It's Been Ages

Oops! I haven't blogged for a while. Since August I've:

had a wondeful time at the Fringe including seeing Evelyn Evelyn (and meeting Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley). My favourite stand up show this time was Dave Gorman's Power Point Presentation

been to an Amanda Fucking Palmer (and the Grand Theft Orchestra) gig in Glasgow (amazing beyond all words)

seen Stephen Merchant (really great show)

received a tweet from Darren Boyd

turned 27. I spent my birthday in the Stand in Newcastle which had its first proper night on my birthday!! It is so exciting having one here. I am going to see Phill Jupitus tonight, Mark Watson next week and Daniel Kitson and Miles Jupp (amongst others) next month!!

Preview Season

The Fringe is about to begin. Although I'm not going to be there for another couple of weeks it's still hugely exciting - a brilliant time for blogs, podcasts, twitter and reviews (though I often don't read reviews of shows I've all ready booked).

If I lived in London I could easily have seen thirty previews by now (a mini-Fringe) but as I like up in the North East I've had access to significantly less. However, I could've seen ten or more. Things are improving! In the end due to a variety of factors (time, taste, money, wanting to see the amazing Jon Ronson!) I saw only three. They were all great shows (to say the least) and I saw them all in one of my favourite comedy venues, the Live Theatre which is on the Quayside in Newcastle. It's a very intimate venue; there is an area of caberet tables near the front, three rows of theatre seats behind and then two rows of balcony seats up above. There is not a bad seat or view there.

Isy Suttie: Pearl and Dave

I'd seen Isy Suttie do a couple of ten-fifteen minute bits before but this was the first full show of hers I'd seen. I wish now I'd seen more! She was wonderful. She began with an amazing Lady Gaga/Dido in a well bit which just served to show off her incredible voice trick (which she apparently taught herself playing a church graveyard while her mum was bellringing) which imitated the electronic effect on "Papparazzi" and Dido's peculiar vocal style on "Thank You". It was mightily impressive.

From there she moved on to talking about her childhood (alone in graveyards) and her and her sister finding an unusual penfriend, Dave from two doors down. While Isy wonders now "what was in it for him?", the relationship was sweet, innocent and continues to this day.

The letters she read out were funny, charming and sweet - the everyday life of a guy in his mid-twenties intertwined with the lives of two interesting and strange little girls.

And then we learned about Pearl - a girl Dave met at Butlins and their relationship that is at once very modern (conducted on facebook, email and Skype) and very romantically old-fashioned. Pearl is married; Dave is still living with him mum.

Isy's songs are lovely - documenting Pearl and Dave's relationship's progress and also showing us a glimpse of her own relationships over the years. The show was moving and beautiful; there was a point where I cried and I doubt I was the only one.

This is the stand up I love - heartfelt, passionate and meaningful.

Isy Suttie - delightful in every way!

Norman Lovett: LoL@NoLo

Norman Lovett was on after Isy - it was one of those two previews for a tenner shows and we probably wouldn't have seen him if we'd not been seeing the lovely Ms Suttie - and I had no idea what to expect. Like most people, I knew him as Holly from Red Dwarf, a TV show we'd all grown up with but that R and N had always adored and watched obsessively and I had seen less frequently (though N and I watched loads of them in college) but I was clueless about what his stand up (which he was doing long before the RD days and long after too) would entail.

Norman Lovett as millions remember him - as Holly.

He was brilliantly bizarre. I could only really compare him to Simon Munnery and Paul Foot for being absolutely nuts! His show had no story or throughline or theme - it was just an odd collection of bits and pieces (including some madness with plastic gloves and plastic bin bags). He talked about his love of Lady Gaga and other female artists. He mocked a (very annoying!) girl in the audience, he dressed as Hit Girl, he had competitions, pictures of celebrities as jumping-off points. A lot of it was not so much jokes as him saying "oh they're really good, see them...wait, that's not funny. It's not all jokes. Some of it is recommendations" which was then somehow hilarious.

Well, there are many people to see and I wouldn't recommend NL in the same way I would IS, however, I'm very glad I saw him. He's free at the Fringe and he's a great deal of fun!!

NoLo...as he calls himself!

