Blog: Cleator Moor

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After I wrote last I went and got the train up to Leeds... and spent quite a long time just outside Huntingdon. There'd been an accident up ahead of us so ALL the trains were stopped while CSI: Sandy went to investigate. PANIC almost amongst the Vlads, as we were due to meet up at Leeds station at 3pm, and if the delay was going to be significant it would put the whole GIG PLAN out of action. MANY phone calls whipped around but in the end I was only an hour and a half late getting up to Leeds, where I spent another jolly half hour railing inwardly at THE FOOLISHNESS OF HUMANITY as a succession of idiots decided to PARK in the dropping off area and block up the whole system. A Community Support Officer came and SORTED IT just as Tom and Tim arrived, and off we flew, to THE NORTH!

We had a VERY jolly journey, MUCH was discussed (not least Tom's telecommunications purchasing practices) and there were LARFS aplenty. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we got to the Lake District, so all Tom and I could do was try and PICTURE the peaks we passed, all of which Tim knew by NAME. It took a LONG time to get to Cleator, as it is a LONG way away from pretty much anywhere, but we arrived in good cheer to find Mr Sean McGhee and COHORTS awaiting us.

We had a chat and IMMEDIATELY knew it was going to be a good night, as everyone was so very NICE. It was a very very INTIMATE venue - we took up about a third of the entire pub with our GEAR and the PA! There was a quick soundcheck and then a trip round the corner for some FANTASTIC chips. The pub gradually filled up with locals after that, and at about half past nine we went on and did THIS:

Hey Hey 16K

The Gay Train

Better Things To Do

Born With The Century

Billy Jones Is Dead

The Fight For History

Leave My Brother Alone

Mental Judo

Quality Of Life Enhancement Device

We Only Ever Meet In Church

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

Payday Is The Best Day

Boom Shake The Room

It was GRATE! To start with though I thought people didn't like us at ALL - everyone looked quite Serious when watching us, and a lot of people were taking much more interest in the DARTS in the other room, and i WORRIED, but it turns out that the SeriousNESS was actually people paying ATTENTION and the Darts watching was coinciding with Listening to US, and after a few songs (shortly after we'd stoped Born With The Century, during which Tim had MANFULLY coped with me getting half the words wrong) we were having a WHALE of a time. Somewhere along the line i broke ANOTHER pint glass - i am ROCK! We did Mental Judo by special request, and I was surprised to find it went down REALLY REALLY well, and we had a LOT of fun doing Boom Shake The Room at the end. As stated, it was GRATE!

That, I thought, was that, and we got back into the PUB and had a LOVELY time chatting to loads of people, also SIGNING lots of CDs and stuff, and I was just relaxing into the rest of the evening when Sean said "Everyone's asking if you're going to do another set - do you fancy it?"

By this time I was READY FOR ANYTHING, and so we did a whole OTHER GIG, which was THIS:

It Only Works Because You're Here

Sod It, Let's Get Pissed

The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)

The Perfect Love Song

Red & White Sockets

Clubbing In The Week

The Saturday Lunchtime Wrestlers

Looking At My Hands

You Will Be Hearing From My Solicitor

Things'll Be Different (when I'm in charge)

Girlfriend Alarmed

The Gay Train

The second one was even MORE fun that the first! I did the first six songs solo, THUS for the first time EVER I used BOTH my guitars in the same gig ON PURPOSE, rather than just because I'd broken a string. ROCK! I actually only meant to do three or four that way, but I was having so much fun I didn't want to stop. Tim and Tom came on for The Saturday Lunchtime Wrestlers, after which we did Looking At My Hands because it was being SHOUTED for by DAVE (who later said, VERY nicely, that we'd "blown his skirts up", and the gig was like when he saw Guns & Roses when he was eight or Oasis when he was 16 - he liked us a LOT, and him being excited was INFECTIOUS!) and I was quite AMAZED to find that we could actually PLAY it. Dave also wanted Girlfriend Alarmed, the performance of which at least proved we weren't fibbing when we said we didn't know any more songs! Finishing that shambolically didn't seem right, so we did The Gay Train again, after which we were SPENT.

WHAT a fantastic night it was though - we then sat around for QUITE a lot longer, by now oblivious to the fact we'd be getting up dead early, had MORE chat, MORE pictures, and even a little more BEER. It was thus getting on for one in the morning when we finally strolled off up a country path back to Sean's house and TO BED. We were very tired, but very happy INDEED!

posted 29/10/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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