around 15- 20 minutes after Black Spiders had finished, that The Wildhearts came on.
The house lights go down, and the synthesised chorus of title track Chutzpah blast out, as the band enter the stage, launching straight into The Jackson Whites, then proceeding to go through the aforementioned album track by track in order, a quick break and then onto the ‘classics’ set.
I won’t bore you with minute details of the gig, you’ll more than likely have read about it on the board and other online sites, plus your own view of it (if you were there of course)
It was during the break that I decided a pit stop was in order, as I moved to the back, I passed Col’s wife and she told me that Martin had fallen down the stairs when returning from the bar, to be honest, I’m not sure how several others hadn’t done the same thing, as the steps were painted black and had no reflective or even metal edging to which you could have judged where the actual steps were.
Apparently, security had thought that Martin was merely drunk and lifted him up and escorted him out to the foyer.
At some point they realised he wasn’t drunk, and at the same time, managed to throw up all over his t shirt. A swift visit to the
merch desk followed and a competition winner t shirt was bought.Chutzpah set was a straight run through of the UK version of the album with a Bon Jovi interlude between You Took The Sunshine From New York and Mazel Tov Cocktail.
The ‘classic’ set consisted of…..
Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes
I Wanna Go Where The People Go
Nita Nitro
Sick Of Drugs
Suckerpunch
Caffeine Bomb
My Baby Is A Headfuck
29 x The Pain
With a line from the title song for the kids programme Peppa Pig thrown in towards the end of I Wanna Go.
Regrouping at the back after it was all over, Col just couldn’t stop laughing at hearing about Martin. He and Lisa had left to go to Junktion 7 to see Illuminatis for the umpteenth time. We hung around while they got the main room ready for the club night and we spoke to Ean, Trudi and Jason.
The main room and the room downstairs eventually both started up their club nights and there were a variety of artists being played in both. To these tainted ears, being honest, I didn’t recognise a single track played in either room when we were there apart from one Rage Against The Machine song from their self titled album.
At one point in the downstairs room, the dry ice machine lobbed out that much, I was unable to see more than a foot or so in front of me and it was as if you were enveloped in a cocoon. Spoke to Mattie from the board too in the main room, (as we changed rooms regularly to see what was going on in both) my apologies for my poor conversation man, the combination of deafness, the loud background music and the alcohol meant I wasn’t picking up everything you were saying
It was at this point that the first glass dropping occurrence of the tour happened, somehow Col managed to drop his pint in the middle of the dance floor, a mop swiftly appeared and soaked up the liquid.
Eventually, we decided we’d had enough to drink and food was now required, ending up in McDonalds after midnight is a new experience for me, as well as eating a big mac meal at the same time. We were surprised to see a branch of Greggs that was open at this time too, apparently, the notice on the door said closing time of half midnight, now everyone loves Greggs, but a nuclear hot pasty at that time of night, no ta!!
Next morning found me going to find Bunters café, which I’d googled before we left home, this was the closest café to the hotel (being honest, I wasn’t prepared to pay the £7.50 the Travelodge were charging, just for bacon, sausage and scrambled egg that had been cooked about 2 hours earlier and kept warm in a buffet server.
Rounding the corner onto Upper Parliament Street, I thought I must have passed it, as I ended up opposite the theatre royal. Retracing my way back, I eventually found the said café, but it had been stripped of all fixtures and fittings and looked like it had been closed for a number of months.
Walking around I thought about a café I’d visited when I’d been in Nottingham some 5 years earlier for a stag do, as the streets seemed to be covered in Caffe Nero, Starbucks, Costa, Burger King, McDonalds, anything but an ordinary, common or garden café. I found a street that looked like the one we’d walked through to get to it, got so far down it and then dismissed it as not being the one, I turned around and headed back towards the city centre and came across a Wetherspoons, I decided that was good enough for me. If only I’d kept on for another 20 yards, I’d have seen the side street that said café was on, never mind, I know for my next visit to Nottingham. Half an hour later and a fiver lighter I’m heading back to the hotel.
Midday found us on the road home and we stopped at the new services just north of Wetherby for coffee and refreshment.
Col dropped me off outside the Garden Farm with 20 minutes of the Manchester derby to go, I thought it’d be rude not to call in for a pint and watch the rest of the game (and we all know how that ended!!)
How would I survive the next week before the next gig? I had been on such a high after Saturday night, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it……
Saturday 26th September
Survive I did, but marginally, it was hard getting through the week at work, when you knew what you were going to see at the weekend.
Ten minutes to 2 saw me on the platform at Durham station, ready to get on the train to Leeds, the first of my bargain train trips (£11) 75 minutes later and I’m pulling into Leeds station, past the Travelodge hotel that I’ll be staying in. After booking the hotel, I’d looked on the map to see where the Cockpit is and it just couldn’t have been better, it was right next door to the hotel.
Finding the hotel was a doddle and after checking in and finding my room, the laptop was quickly set up so I could watch the BBC football coverage as they were showing qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on BBC1.