Richard Herring: What Is Love Anyway?

This was the third year in a row I'd seen Mr.Herring on the exact same date in the exact same place. I guess that July 31st is a good day for a preview in Newcastle as he can just keep going up to Edinburgh without turning back!

It's always amazing to see RH live. He feels like such a star and I get much more nervous talking to him than a lot of people! Who knows why.

I feel like talking about this show I'll repeat a lot of what I said about Isy's; it was certainly beautiful. I told Richard H that when I met him. I didn't quite cry but I almost did. I'm not sure how Mr Herring made it through without crying (I think he doesn't always).

The premise of the show was that when he did his last show Christ on a Bike, he said that we shouldn't really have too much of a go at religious people as everyone believed in something to help them get through their lives. But the atheists didn't like it, he said, when he suggested that the magical thing they believed in (love) may not exist.

The ideas he discussed - love and its longevity, love and its reciprocity, parental love, familial love - were all fascinating to consider. He, like Suttie, put his entire self into the show, reading out old poetry and showing us family artefacts.

The finale of the show was absoutely outstanding. Richard may give the impression of being infantile (especially with the persona we see in his podcasts) and silly but year on year he delivers shows that prove he is intelligent, thoughtful and very, very kind.

Richard Herring and me.

They've now performed the last of their previews. I've seen the last of mine. Edinburgh beckons us all.

Not To Put Too Fine A Point On It

A couple of weeks ago I saw Bright Eyes at the Sage. Amazing, right? Well, yes. I love the Sage; it's such a wonderful place.

Not my picture but a lovely one of the Sage, Gateshead

Matt Stalker & Fables played outside of the stages while I ate my scone and cake,

Matt Stalker & Fables are great!

the amazing Jenny & Johnny were the support

Jenny & Johnny

 and Bright Eyes played a lot of the old brilliant stuff.




Bright Eyes

 But I couldn't simpy relax and enjoy it because someone wasn't there. Actually he was there physically. We saw him nearby but he didn't come and talk to us. And he used to be one of my best friends.

It's too complicated a situation to go into but I miss him every day and when Mr. Oberst played "Bowl of Oranges" I just wept. It's funny how certain songs and bands remind you entirely of specific people and memories.
Later in the week I saw They Might Be Giants in London at the KOKO (another brilliant venue!). "Ana Ng" reminds me of the boy in question. I played him the song once when he was sad. The line "My apartment looks upside down from here" particularly struck him as he was obsessed with things being upside down. I don't know, we were seventeen and lying on my bed looking at the ceiling.

This isn't a Dawson and Joey type of memory. There is no romance there, never was. It's much more Dawson/Pacey.

"You said you hate my suffering
And you understood
And you’d take care of me
You'd always be there
Well where are you now?" - Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh, Bright Eyes

But here's a happier memory, one so early I don't know how much of it is real and how much I've just been told: me and my brother dancing to "Birdhouse In Your Soul". Lots. My parents had the record, I'm presuming it was the single. This song and "Ana Ng" are the only TMBG songs I know from my childhood. So I think that BIYS must've been my first favourite song. And They Might Be Giants were my first favourite band. I loved them before I'd ever felt sadness or known anyone to die.

TMBG

So seeing them was always going to be special. What made the gig especially special were the people I saw it with. Oh, and the sock puppets (portraying Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks). They were mad! I can't believe TMBG have been together for 29 years!! They honestly don't look old enough (they are pretty much my parents' age!).

They might be sock puppets!

Another memory: last time I was in the KOKO I was with the friend (let's called him Conor, he'd like that) and R. Seeing Bright Eyes. It was about five years ago and as a gig experience there were really annoying things about it (mainly a really pushy horrible crowd) but we had a few days in London together, hanging out. My best memory of the whole trip is of the three of us in mine and R's hotel room in bed together watching Question Time and drinking complimentary tea.

What really sucks is that the person he is with now appears to be trying to wipe out all of our shared memories (and the ones in bed would severely vex her, I'm sure!) which only serves to make me remember them better. I have to because she won't let him.

