Blog: Day 3: Leeds

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Oh what joy it was to awake on Sunday morning to a sunny day, The Grass On My Lawn beside me, a TROUPE of Validators gathered within the house, and a TASTY BREAKFAST awaiting me. We dined out on THE PATIO, and I thought that THIS, surely, was the sophisticated way to TOUR.

We nipped back to The Adelphi on the way in to town, as it turned out we'd forgot a couple of items, which handily were sat where we'd left them, and then we SPLIT. The water In My Docks and I had a LOVELY afternoon exploring Hull (particularly the Marina and the Street Life Museum, which is GRATE) before with heavy heart putting her onto a train for home. Tim and Emma went to Emma's Mum's for lunch, Mr F A Machine went on a nostalgic pub crawl round his former student HAUNTS in Leeds, and Tom... well, Tom BRAVELY drove all the way back to Hull again to pick up the merchandising, which had been left in the front room. OW! As i said to him later, at least it means we'll never forget them again, but he seemed to think he'd rather have been spared the GRUELLING JOURNEY.

Anyway, after much travelling we were eventually reunited at Carpe Diem, where we found the Fighting Cocks playing POOL. It was lovely to see them, as they are so GRATE, and together we all sat and drank and chatted, before adjourning to SOUNDCHECK.

It was at this point that we'd normally go out and get some GRUB, but we knew there was some food coming later, so instead we concentrated on drinking the BEER TOKENS we'd been given, even tho it was a little scary dealing with THE ARSIEST BARMAN - EVER! He really was VERY arsey - people ordering more than one drink threw him into a RAGE, and his method of collecting glasses seemed to consist of HURLING them at the ground. We found out that the GRUB was coming after the Cocks, but there was a pub quiz to do before then. Still, that couldn't take too long could it?

Nearly AN HOUR LATER the quiz drew to a close - an hour which saw only TWENTY questions asked, it was the LONGEST QUIZ OF MY LIFE. It made 'A' levels seem like... well, like a pub quiz, really. We'd only got 10 out of 20 right, having lost much of the will to compete/live during the preceding 60 minutes, but it turned out we weren't alone, as we'd come joint top! The tie-breaker was an ARM WRESTLING COMPETITION and after a very brief inter band mini-tournament CHARLIE was chosen as out spokesman. he battled HARD and it was a LONG MATCH, but alas he was defeated.

HAPPILY our minds were taken from it by THE FIGHTING COCKS, who were BLOODY GRATE. I think they got a bit weirded out by the seated nature of the pub, as people didn't seem to be reacting much to them... until a song finished, at which point the whole pub would ERUPT, but as many of their songs SEGUED into each other this didn't happen too often, so i think they felt unjustly down about the gig. they shouldn't have tho, they were BLOODY GRATE.

FINALLY we FELL upon the food and WOLFED it down (Veg Chill and Chips - VERY nice) before hitting the stage, tuning up, and getting ready to ROCK - it was 10.30pm by now, and we wished to BEGIN, but the soundman said we couldn't as there was ANOTHER ROUND OF THE PUB QUIZ to go! The quiz was done by The Promoter, who seemed a nice chap but did seem to be a little TIPSY by this point and quite insistent on starting. He was also upset that we'd gone on stage and made a RIGHT RACKET, and also that much of the pub had ChEERED the fact it was US and not the quiz, but after a few words it was agreed we could finally begin, and this is what we played:

Hey Hey 16K

Better Things To Do

The Saturday Lunchtime Wrestlers

The Gay Train

Leave My Brother Alone

Payday Is The Best Day

We Only Ever Meet In Church

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

Billy Jones Is Dead

It was GRATE! We were all pretty WOUND UP, also quite DRUNK so there was a LOT of shouting, pogoing, dancing, LEANING INTO EACH OTHER, and general ROCKAGE, and it was ACE - my favourite gig so far, with possibly my favourite BIT being Frankie's plaintive cry "Leave him alone!" in Leave My Brother Alone, it was BRILLIANT. We seemed to go down dead well too, and VERY PLEASINGLY it turned out that several people had come because they'd heard us on the Radio. One guy said "Hey, where've I heard that song about your brother before?" and LO! I was able to say "Oh yes, Radio 1 I should think". It was GROOVY.

We packed up while the second round of the quiz got going, said our goodbyes, and DROVE OFF into the night, our journey home soundtracked by "The Best Punk Album In The World ... EVER", which Mr Machine had bought from a Charity Shop beforehand. It was GRATE.

posted 24/7/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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