After the results had come in, I’d gone down to the bar to order a pizza to eat in my room and while it was being made, I had a stroll round to the back of the Cockpit, and had a quick chat with Dunc, I requested two way idiot mirror in the second set (didn’t get it though :( )
Back to the hotel and pizza in hand, back up to my room, where the Ipswich vs Newcastle game had just kicked off, victory would put Newcastle top of the league.
The halftime tribute to Sir Bobby Robson was outstanding, being honest I was more stunned that we were 3-0 up, I can only imagine how incensed Roy Keane was, soon be time to get the dog leads out again I think!!
Into the gig after the game and was surprised at how small the Cockpit is, bottle bar at the back, another room of comparable size to the main one right next to it and a third, comfortable bar room after that too. Met up with Col and Martin once again
No security barrier at the front and indeed no security, I wasn’t to think about the consequences until later when up popped a crowd surfer during the Wildhearts set, he had nowhere to be carried, so ended up shunted off to the side till he managed to find a big enough gap in the crowd to slip, or should I say fall into.
Again, the Black Spiders were excellent, and used a great crowd tactic to get people to the front by asking everyone in the room to take 4 steps forward.
Again, not boring you with the main details, but the Wildhearts came on, Martin had managed to get right to the very front, resting an elbow on the stage, I was right behind him, right in front of Scott.
In between The Jackson Whites and Plastic Jebus, I managed to get his attention to ask him what the black eye shadow under his eyes was all about (I still never got an answer) During the set break, I took advantage of the bottle bar at the back to get a beer and some Lucozade, I was sweating profusely and was in need of refreshing.
The second set was taken in from further back as to avoid the ever increasing mosh pit that formed at the front.
Classic set:
29 x The Pain
Someone That Won’t Let Me Go
Red Light, Green Light
Sick Of Drugs
TV Tan
Suckerpunch
Little Einsteins/ Peppa Pig interlude
My Baby Is A Headfuck
I Wanna Go Where The People Go
Take The High Road/ Peppa Pig segue
Shepherded out of the main room when the gig was over, we managed to have a quick chat with some of the Black Spiders before we were ushered into the lounge room.
This was where things took a turn for the worse, waiting in the queue at the bar, I was overtaken with signs that all was not right in the stomach department, so a trip back to the hotel for 2 reasons, one to dry off and change the t shirt, the other to sort out the stomach. No sooner had I returned to the gig and ordered a pint, told Martin & Col where I’d been, then I was overcome again. I thrust my pint into Col’s hands, made my excuses and left again.
I’m ashamed to admit, I was in bed at quarter past 11 on a night where the drink would flow till 3am, clearly, the Imodium I’d taken before the gig to ensure this wouldn’t happen didn’t work this time.
Sunday morning’s plans had revolved around packing and visiting the Riveresque café around the corner on BridgeEnd, from where I was staying, sadly, with the stomach problem, I just stayed in bed till it was time to pack and check out. I ended up eating a blt baguette from the upper crust in Leeds station, just so that I got something on my stomach.
The 12:08 Cross Country service to Edinburgh was early enough for me to be able to get on board, scramble over the bags and suitcases and another passenger, to get into my seat. The at seat refreshment trolley is as good as you can get for a train, and as a whole they are clean, comfortable trains. All I was lacking was wifi in the carriage so that I could have watched the Grand Prix, but hey ho, you can’t have everything when you pay £20.50 for a three hour trip
One downside was a group of 10 Scotsmen who, as it transpires had got on the wrong train, (they were 8 minutes earlier than they needed be) who’d been down to Newcastle for a stag weekend, at half 1 in the afternoon, they were already steaming and it didn’t help that the three girls at my end of the coach from Scotland that were on the train and had been to Newcastle on a hen night, were playing to the crowd of lads, things got rather irritating, as one turned on a mini ghetto blaster and I had to listen to some dance shit for 20 minutes until the conductor finally made his way into our carriage while checking tickets and told them to turn it off. Even my ipod, at a considerable volume was not drowning out their crappy music either, so the conductor appearing was a godsend.
The consolation I took, was that the men had all to fork out another £50 each for being on the wrong train (they had advance purchase tickets meaning they had to travel on the allotted train they’d been booked on) Expensive weekend eh lads?? ;)
Arriving at Waverley and then waiting for the other half seemed to take an eternity, but she eventually turned up 20 minutes later and we made our way to the hotel, another Travelodge, glad to see I was put in a room on the second floor this time, last December when doing the same thing for the Barrowlands gig, they put me in the lower ground floor facing out into the street, people walking past could see into my room.
A quick shower and brush up and I was ready to go, Annie picked me up outside the hotel, as she had done last year and I said goodbye to the other half, off we went to Glasgow. I wasn’t to know, but we passed the other half’s flat on our way out to the M8, we could have given her a lift, but I wasn’t to know we were going that way.
Arriving in Glasgow within the hour was some achievement, marred only by the news that Sunderland were 4-2 up and cruising.