What I loved about TMBG (other than everything!) was that they stripped all this extraneous stuff away for a couple of hours - everyone I'd loved, all the complicated stuff of life - they reminded me of a time of total happiness and innocence. Which isn't to say that I didn't think about stuff at the gig; I did. I thought about the people I was with in that moment: three of my best friends. People who understand me now and people who, whatever happens, won't one day deny all the things we've ever done together.

Every gig has an emotional element. The entire room is full of emotions: yours, the performer(s)'s, the rest of the fans. At most gigs I have a quiet moment to myself and think that for someone in the room this gig is the best gig they've ever been to and for another person, it's perhaps, the worst. Maybe it's their first gig or maybe it's their last gig with the person they know they're about to break up with. There are a million things that can affect an indvidual's enjoyment of any given show.

Also, everyone will like the band a different amount and in a different way. Some people get possessive and put proximity to their idols before politeness; others get lost in awe seeing live music, breathing the same oxygen as their heroes.

So usually, I don't write about the emotional stuff. Often, it's too hard to. It's difficult to be eloquent about the things that are closest to your heart. I hope this wasn't too self-indulgent! Here's a less emotional account:

Matt Stalker & Fables were brilliant! I was really happy for them all that they got to play (sort of) supporting one of their favourite bands. It's a little strange having a band that you really like play when you're just having your tea. Usually, I don't notice the music playing before the shows (though it's always interesting) but because R and I really like MS&F we barely spoke to each other! Ha.

Jenny&Johnny did pretty much their whole album (which I love) and then a Rilo Kiley song (can't remember which one, know it was from the last album!) and a duet. I realy love them. (Though I miss RK!)

Bright Eyes is a hell of a performer and barely seems to have changed (or aged) since I've known (of) him!! He went a little hip-hoppy in places which amused me but wasn't musically what I was after. And his attempts to be psychadelic at the end were nothing compared to Sufjan Stevens or The Flaming Lips, he became rather self-indulgent and we snuck out for our bus as the finale wasn't showing any sign of ending.

It was nice to see him play and sing with Jenny Lewis as she and Mr.Rice came on stage before the end for a big group number.

Treefight For Sunlight were the support at TMBG. We missed most of them but we saw a few songs which were good and best of all the covered Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" which was AMAZING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1MaLfpcpn4 (not my video!)

They Might Be Giants were brilliant! There are so many songs of theirs I don't know though. So I'm having a bit of a revival and have bought a couple of albums. (I just had "Flood" before.) Their set was amazing and they did three encores!!

The puppets added a extra dimension of madness. It was all so much fun - dancing, nearly being knocked over by the vibrations of the speakers as the bass drum sounded, hearing hilarious and brilliant songs I'd not heard before (and wishing I could sing along!).

I'm so glad I got to see them; I've always wanted to. I made a little birdhouse in my soul more than twenty years ago. It's still there.

(Note: I don't believe in souls. I do believe in poetry!)

Edinburgh 2008 - Day Five

This was a very quiet Fringe day mostly due to us spending the entire morning shopping due to the appalling weather of the previous day (I bought lovely new jeans and loads of socks! I think Nat bought a new coat. Can't remember what R bought!)

The first play of the day was Othello but it was a pared down version which only had three actors in it. The point of it was to do the play only from the protaganist's point of view (they did a few at the Fringe, luckily we only saw one). It was so long ago it's hard to remember exactly what I didn't like about it but I remember me and R being severely unimpressed and Nat enjoying it.

Then we saw Sarah Millican's Not Nice. It's funny now to think of seeing her in a tiny little hut but we did! Oh man, we saw that show so much. But this was the first time we saw it in its entirety. Ms Millican was lovely, funny and ours. I haven't seen her last couple of shows (I know, I should!) but I'll always have a lot of respect for her (Loose Women aside!) and was chuffed for her when she won Best Newcomer. This was her year all right!

She combines her strong Shields accent with a lot of stuff about sex and relationships. She's not one of my favourite favourites but at the time she definitely was. And I'll always love her.

Next we saw the previous year's Eddie winner, Mr Brendon Burns in Fuck You I'm Brendon Fucking Burns Part VI (Again). He is a mad performer, very loud (he's deaf), very sweary (see the title!) and very funny. "To death?!" remains the most-quoted BB line! I wish I'd seen his previous show live. Amazing stuff.

