Blog: Salford

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Myself and Mr S Hewitt had made eminently sensible arrangements for meeting prior to our trip to Salford yesterday - we'd see each other at the station, but Steve would probably be in The Euston Tap beforehand, so I'd go there if I made it in a bit early.

I DID make it a bit early, and full of pleasure at this joyouse turn of events was somewhat surprised to walk straight into Mr Pete Green, there with Ms Marianthi Makra, having their OWN sensible meet up on the way to a gig. ACE!

After a delightful chap and TASTY BEER we said our farewells, and Steve and I made our way to the train. We'd booked tickets so had seats, but that didn't stop it from being a Virgin Train. WHO, i say WHO designed these bloody awful trains? Was it someone who'd never ever been on one? To take one SMALL aspects which illustrates the whole: the lock on the toilet door is NOWHERE NEAR THE DOOR so a) people very often don't realise it ISN'T locked [as i discovered AGANE this morning, in fact] and b) the EMERGENCY ALARM is much CLOSER to the door, so no voyage is complete without it GOING OFF every ten minutes. For GOODNESS SAKE, Virgin Trains! BE LESS CRAP!

Anyway, we made it to Manchester Piccadilly Station OK and talk a MOVING WALKWAY to our platform. I bloody LOVE moving walkways and if i had an airport near my house would GO THERE just for the fun of using them, and the airport theme was carried on when we found ourselves in a LOUNGE, where we were instructed to wait until our platform became clear. Did someone at Network Rail buy an airport by ACCIDENT when they rebuilt Piccadilly? Coming back i noticed that the whole place looked like a departure lounge, and half expected to be FRISKED for oversized bottles of water.

We took two local trains to get to Salford, probably taking twice as long to get there if we'd walked (tho making it a lot easier with our PROPS and EQUIPMENT) and got to our MEGA POSH Apartment. The rise of the APARTMENT on the short-term stay market over the past few years has been a thing of WONDER. We got the apartment for MUCH less than the cost of two hotel rooms, even in SUPER CHEAPO CHAINS, and it was GRATE. It felt a bit rude not to stay there longer, but we had an appointment with ROCK, so headed out once more.

We were playing the gig at The Kings Arms, which was BRILLIANT, a PROPER old fashioned two rooms and a COUNTER downstairs, one GLORIOUS room upstairs type of pub. It was a lot like The Grapes in Sheffield, in fact, that sort of GRAND affair, and there was a wide range of BEERS available to make it even nicer. We met Dan and Hannah from Pull Yourself Together, who were putting us on, and after a bit of a chat and that headed out for FOOD. For a change we DIDN'T have curry, but got Chinese instead from the takeaway over the road. It was DELICIOUS.

Suitably full, and having found Mr Warren Pilkington downstairs, we went into the high ceiled GIG room to watch Liz Green present Fenist The Falcon, as sort of storytelling affair with musical interludes and a SILHOUETTE show to illustrate everything. It was CHARMING in being slightly ramshackle and fun, but also ENTHRALLING. We felt dead ARTY just for being there, also a bit like the ROUGH LADS with their SHOUTING that would soon be taking over.

And take over we DID, about twenty minutes later when people had braved the FREEZING stairway to go down and get drinks. As I say we'd sampled a couple of the aforesaid BEERS but once again this only seemed to help, as we did, i think, one of the best shows we've EVER done. It was certainly the most PRECISE, bizarrely enough, as neither of us spotted ANY errors AT ALL, and the door knocking bits were PERFECT!

It also got LARFS in odd places that never USUALLY do - AT LAST "Now that they are here I must say that I'm surprised / To find that they are, frankly, not very life" FINALLY got a laugh, while "KIDNAPPED!", which almost always DOES, didn't at ALL! This didn't really bother us, and there were MANY larfs throughout, but it was INTERESTING to note that some of them were in different places to usual!

BADGES were received with much cheer and it was a VERY happy Messrs Hibbett & Hewitt who retired to the bar downstairs for a much needed Last Beer. Now that the words have become ETCHED into our very MINDS the show is even MORE enjoyable than it has been before - and it's pretty always been a LOT of fun - so it feels like a bit of a shame that we've only got four or five of these left to do before it's time for Moon Horse. If you've not seen us yet, or even if you have, do come and see one of the last few shows, we're actually beginning to get quite good at it now!

posted 9/12/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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