Walking up Sauchiehall Street I thought I’d seen what was a queue forming outside the Garage, you can’t miss it, it has a big yellow front end of an American style bus sticking out above the entrance, and this at quarter to 6, with doors not opening till half 6.
Thankfully, my fears were allayed by noticing that it was in fact a large queue of teenagers waiting to get into the Classrooms, there must have been some sort of school disco on in there. Seeing the kids done up though, was scary, I’m old enough to have kids that age and to be honest, if I saw they state of the clothes and make up they were going out in, I’d be worried. It was like an updated version of the film Bugsy Malone with the kids playing the characters done up to look 10- 15 years older than they actually are.
A quick visit to a chip shop for a bag of chips and into Nicensleazy’s, first time I’ve been in there and it seemed quite a decent place, I was pointed in the direction of godofhaircare, but never got the chance to introduce myself, due to him being rather busy chatting to a friend. Soon after we were joined by Annie’s brother Kenny and then Keithrichard walked in, with brother in law and two other lads in tow. We had a decent chat as I had done in Nottingham about the tour, my tour, Chutzpah and Black Spiders, when, as if by magic and with great timing, Black Spiders walked through the door. I asked Pete if it was ok to be here as they were due on stage soon, and he said it was, so I thought, fair enough.
Having been told that doors would be opening at 6:30, we made our move over the road to the queue for the gig, they finally opened at 7, and in that time, we took in more scantily clad and heavily made up teenage girls and even one lad of ohhh at least 13 walking down the street with a girl on each arm, now I wonder what he could get up to, to be able to command not one girl, but two. FFS, when I was that age, I couldn’t even attract one!!! We also spotted Hot Steve heading into the Co-op over the road, presumably for last minute stuff for the rider, or perhaps the aftershow piss up/ party.
Into the venue and I decided I was going to get a smileybones tour t shirt and a bottle opener. Keithrichard and brother in law meanwhile decided to just about clear out the merch stall, 2 smileybones shirts, a competition shirt, a football shirt, 2 mugs, 2 bottle openers, £102 all in, good work boys!!
Up the stairs to the room and presently surprised to see a quite tidy and somewhat expansive room, probably the size of both main rooms at the Cockpit with a balcony down one side. Annie and her brother had gone up there as soon as they got in, to make sure they hit the front of the balcony. She waved at me when I came into the room and I shrugged my shoulders as to how to get up to the balcony. Looking round I couldn’t see any stairs and ended up going back down to the bloody merch stall to see if there was a way round there, as beyond that, there was another bar.
After drawing a blank, I wandered back up to the room and as if by magic, saw the stairs, to the right of me, what a fool, just as Annie was at the top of them, I’d made the bottom, she’d come to get me, ahh, how nice of her haha.
Once again, the gig was tremendous, a gang of about 6 or 7 ended up deliberately crowd surfing during the classics set, one girl launching herself over the first 4 rows of the crowd with gusto, only to be met by bare wooden floor between stage and security barrier, security were too busy attending to another rather portly lad who’d decided to thrash about like an upside down tortoise on top of the crowd and it was taking all their efforts to grab hold of him.
From my vantage point Ginger didn’t look at all like he has since stated in the tour blog, I just couldn’t make out more than the features of his face, but viewing a video Annie put up on youtube, well, you can clearly tell.
Classic setlist:
Nita Nitro
29 x The Pain
Take The High Road
Someone That Won’t Let Me Go
Peppa Pig
Red Light, Green Light
Sick Of Drugs
Suckerpunch
Little Einsteins
My Baby Is A Headfuck
I Wanna Go Where The People Go
On the way out after the gig I was asked by a group of fans to take a photo of them, which I happily obliged, having taken said photo, one of the group said he recognised me and introduced himself, none other than our soon to be ex-pat Velvetpresley. Again, another chat about the tour and what I’d thought of the show etc, he was surprised to hear that I already knew he was emigrating to Canada.
Thought the end of the Glasgow gig would be the best one to invest in the mug, as I was going to be going back to the hotel in a car, would have been able to wrap it up in clothes for the journey back home so it wouldn’t get smashed etc, unlike one unnamed punter from the board who smashed his before he got it home!!
In the end, I didn’t bother, the queue was rather large, I’d say if the band haven’t made money off the back of merch sales from this tour, then there’s something highly wrong.
Liquid was required for the journey back to Edinburgh, so a bottle of water was purchased at a newsagent at the end of Sauchiehall Street, I decided to go for a toffee crisp too, now the Asian shopkeeper didn’t see what I’d picked up, but had the change from the £1.50 I gave him within a second of me handing over the cash, how did he know a, what I was buying and it’s price so quickly and b, how much I was going to give him?
The AC/DC soundtrack was added to on the way home by the exhaust of Annie’s car giving a bit of a bass boost, it didn’t seem that bad to our ears, then again, we’d just been assaulted by a gig pa for the last 3 hours so how would we know?