The Scandalous Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was our last show of the day and it was just as well as I fell asleep. It was a dark show both in tone and in lighting and I just kept dropping off. Whoops! I believe that had I been more awake it was a good show. And it's extra specially gothic to see it at midnight in Edinburgh, the Jekyll and Hyde city. Oh well, it was another late night and we still had a couple of days to go!

I always go to the Fringe for five nights now. To see as many shows as we tend to every day is an unsustainable lifestyle. How comedians and more dedicated (or rich!) fans do it I'm not quite sure!

Charlie's Comedians - B - Bennetto, Sarah

I'm trying to get back into doing these!

Sarah Bennetto is a lovely Australian comedian who I've only ever seen once - she was compering the Storytellers' Club (which she puts on) and it was a lovely, cosy show - intimate, unusual and with buckets for the water flooding into the ark (weird venue, rainy Edinburgh).

I follow her on twitter @sarahbennetto where she tweets a lot about temping (and of course comedy, gigs, etc!).

She looks like this:

and I'd love to see her again!!!

Decisions Decisions

Every year around this time R and I gather together for one exhausting night of planning our Fringe trip. And while we may have settled on the perfect method for completing the task, it doesn't get any easier! In fact, the more comedy we see (and fall in love with) the more people become "must-sees". And the painful, unavoidable truth is you can't see all of your "must-sees"!

After eight hours on Saturday night (and a couple more last Sunday morning!) we had decided on thirty shows (over five days). And, like always, as excited as I am about the shows we've booked I'm disappointed about all the shows we're not seeing.

Ten Shows I'm Disappointed We're Not Seeing (that we could have seen!)

1. Francesca Martinez I've never seen her before but would love to!
2. Claudia O'Docherty Loads of people I love love her, her last show seemed to be the talk of the town last year so I need to check her out!
3. James Sherwood This is the second year we're not seeing JS's solo show! Bad us. Too many clashes and conflicts; I hope he does Political Animal so I at least see him a bit!
4. Simon Munnery Noooooo! I'm disappointed about this to say the least. However, we do know his set ridiculously well. And the new stuff can wait until next time we see him (not long, I hope!)
5. Lloyd Langford I still haven't managed to see Lloyd; he's been on the list a while, too!
6. Paul Foot Bollocks. I hope we manage to see him elsewhere as he's unlike anyone else.
7. Matt Forde Like Lloyd Langford I know (of) him from Jon Richardson's Sunday show on 6Music. This is his first solo show and I hope it does well!
8. Phill Jupitus Well, it would've been interesting to see Phill do stand up. I've no idea what his shows are like as there are no ideas and he doesn't seem to tour. Oh well, another time!
9. Tim Fitzhigham We're not seeing Tim's solo show but we are seeing Flanders and Swann (I'll be writing about it in August!)
10. Thom Tuck Again, we're not seeing Thom's solo show but we are seeing a Penny Dreadfuls play

Ten Edinburgh Favourites That We Are Seeing (things we're seen once or more at the Fringe!):

1. Stewart Lee - ah, Stew. His 2007 show remains one of the best I've seen at the Fringe or ever!
2. Bridget Christie - ah, Stew's wife; in fact I prefer her to SL! I absolutely adore her, she is wonderful in every possible way.
3. Andy Zaltzman - Zaltz is great! He's more one of R's people than one of mine but every year I love and appreciate him more.
4. Alex Horne - I've heard good things about this upcoming show! Can't wait! Alex Horne is amazing.
5. Robin Ince - This could be Robin's last Fringe for a while (so he says on Twitter!) so I'm very glad that we're seeing three of his four offerings! If anyone should win the spirit of the Fringe!!
6. Josie Long - Super excited about more Josie especially as it will include Brontes!
7. Tony Law - Tony Law is bizarre but brilliant! He's always very early in the day which is helpful! So so much is around 6-midnight; that's where the painful choices are.
8. Kurt and Kristen - and guests! Hot tub! Love them both (disappointed we're not seeing Kurt's show!).
9. Political Animal - more Zaltz and friends. Kitson please????
10. Barry And Stuart - Derrenesque boys who are bizzarrely doing two shows: a show and then forty-five minutes later: a tell where you find out how it was all done! It should be interesting.

