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Blog: I Can See All Obstacles (nearly)

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It was a FANTASTIC night in Hull on Friday. It started off well by me going into WHSmiths at the station when i arrived, and finding a MASSIVE article and HUGE photo of us in the Hull Daily Mail. HOORAH!

After some injury worries we all made it, in some state or other, and after the traditional Hull Meal of CHIPS, we got ourselves set up. People gradually wandered in, I had a couple of conversations saying "No, I can't quite believe it either!" about Recent Events, and we got offered a headline gig at a festival next May. This, of course, gave me and Tim the opportunity to enter REMINISCENCE MODE, and wax lyrical about the OTHER two times we headlined a festival... aah! To hear this story in full, simply ply me with BEER and set me going, it is a joyous ride.

Anyway, more and more people came in, and i got more and more FRIT. I'd had beautiful visions of me doing a whole set of brand new material, but suddenly that seemed like a BAD idea, and I had to go away and have a Quiet Ten Minutes to myself, playing through to make sure I knew them. I went on full of FEAR and, I must admit, was a bit shakey to start with. I did "The Lesson Of The Smiths" (which went down really well, which i was glad of as I feel some Validators are still a little wary of it), "Breaks In The Journey", "Dino At The Sands" and "Never Going Back To Aldi's". The latter two were done for the first time ANYWHERE, and although "Dino" seemed to leave people going "Eh? What's that all about?", "Aldi's" seemed to be enjoyed. I then did a load of more reassuring (to me) stuff, even though it was a bit weird NOT being able to do "Payday" or something, and finished with "Boom Shake The Room". This went down REALLY well, it was ACE, and it was especially so knowing that I was going to be coming back on stage in 15 minutes. Usually I end the set with that one, which usually persuades people to like me after all, and then I'm OFF. This time i paved the way for part TWO!

"Hilariously" Tim had written "One Last Party" on the setlist, but by now i was in Post-Gig mode so was LEAPING around like a loon going "HA! All right then - you play it, I'll SING it! YEAH! COME ON!" He then pointed out that, look! There's 150 people here, and they've ALL come to see US! This was a bit of a shocker, and calmed me RIGHT down again.

Suddenly it was time for part two, and it felt GOOD. We RATTLED through a fairly ROCKING set I must say, even doing a couple of songs, like "Good Cooking" and "Where Is My Torch" that we hadn't done for age - the second one there especially sounding nice. We tried "Easily Impressed" WITHOUT Emma doing the "Oi Hibbett" bit, and by GOLLY it worked, the very FOUNDATIONS of all the houses down De Gray Street must have been SHUDDERED by that mighty ROAR!

We came back on for an ENCORE, and things went a little awry... we LAUNCHED into "Fat Was A Feminist Issue" and I thought two things. Firstly, Emma doesn't sing on this one and, secondly, what on earth are the words? THUS I launched into "I Can See Clearly Now", which, actually, we've not really played before. It was OK tho - "adorable", somebody even said - but the band were a little FAZED by the whole thing. Still, we sorted ourselves out afterwards, and I had a LOVELY time chatting to people and signing autographs. YES! That is really what happened, it was FAB!

We also had a mini-band meeting, where we came up with a GRATE NEW PLAN: to have a practice. Are we GENII, or what eh?

I stayed the night at Eddy The Promoter's house - he is a KING amongst men, I've said it before but I'll say it again, if ONLY he promoted all our gigs - and headed home via Peterborough, where I stopped off to get some more STOCK from my parents' house. It had been a LOVELY trip.

posted 9/5/2004 by MJ Hibbett

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