20 past 11 and I’m back in Edinburgh outside the hotel, as I ring the other half to tell her I’m back and to get herself over to the hotel, I get propositioned by a rather large lady sitting in a second floor window opposite the hotel, god only knows what she was saying after she’d asked me if I fancied a good time, and to be honest, god only knows what I’d have done with her, probably would have burnt my arse on the lightbulb lying on top of her!!
Anyway, no answer from the phone call and thought it rather strange, I get into the room, to find her already there and relaxed with a cup of tea.
Monday morning saw us head up Nicholson Street to the City Restaurant for breakfast, again, no Travelodge breakfast for me!! £5.90 and a large breakfast later, it was time to go, I had been contemplating getting my nose pierced, the other half suggested she take me to the place she gets her piercings done, I was all for it until it came down to it, yes, I’m afraid I bottled it, never mind, I’m sure I’ll get it done eventually.
Back on the train again at 1pm and back to Newcastle (£7.60 for those still interested in cost!!), leaving the other half behind to her life as a Scottish woman/ mother/ worker. On the bus from Newcastle to home and just long enough there for a cup of tea, some toast, unpack my bag and a shower, back on the bus at 10 to 5, arriving in Newcastle at 20 to 6.
Walking round to Rafferty’s as I turn onto Pink Lane, I bump into wez_wildheart, who is desperately looking for a cashpoint, not having any idea where there is one, I suggested he go with what he’d been told that there was one in central Station.
In Rafferty’s already was Schitzo_stu, so more catching up was done, I hadn’t seen him since Ginger’s gig at the Academy in May.
Next to arrive, Jeff, Stu’s long term gig companion and lift giver. Then steve_1974 introduced himself and the whole subject of the tour and the album and past experiences with and involving the Wildhearts arose again.
Macca_666 was next to arrive and we got Wez well on the way to alcoholism by getting him to try one of Macca’s Bruce Banner’s (for those not in the know, a bottle of blue wkd in a pint glass with a half of Stella then added, it turns green, hence the name) topped with double Jagermeister and Red Bull, then Jager Destroyer (double Jagemeister, double vodka and a bottle of blue wkd or Smirnoff ice) later reports have confirmed that Wez did indeed throw up out the back of the academy whilst waiting for the band to come out of the stage door!
Col, Martin and Lisa turned up and as I’d found out steve_1974 was an Aycliffe lad, I got him and Col together talking, apparently Steve used to go to school with Col’s sister (he recognised her when we all got into the gig)
Then came glass dropping incident number two, moving my pint from holding it below waist level to take a drink, the edge caught my belt buckle and before I realised, it had slipped through my fingers and crashed to the floor, showering Col’s leg. Rafferty’s policy is ‘sweep your breakages up’ so before I knew it, I’d been handed a dustpan and brush by one of the bar staff.
As the pub is quite dimly lit, I could hardly see what I was doing, so most of the crowd happily helped out with their lights from the cameras on their mobile phones (I later found out that some had surreptitiously taken pictures too!!)
So, onto the gig, and as some of you on the message board will have read, I wasn’t overly appreciative of the crowd, probably because of the size of the auditorium compared to the number of tickets sold. The band were tight as ever, really great in fact.
Talk about buying out the merch stall though, if you thought Keithrichard was bad, you had to be there to believe wez_wildheart, he seemed to disappear every few minutes and sources going to the toilet and once myself when I went, confirmed that on each occasion, he was stood at the merch stall, drooling. I dunno what JSA pays in Northern Ireland, but I’d like to be on it for what he was able to purchase.
Later questions confirm that 2 t shirts and a football shirt were bought, that’s what you could see, there could have been bottle openers, mugs and all kinds stuffed into his pockets. How he was under the weight limit boarding sleazyjet the next morning back to Belfast I’ll never know!!
Came out from the toilet and Denzil, drummer in Ginger's solo band was standing there, I asked him if he'd fallen off any scooters lately, he said he hadn't because he didn't have one any more and he also said no when asked if Ginger would buy him a new one.
Classic set list:
Geordie In Wonderland
Nita Nitro
I Wanna Go Where The People Go
Little Einsteins
My baby Is A Headfuck
Suckerpunch
Sick Of Drugs
Someone That Won’t Let Me Go
Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes
Red Light, Green Light
Vanilla Radio
29 x The Pain
Liisa came to the front at the end to see us and she looked like she’d been having the kind of gig I had in Leeds, looking red faced and rather sweaty.
Last normal bus out of Newcastle at 10 past 11 got me back to Chester le Street just before midnight, feeling ravenous I decided to go to the Golden Chippy, which is always open till 3am Thursday to Sunday when the two clubs across the road close, unfortunately, this was not to be on a Monday, I got about 100 yards from it and thought it was dark, that’s when I realised the shutters were down, so I had to go round the corner to the Esso garage.
As I stumbled up the bank to home, I was thinking about a day of rest the next day, 3 gigs in 3 nights and travelling in between certainly does take it out of you.