Ten Things I Haven't Seen Before (by which I mean a full show!):

1. Henry Paker - I was heartbroken not to see HP's debut last year. We did see him in The Golden Lizard though and it was truly wonderful. I love him!!
2. Tim Key - how have we not seen Tim Key do a full show? I don't know but it's true. I love him too!!
3. Frisky and Mannish - I'm really excited to see them properly after the exciting taste we had at 9 Lessons!
4. Evelyn Evelyn - I fucking love Amanda Fucking Palmer (her AFP show in Edinburgh is after we leave but we may catch her in Glasgow!) and EE should be a lot of fun to see (Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley playing conjoined twins in a mad caberet act!).
5. Sara Pascoe - Enjoyed her in Gutted last year, don't know her stuff at all!
6. Humphrey Ker - Ditto!
7. The Penny Dreadfuls - I haven't listened to much of their stuff; R assures me it's amazing. It's always exciting to see new stuff!
8. Comedy Countdown - Really excited about this one. I love late night Fringe events where you don't know who'll turn up (I'm hoping for Horne, Kitson, Long, Key, Watson etc!)
9. Richard Herring's Edinubrgh Podcast - I've never been to a RH podcast recording. Anyone could be there (there's mention of guests!), anything could happen.
10. Joanna Neary - Also discovered for the first time at 9 Lessons! Very excited!

Five Shows That We're Not Seeing (because we're there at the wrong time):

1. Tom Lenk - Nerdgasm - noooooooooooooo! Why is he only doing one night?! It's a long way to come for just one show.
2. David Mitchell (The Unbelievable Truth) - I love DM a crazy amount. This would've been good.
3. Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis discussing Life's Too Short - this would've been good, interesting etc but I'll see the actual TV show so nevermind!
4. Alex Horne's Taskmaster II - this will be wonderful! Last year Taskmaster was one of the best things we did!
5. Amanda Palmer - a full AFP show. In Edinburgh. Oh, man!!

Five People That Aren't Coming At All (according to the programme, one-offs and special appearances possible!):

1. Daniel Kitson - please come!
2. Brendon Burns - a year off, I guess! He doesn't miss many!
3. Mike Wozniak - co-hosting Taskmaster ll as he won last year but no show!
4. Wil Anderson - I'm still waiting for his return!
5. Miles Jupp - Miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess he's working on his forthcoming book?! I shall miss him.

And finally:

Today after over EIGHT hours of trying (we did other things: watching Daria, Modern Family, Futurama, reading) we got the book festival tickets we wanted! Neil Gaiman in conversation with Audrey Niffenegger, Jasper Fforde.

The hard bit's over for another year! Now for the fun part!!!!

"Whatever Happened To Our Heroes?" (John Cleese in Edinburgh/Futureheads in Sunderland)

Even a short train journey can really make you feel like you're escaping your ordinary life and doing something amazing. And the ninety minute (ish) journey up to Edinburgh is one of my favourite trips! It's beautiful, especially when the sun is shining and you can see the sea (I love the sea). I'd have been happy just to be having a lovely stay in Edinburgh. But going to see John Cleese was absolutely perfect. I'm so happy that we decided to see him.

Berwick-upon-Tweed - beautiful

I had a few doubts as John Cleese means so much to me (too much?) and has been known to be a bit rude/bigotted etc. Which I've always defended. I know he's somewhat messed up but geniuses (and I don't mean Apple employees!) often are. I don't care if he's not perfect; I have loved him ever since I was about eight and I can't imagine not loving him. Having said that I also knew that a bad experience with him would be heartbreaking. But I would never know if I didn't go! It was certainly a risk worth taking.

Our arrival in Edinburgh co-incided with the launch of the Fringe programme (one of the best, most exciting times of the year!) so we saw a bit of street performance and R grabbed his programme direct from the shop (mine was delivered on Wednesday as I'm a Friend of the Fringe). We had a nice recce to make sure we knew where the theatre was so nothing could go wrong in the evening. Then we checked in and had a lovely lie down on our hotel bed (I don't know why we both so knackered but it was lush to just relax!)

