Blog: Fortuna Pop Sells Out

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I stayed at work late last night and had a THRILLING time Cleaning Data. I actually really enjoy this sort of thing, it's like DETECTIVE WORK trying to work out what's going wrong... even though usually it turns out to be ME that is the thing that's going wrong. With my BRANE ABUZZ with EFFORT I set off to Spitalfields to meet Mr Charlie De Fighing Cocks at a pub he's recommended called the Ten Bells. I read a review at Fancy A Pint that said it USED to be good but is now full of BUSINESS TYPES, and it turned out to be true. I was strolling there full of GRATITUDE for the new covered over market during a massive rainfall when Charlie rang to say it was full of BUSINESS TYPES, so we should go straight to the Spitz instead, where we were hoping to see The Lucksmiths, MichaelMas, and The Grave Architects, ALL of home I wanted to see. We met up and did just that... only to discover it had SOLD OUT.

CURSES! What is it with gigs these days and SELLING OUT? The last three or four I've been to have so done, what is the STORY eh? Luckily I've EITHER had tickets OR been playing at the last few so all has been well, but not so this time - ANNOYINGLY I saw Sean Fortuna Pop! on Friday night and could have maybe BLAGGED Guesty Places if I'd thought, but didn't. Whatever happened to gigs being empty deserts of DESPAIR?

Undeterred we drove back past the original meeting pub (all reviews appeared CORRECT) and then across town to The Bull & Gate, where we had a lovely night Setting The World To Rights (variously) and enjoying the sweet sweet nostalgia of watching other people doing their first gigs. You could tell this was the case for all bands playing last night, as there was an unusually large number of Proper Grown-Ups there, wearing their casual trousers and looking slightly uncomfortable, almost as if they HADN'T spent the past decade going to gigs.

On our table we found a flyer from one of the bands BEGGING their friends to turn up as "this could change the lives of all members of the band." We sort of worked out that they must have thought The Bull & Gate is always full of A&R MEN who, as everybody knows, are ALWAYS on the lookout for bands with a Committed Fan Base, also Attitude. The only problem I had with this particular band were that they were a particularly annoying KEANE rip-off, including not just line-up, song stylings and tunes but also on-stage poses and CLOTHING. I fully expect the singer to be dutifully hunting round for DRUGS in order to fulfill his emulation. I much preferred the second band on, who were similarly A Bit Ropey but at least sounded a bit original and were enjoying themselves in a half-arsed way. I LIKE bands who play Half-Arsed on stage, it's so BORING these days when EVERYONE you see is Uber Competent. Eeeh, when I were a lad that sort of thing was frowned upon, Bar Chords were illegal and being seen NEAR the black notes on a piano was punishable with a FLAYING.

So yes, we had a really good night discussing this and various topics - Gigs are GRATE, even (sometimes ESPECIALLY) when you don't see any bands!

posted 14/9/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

i didn't realised one was allowed into the b&g if one didn't know at least one of the bands...
posted 14/9/2006 by CarsmileSteve

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