Wednesday 30th September found me at Chester le Street station again for the trip to Manchester (£17.50) An hour later I’m in York and waiting on the platform for the connection to Manchester. A pleasant surprise at the DMU that turns up, clean, comfortable and quite a smooth ride.
We’re soon climbing to cross the Pennines, the arrival into Huddersfield is rather eye catching as the old Yorkshire architecture blends really well with the new, the Galpharm Stadium sits prominently on view as one of the largest structures in the town.
One noticeable thing happened as I traversed the Pennines, I left lovely sunshine at home and even in York, but as we went west, it got greyer and greyer. Culminating in seeing rain as we passed through Gorton station.
Past the Commonwealth Games stadium, now more commonly know as the City of Manchester Stadium, home to Manchester City these days and into Manchester Piccadilly.
Stepping out in Manchester, I see a massive billboard for Subway saying ‘Newcastle fan, we’ve got a sub for that’ I thought, cheeky bastards, and welcome to Manchester. Just goes to show that the mancs are still obsessed with NUFC and Keegan and Shearer, just face facts eh, Shearer turned you down- TWICE and did it affect you?, well I’d say from the number of trophies you won, no.
Anyway, strolling through the fine drizzle towards my Travelodge, the first time I’ve been to Manchester, apart from to go to Old Trafford, I was impressed by the size of the tower blocks, 20 and 30 storeys high, certainly the biggest I’ve seen outside London.
Finding the hotel after about 20 minutes, having passed through the floor level of the Arndale Centre, which fits in remarkably well with the rest of the city, despite only having been rebuilt only around 10 years ago after the IRA bombed it in 1996. On opening the door to the room on the lower ground floor, I was met with this cavern of a room, a family room, you could have fitted the frankly tiny room I had in Edinburgh 2 and a half times into this one.
Kids television, Countdown or Deal or no Deal were all that was available on the tv, no channel 5 and no freeview channels that you usually get in Travelodge rooms, so I opted to use my laptop to see what had been posted on the board about tonight’s gig and further comments on the ones already played. Again, something really frustrating, as the connection would keep terminating.
Showered and ready and out at 10 past 6 (it was still raining) I set off on the walk to the Club Academy. Google maps had directed me back along to Piccadilly, go past it and turn right, continue walking till you come to Oxford Road station then turn left onto, wait for it, yes, you guessed, Oxford Road. Past the BBC studios and on and on and on up Oxford Road, when I finally came to the University, I thought, great, shelter. But it was not to be. Having arranged to meet VickyP for pre gig drinks I got myself muddled when I thought I was on the campus, but wasn’t. A quick call to Vicky confirmed I had to continue walking and would soon see the queue.
Looking at the queue, I thought wow, they’ve sold loads of tickets for this gig, it wasn’t till I’d seen the touts on the street selling fake tour t- shirts for a band called All Time Low, that I realised that there was more than one gig going on here tonight.
Joining another queue, I asked the bloke in front if this was the Wildhearts queue, he said no idea, as he was queuing for some other band, so it transpires that there were 3 gigs on there tonight.
I’d arrived in the queue at 10 to 7, after eventually going up to the front of the queue and asking security if I was in the right line, I asked if they were going to let us in as it was bloody chilly and damp, he said soon. After thinking doors were at 7, bloke next to me in the queue said, ’10 minutes to go’ so, with a puzzled look on my face I got my ticket out and was immediately depressed as it said 7:30.
When we were finally let in, finding my way down to the room, I’d decided to catch No Americana properly, after only seeing fleeting glances of them at the previous 4 gigs. Being honest, they were talented, but not to my taste. Another downside was that I had no signal to my phone in the room, meaning I’d have no wap signal, so no chance to keep up with Newcastle’s game against QPR (another home match I’d missed to see this gig) Upon popping up into the bar of the student Union to check the score at around halftime, Vicky was in the first set of seats along with Ean and Sam. Next to them was Chris Catalyst from Eureka Machines, Sisters of Mercy and Robochrist fame, who I’d just been talking to minutes earlier at the merch stand. I’d caved in and bought the competition t shirt to keep the wet one I was wearing from making me colder than I already was.
On the tv’s around the room was the Manchester United Champions League game against Wolfsburg (the German football club affiliated to Volkswagen), I was wondering if former Newcastle United number 9 Obafemi Martins was playing and hoping that if he was, he’d knock a couple in against the horrible glory hunters (I was to find out next day from the newspaper that he was in fact an 84th minute substitute L)
Half 8 came around and I was just about to say to Ean and Vicky that it was time for Black Spiders, when they decided the same thing, so down we headed, they were onto their second song when we got into the room (Stay Down), we managed to make it to near enough the front when Pete gave the usual, middle fingers in the air and ‘fuck you black spiders’ prompt to us.
All of the Wildhearts at some point stood in the monitor booth to the side of the stage at some point in the Spiders’ set.