We went out for a nice meal (luckily, while I was excited I wasn't so bad that I couldn't eat!) and then walked to the Festival Theatre. On the way, I reminisced about crying when I saw James Marsters in 2005. I said that I wouldn't cry when I saw John Cleese.

Very excited!

And...I was wrong! But it was a different sort of crying. With James Marsters it was mad, hyped up gratitude for getting me through a lot of heartbroken teenage stuff (unbeknownst to him, of course!!). With John Cleese, as the sounds of "The Liberty Bell" (the MP'sFC theme) filled the theatre my eyes filled with tears of pride (and perhaps the closest I've ever came to patriotism) as John Cleese strode on stage to raptous, glorious applause: thousands of people, young and old all saying thank you and we love you as one. The applause lasted ages. Then the show started:

The beginning of the show was Cleese's explanation for him touring (which of course we knew as it was called John Cleese's Alimony Tour) and tore into his ex-wife for a while (hilariously and not too savagely!) saying that she hadn't so much as contributed a two-way conversation to the marriage.

Then he began at the beginning of his life and told us about his childhood and the best bits of his career. He used clips (some of which I'd seen; others I hadn't) to punctuate his talk (it was a talk. It was funny and lovely but not stand up) and when he showed his speech at Graham Chapman's funeral I couldn't help crying. I love GC so much. I had a dream once where I magically got to meet him (I was about five or six when he died, Simon Mayo played "Always Look on The Bright Side of Life" - I remember being sad but not really knowing why or who he was.)

I snuck a picture at the end so it's not great! But it IS John Cleese!!

When he spoke about Fawlty Towers he did impressions of the real hotel owner, Mr Sinclair. It was as close to Basil as I'll ever get. Marvellous.

The whole evening was simply lovely. Cleese remembered the Pythons with love and not anger. He sounded like it had been the best time of his life. He gave the audience exactly what they wanted and it was an entirely perfect night. I know that sometimes when your dreams come true it goes a bit wrong and isn't at all how you imagined. This was what I wanted and needed. He is, was and always will be absoutely wonderful. He's still got it.

Yay!!!

When we got back to hotel we put on the Channel 4 Comedy Gala which was so rubbish it's hardly worth talking about. We both dozed off. I feel sad when I think this is the best stand up people who don't go to gigs actually see. There is so much better out there!
The next day we got the train home. This time it was raining. Boo. Anyway, I got home and had a little rest in bed listening to Jon Ronson On...Jon Ronson is great. R got me into him recently and I haven't looked back. Before too long I had to leave and head to what Barry Hyde himself called the most confusing gig in Sunderland ever.

Now, this gig started its life as the Skinny Twins Festival. It was an all-dayer with the following line up: The line-up includes The Stranglers, The Boxer Rebellion, Neville Staple, The Rifles, The Blitz, The Generals, 12 Dirty Bullets, Detroit Social Club, Leatherface, The Beat, and The Sunshine Underground. It was £35 and in Houghton.

At some point it changed its location (to Sunderland's North Shore which is the Uni's Students Union at St.Peter's Campus) and the price dropped to £25 and The Futureheads jumped on board as co-headliners (and most of the line up changed!).

The time was also a confusing issue with tickets saying doors at 3pm, two seperate facebook events (one starting at 7, one at 3!), Hyde and Beast tweeting they were on at 7.45. Eventually (bear in mind this was on the day!!!) we heard doors were at 6pm. We assumed it'd be kicking off around 7pm. It wasn't. We arrived and everyone was in the bar but the partition doors (to make two rooms one big room) hadn't been opened. It was all really loud (old punks and no background music) and I don't think there was a great atomosphere but it may have been partly due to confusion (I really hope no one arrived for 3pm!!). Also we were both really tired from our mini-trip.

Finally (after we'd had a little rest on a bench) they opened the doors and we made our way to the front. There were very few people right at the front (most were up a few stairs and behind some bars) in fact everyone other than the two of us who were occupying the area directly beneath the stage seemed to be die-hard fans of the first band:

Spray On Jeans

Well. Now. The thing is that I don't really know if they were good or not. I think they were all right. They were pretty low-key acoustic-y (four of them on high bar stools, one standing, lots of guitars) and had a couple of songs that were catchy but to be honest I was pretty distracted throughout by one of their fans who would not shut up, stay still or stop filming (not just filming the gig but filming the crowd reaction which as there was barely a crowd and there was not much to react to [it wasn't as if it was a Flaming Lips or Sufjan Stevens kind of atmosphere; people were just standing, listening, maybe nodding their heads, perhaps smiling] and it felt very intrusive having some child (I think he was seventeen-ish) thrusting his phone in our faces.

Spray On Jeans - could barely hear the band over the hype!

I tried to be empathetic and told R that SOJ must be his ONSIND. Everyone has their ONSIND and if they don't then I hope they find it soon. It's exciting to be at a gig when the band playing live right in front of you means so much to you. However, it's pretty selfish to let your extreme excitement ruin someone's chances of falling in love with the band. I don't think this was a band for me to fall in love with but I would've looked on them more favourably if I'd not been hounded by this kid.

He didn't even seem like the sort of fan for this kind of band. The guys on stage were calm, cool and quiet. The fans all seemed like they wanted to shout along (which would suit something heavier) and jump about. It was bizarre. Then the annoying one kept shouting right in our faces 'fucking mint! Look them up on facebook', which, as my friend Cat later pointed out, was really daft as we were seeing the actual band right then. You don't need to tell someone that a band's good or how to find out about them when they're right there!

Next up were the increasingly enjoyable Hyde&Beast who R apparently enjoyed more than the Futureheads!!! Well, I may not agree there but they're certainly great and I'm all ready looking foward to the album release (and also to their set at Split Festival which I'm fairly sure I'll be going to!)

H&B

Aw, Lucas Renney and David Hyde

Strangely, towards the end of the set a burlesque dancer with feathers began perfoming in front of the stage (and off to one side). She was on stage properly later on so I will discuss that in just a moment!

Katrina Darling

Barry Hyde introduced the first band, not sure about H&B as I'd popped to the toilet as between sets (shows how brilliantly quick the change over was!) but he was on stage in his beautiful coat a lot sorting stuff out and setting up and whispering (presumably helpful!) things to this very young band (or two-thirds of them) before they began. The band in question were The Blitz. Before the gig I'd looked them up and really enjoyed them. Live they seemed ridiculously different - quieter, less confident, less sure. One of the members was absent but even so, I couldn't believe it was the same band. It wasn't. There appear to be numerous bands called The Blitz; two of which hail from Sunderland.

Words of encouragement from Barry Hyde

These boys were young. Babies! Much younger (I think) than We Beat The System (also good, also returning to Split) and they seemed very nervous. They only played a couple of songs and didn't do any banter. They didn't even seem to say when their set was over they just awkwardly got off stage. I'd like to see/hear more from them. They appear to be doing well and gigging lots in the area. (Actually having listened to a bit of their stuff on MySpace they do seem like they were not at their best on Saturday which makes sense if the entire band weren't even there!)

The Blitz

Next up - The Futureheads! Miraculously, no one had pushed us off our lovely front centre spot by the stage! So I had a perfect view of the boys. It was great to see them but the sound sounded a little off at first. I'm not sure that it's a great venue but still The Futureheads are great! They started off with "The Chaos" and "The Connector" then played some of the earlier stuff: "Man Ray", "First Day" "Robot", "Decent Days And Nights", "Meantime" and of course "Hounds of Love". They also played "Skip To The End" (as Barry Hyde describes it 'the bouncy bounce song'), "Heartbeat Song" (in which Barry beat his chest to make his voice go all viverberate-y, it was amazing) and "Beginning of the Twist". As I've written them all down, it seems like loads but at the time it appeared to be over in a split second!

I especially love their 'Chaos'-y drum!

Barry Hyde and Sunderland

Barry said some very interesting stuff in the middle of the set. It relates to a lot of stuff that I think too. He was talking about how people say that there's never anything happening in Sunderland and that it's bullshit. Firstly, I will say that I don't actually live in Sunderland. I live in Washington which is in the borough of Sunderland but was once in County Durham and often aligns itself more with Newcastle. (Football team preferences are pretty split here too. Not that I care!) So all of my observations come from being not quite in the place but sort of there. (And especially from working with people from Sunderland.)