Again, great set from the Black Spiders, they just never disappoint!, lost Vicky after she went to the bar after they’d gone off, cheers for the can of red stripe, I guess I owe you a pint, let’s say, December 17th, Highbury Garage for it? ;)
Wildhearts again, on top form, playing great, the day off on Tuesday had really refreshed them. Was one person from the barrier at the front, right in front of Ginger for the Chutzpah set. He was relating to us how the advent of the lcd lighting that had been installed in the venue didn’t give off heat and he could feel a draught coming from somewhere, I wish I’d have felt it! I was sweltering out front and sweating again, like I had done in Leeds. Although this time Ginger asked for the crew to hand out bottles of water to the front few rows
Break time came and a visit to the loo brought a mobile signal and a welcome txt from Col saying Newcastle had drawn 1-1 and Man Utd had won.
Standing further back for the classic set, as usual now, I somehow managed to end up behind this 7ft bloody giant, I’m glad he didn’t hang around long, cos It would have been a poor view. Highlight of the set being Ginger tuning his guitar whilst CJ was ‘bonding with the white men’ as Ginger called it, which started a chant of ‘CJ loves white Manchester, Manchester loves black CJ’
Classic set list:
Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes
29 x The Pain
Red Light, Green Light
Sick Of Drugs
Suckerpunch
Duelling Banjos
The Munsters
TV Tan
Peppa Pig
Little Einsteins
My baby Is A Headfuck
Caffeine Bomb
I Wanna Go Where The People Go (Oasis segue)
Hanging around the gig afterwards, waiting with Vicky while she waited for her lift back to Leeds I caught sight of CJ coming off the tour bus and over to talk to some fans, while the Black Spiders loaded their gear into the transit van they were using for it. Saying our goodbyes and going our separate ways, Vicky back inside to wait till her lift was leaving, Ean back to his car for his drive home and me to the bus stop (great to have buses still running every few minutes or so till midnight, certainly puts Newcastle & Durham to shame)
80p fare later and I’m on the bus back to Piccadilly. As I walked through the Arndale Centre again, a gang of men were standing outside the late night Tesco’s singing and being boisterous, being on my own I was extra wary, just in case, but as I got closer, I could detect words of German in their conversation. I then realised they were Wolfsburg fans who’d obviously been over for the match and had time on their hands.
Arriving at the hotel and hungry, I ordered a pizza from the bar and had a nice freezing cold pint while I waited. The pizza duly arrived and I headed back to my room and the interminably boring tv. Whilst eating the pizza I managed to stay online long enough to be able to put the photos I’d taken that night onto the computer and then facebook and also the video I’d taken onto youtube. Nothing on the 4 channels that I wanted to watch, so as a plan to send me to sleep, I left BBC1 on, which had news 24. It was bloody ages before I was tired enough to put it off and go to sleep.
Thursday morning’s plan was to visit the Dalton Café for breakfast, as it took me so long to get off to sleep, I just stayed in bed. At 11, I got up and packed, quick shower then off to Piccadilly.
Onto the Virgin Trains 13:15 to London Euston (£8) and unfortunately my reserved seat was at the end of the carriage where there was no window, so I occupied myself with the newspaper and dozing whilst listening to the ipod (Belfast Confetti by Ricky Warwick and Backyard Babies self entitled album took up the journey).
20 past 3 and I’m in London (other wise known by all who know, as Shitsville) I’d previously topped up my Oyster card online and the nearest Hammersmith & City line station to Euston is Euston Square, so that’s where I headed to have the credit added to my card. It was good to see the flashing green light to signify the credit had been added as I touched in.
Aldgate East was my destination and the hotel in Chamber Street was my digs for the night, yet another Travelodge. Turning left onto Mansell Street, so far down I spotted the Travelodge sign, puzzled, I continued and found the entrance, this wasn’t Chamber Street, so how come there was a hotel here? Getting into reception, I realised why, it was Tower Bridge. Figuring I’d have to go down what looked like the back alley that was signposted Chamber Street, I did so, and upon rounding the corner the street widened and I saw at the end another Travelodge sign. Two Travelodge hotels within 500 yards, that only happens on the motorway, doesn’t it?
Checked in and made my way up to my room on the third floor, upon entering I was met with a scene of chaos, no pillows, no sheet on the bed, no cover on the duvet, deskfan in the middle of the room pointed at the bed, iron burns in the carpet, sugar spilt all over the bench top. Making my way back down to reception to complain, I explained and was given a room on the first floor.
When I got up there, it was the same room as before, but obviously on a different level. All seemed well, putting my things down I could hear trains, looking out of the window was like the scene in the Blues Brothers when Elwood takes his brother back to his bedsit after his release from jail whereupon Jake asks ‘how often does a train go by’ with Elwood answering ‘so often you’ll not notice’ it was that busy.
Putting toiletries into the bathroom, the light didn’t come on, I just assumed that the bulb was gone and paid it no attention. Lifting the toilet seat caused hilarity too, as only one of the brackets holding the seat on was attached to the porcelain. Have any of you taken a shower in a room with no windows and the only light coming through the bathroom door from the window over 12 feet away and at a 90° angle to the door? I’ll tell you if you haven’t, it’s bloody difficult
10 to 6 and time to set off for Shepherd’s Bush, planned to go to Subway on Aldgate Road before getting the tube. Seeing the queue at Subway I decided against it and just went straight onto the tube. Aldgate is on the Metropolitan and Circle lines, so I knew I’d have to change at some point in my journey, Baker Street being the last for the Metropolitan and Edgeware Road for the Circle) if I’d decided to do what I actually did, I’d have just gone to Aldgate East which is on the Hammersmith & City line and I wouldn’t have had to change at all.
Needless to say, at 6 o clock when the first westbound train pulls in, it’s still packed with commuters and getting a seat is an impossibility. At Kings Cross the carriage empties virtually and gives me an opportunity to sit down, almost immediately though, the carriage is full again, and seeing a lady stood in front of me, I decide to do the gentlemanly thing and offer her the seat, she looks at me as if I’ve just pulled a gun on her, now I understand the reaction is because the old adage about nobody speaks to anybody on the tube is true. To add to that, nobody speaks on the streets either, going into shops and pubs etc and saying please and thank you after asking for and receiving anything is like having 2 heads, they look at you so strangely. Needless to say, the lady in question eventually refused the seat, after she’d realised I wasn’t going to harm her.
Changing at Baker Street, I had to wait 10 minutes or so for the next H&C line train. I eventually arrived without further mishap at Shepherds Bush at 20 to 7, walked into O’Neills next to the Empire and saw Trudi, Jason and Sarc. After getting a pint turning around, I spotted steve_1974 and he introduced me to some more board members, Chris Davies and if I remember rightly garethMSP, Iddsy and Floyd. Then Ean showed up, slowed by roadworks all through the city, but he did make it after all.
Chris McCormack popped in to find a couple of people at one point, we didn’t speak.
Almost time for the gig, but I still haven’t eaten and I’m starving, the others having left so there was just me and steve_1974 left we decided it was time to go too, Steve to go straight into the gig, me to find food. I found KFC on Uxbridge road, about halfway down the common (as I’ve found out it’s called via a map) and had a very enjoyable tower burger meal.
So into the gig and straight to the toilet, now here’s another social dilemma for you to ponder, why, the bigger the venue (below arena size buildings) the smaller the facilities? I couldn’t believe it, 20 past 8 and there’s already a queue. Initial fears about the price of the merchandise going up for the London show were confirmed, where the football shirt had 14% added to it’s price to make it £40, t- shirts went up 20% to £18
Straight to the front again for Black Spiders and yet again they don’t disappoint, a lot more movement from the band as they have a bigger stage than they’ve had all tour I think.
Being the last night, I wanted to catch the whole show properly rather than see chunks of it because of being moved around with the crowd all the time, I moved back right to the back in fact, I was able to talk to Sarc there and Ean when he showed his face.
The band came on and I made my way as far forward as I could, as it happened, I ended nearly at the back of the floor, there were that many crammed into that space.
A bloke pushed past me at the beginning of the classic set and stood right in front of me, he’d brought a holdall in with him, great black thing it was, about 8 inches wide and 18 inches long, he plonked it down between his legs and stood there, every time somebody went past, they tripped over the bag. I don’t blame any of them for it, as a black bag, on the floor in a crowd of people is the last thing you’d be looking for at a gig.
Little Einsteins made an appearance in the middle of Chutzpah
Classic Set List:
Nothing Ever Changes But The Shoes
29 x The Pain
Little Einsteins
Red Light, Green Light
Sick Of Drugs
Suckerpunch
Little Einsteins
My baby Is A Headfuck
Geordie In Wonderland
Just In Lust
Caffeine Bomb
I Wanna Go Where The People Go (Chariots of Fire segue)
Band left the stage and I said to myself, ‘that’s it, now just to get home’ When the crowd eventually let me get through the exit doors (1 exit for the whole of the ground floor, what’s going on there??? No fire exit doors were opened for anyone) I reconvened with the board members in O’Neill’s as prearranged before the gig, steve_1974 was already there and got the pints in, being of a somewhat thirsty nature, my pint was quickly gone and I got the round in. We all talked about how good the band had been and how good the birthday gig should be if we find out where it’s going to be at and who’ll be on the bill (subsequently announced as the Highbury Garage on December 17th, no support acts or who will be in Ginger’s band announced as yet)
Having to go home, steve_1974 said his goodbyes and made his way to the tube, as did the others, within 5 minutes there was just Chris Davies and myself left from the little group, we stood around chatting about all things music and how we think the likes of simon cowell has screwed the music industry in this country and how it’s him and the big record companies who tell the gullible what they should be listening to and liking instead of letting them make their own choices and decisions.