First of all, I don't think it's helpful or healthy to moan about how Sunderland is a badly done to place. Comparing it to Newcastle will not help anyone. People will say how Sunderland is bigger (it is) and so should have more of the amenites and opportunites that has made Newcastle more affluent. But I think the comparisons are never going to change things. Newcastle is a city I truly love. Sunderland only became a city when I was a child (I remember going to watch a big show with the Brownies that celebrated its new status) so it can't really compete! So rather than complaining about how shoddily the city is treated people should do the following:

1. Find out what's happening and bother to go! Baz is right. It's bullshit that there's nothing going on in Sunderland. The Sunderland Empire shows huge musicals. If you want to see a play there's the Royalty (amateur, sure but they're really good!). Now that comedy is back in vogue there's a lot of it everywhere (in pubs, in the theatre, you just need to look online. Google 'grinning idiot'), there's art in Sunderland too (I don't often find time to visit the art galleries there but they exist!) and of course there's a lot of gigs going on!

2. If you want to do something and it doesn't appear to be happening make it happen!! Put on your own shows.

3. Instead of bitching that the show/gig/play/whatever you so want to do is in Newcastle and not Sunderland, just jump on a bus or a metro! I'm always willing to travel for gigs (to London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, wherever!) but I understand that it's expensive to arrange trains and hotels to travel that far away. But if you live in Sunderland or Washington it's extremely easy to get to Newcastle, Durham, Gateshead (for the Sage and the Baltic).

A brief note on Take That - so many people went to see Take That at the Stadium of Light recently. More people than even like TT! The reasons seemed to be twofold: one, it was on the doorstep and two, they'd 'put on a good show'. If I had to hear one more person say that to me I would've screamed. Where Lady Gaga's theatricality is an intrinsic part of who she is, TT seem to have just made that a part of their set as they are not good enough alone. I'd much rather see a brilliant band in a cupboard than see TT with whatever elephant/robot spectacular they may have to disguise their blandness. I don't think that proximity should ever trump talent or passion when deciding what to see!

Oops, got a bit sidetracked! The point is that Barry Hyde doesn't just make amazing music. He makes things happen. (I really admire ONSIND's Nathan for this too. He is responsible for so much of what's going on in Durham.)

After the Futureheads' set there was a very large gap where nothing happened. This is always disappointing at gigs. Before the final band of the night came on, Katrina Darling returned to dance to "God Save The Queen". It began as the actual National Anthem but turned into the Sex Pistols classic. She was dressed vaguely as the Queen. (It was only later I discovered she is Kate Middleton's cousin! Bizarre.)

I mentioned this burlesque bit to Tim at work who informed me that it's a usual occurence at rock shows these days. Is it? I've never encountered it before. But then I wouldn't at the lovely sort of gigs I go to! Now, I don't really want to get into a big burlesque discussion. Some might say that it's just stripping (and she did stip to almost nothing at all), others claim it's empowering. Well, Katrina looked like she was in control and happy, but I'm not a fan really. And one thing I would say is that perhaps burlesque should be kept for burlesque shows: it kind of jarred with the rest of the night and because no one there had paid to see burlesque I don't think they/we knew what the rules were. I took pictures (because I take pictures of everything) but I stopped when she got to a certain point. It felt intrusive. (I'm not sure that you would've been able to take pictures/video at a proper burlesque show!) Like I say, K herself seemed more than happy to take her clothes off for the drunk old punks but I felt a bit uncomfortable.

Eventually The Stanglers came on stage!! We left before the end but we did see them do "Get A Grip On Yourself", "Peaches", "Golden Brown", "Always The Sun" and a few I didn't rememeber from my lovely childhood where we listened to cool compilation tapes in the car on the way to picnics; so I associate The Smiths, The Jam, The Clash, The Stanglers etc with fleeing up and down the Northumberland countryside. Lush. (Once when I was seven I had the use the word 'cure' in a sentence in school so I wrote 'The Cure is a band', my Year Two teacher responded with '?' in red pen!)

A not great picture of The Stanglers; we were well back by then. The old people had got pretty rowdy!

It was a tiring weekend with some truly perfect moments.