Midnight came around and I decided I should make tracks, outside the Empire Tom Spencer (The Loyalties and formerly The Yo-Yos) was handing out flyers, I stopped and said hello to him and he asked me what the hell I was doing down here, so obviously I’d said I was at the gig and that I’d been to a few others around the country, to which he said I was a nutter and gave me a kiss and hug!!!
Rounding the corner to get to the market station, I saw a train go over the bridge ahead of me and though that it wasa bad timing, never mind I thought, there’ll be another in 5 minutes or so. Getting to the station and looking at the departure times confirmed that the last train to stop here that went to certain places was midnight, but ones for another destination continued till 12:31am, and ran every 8-9 minutes. I thought that was great and I’d not have to wait long. I was wrong, I ended up getting the last train and even then, it only went as far as Edgeware Road. The driver, over the intercom did tell us that we would be able to catch another train at Edgeware Road to King’s Cross, but when we stopped at Paddington for nearly 10 minutes, I thought we’d miss that one.
Thankfully the train was waiting on the next platform at Edgeware Road and I was able to catch that as far as Kings Cross where the remaining passengers were shepherded out of the underground system and onto the streets.
After asking where the best place to get a taxi from and being told opposite McDonalds o the corner, I made my way there, past assorted drunks and vagrants. Asking one driver who stopped to pick up, he said the best place to get one going in the direction I was going was round the corner.
So, heading down Pentonville Road, I was looking for taxi ranks, admittedly, I’m still looking now!! So I decided to return to where I had been waiting, 2 minutes later a cab pulls up and the fare paid by it’s occupants, the driver winds his window down and asks where I’m off to. When I tell him where, he agrees and lets me in the cab.
The usual taxi drivers banter happened for the next 15 minutes or so as we traversed the streets of the capital.
The fare came to £15.50, but for getting me back quickly I just asked for a pound back from the £20 note I gave him, walked into the hotel, pushed the button for the lift and got in, I was just about to press the floor button, when, after getting my wallet out for the room key, I was surprised to see it not there.
Returning to the front desk and ringing the bell, I had to wait around 10 minutes till the night porter returned to the desk, told him my details etc and was given a new key, champion. Up to the room, door opens, flicked the lights, nothing, so it wasn’t just the bathroom light that was out, it was the whole room. Being as it was pitch black, I couldn’t see a thing, I had to rely on the light from my mobile getting me to the bed where the remote control for the tv was. Getting the tv on, I was then able to start to adjust my eyes to the room and see what I was doing. For a bit more light, I turned my laptop on too, the two of them together were throwing out enough light to enable me to empty my pockets and get ready for bed.
Again, nothing on tv of note, so after checking if anyone had posted anything about tonight’s gig, I settled down to watch news 24. Last time I took any notice of the clock on the tv it was after half 2, so when I was eventually ready, I turned it off and went to sleep.
Friday morning’s plan was a trip to Oxford Street to have a walk round the shops and maybe get some presents to take home. That went out the window with again the late night and sleeping longer, although I didn’t sleep that much longer after the trains had started up again.
Checking out at 10 to 12 I made my way to Aldgate East underground, spotting the gherkin building on the skyline, I took a photo of it, I wasn’t really that far from it, if I’d know I was so close, I’d have left earlier and gone right to it for a look.
Arriving at Kings Cross not long after half 12, a bottle of Irn Bru and a paper were bought in WHSmith and eventually at quarter to 1, we were informed of the platform our northbound train was at. The train was at platform 6 (not 9 3/4 Harry Potter fans, sorry) Boarding swiftly done, I sat down to read the paper. Two and a half hours later, after stops at Peterborough, Doncaster and York, I was off the train and waiting my connection that would stop at Chester le Street. 10 minutes later, that train pulls in and I’m on the penultimate leg of the journey. Twenty minutes after that and I’m back in Chester le Street with only the 15-20 minute walk home left to do.
Shattered, I get in the house and put the kettle on while I unpack. Sitting down, cup of tea by the side, opening the post that had arrived brought a pleasant surprise, MBNA had reopened my claim for a refund of the payment protection insurance I believe I’d been falsely sold when I applied for one of their credit cards. I’d initially been told that I’d agreed to having this insurance and that my claim had been rejected. I was now being told that I was in fact correct and that the insurance payments were being refunded, along with accumulated interest, PLUS a goodwill payment of £150, all in all, they gave me back £472. The cost of my six gigs (without spending money) came to £409, RESULT!!
According to online resources, I travelled 769 miles on trains at a cost of £88.40, which works out at 8.69 miles per pound or 11pence per mile, at an average speed of 59.15mph.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though I was completely drained by the end, spent £50 in Nottingham just on food and drink for myself and probably made myself look daft at all the gigs writing down the setlist, but hey, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I met some great people, yes, even you Col, even though I already know you well mate!! saw some fabulous sights and saw 6 great gigs.
Thanks to all who helped me out, accompanied me at the gigs, before and afterwards too, it’d probably have been a bit boring doing this all on my own.
So when and where will The Wildhearts be touring the UK next year Ginger?
