Blog: The Most Professional Band In The World

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On Monday night I was in Leicester yet again for ANOTHER Validators practice. This was our second practice for Indietracks - that's two more practices than we have most YEARS!

I met Mr FA Machine at Leicester station and we got a taxi to The Forester's Arms, opposite our rehearsal room. It's an amazing pub, as it's EXACTLY like all the pubs I first drank in in Leicester back in 1989, even down to the green paint on the outbuilding doors - I suspect that that's probably because it hasn't been redecorated since then. We had a cheeky half then wandered over to Stayfree, but when we got to the entrance I suddenly realised that it was 6pm and we weren't booked to start until 6.30pm. I've never been that early for anything in my life (and i VERY MUCH DOUBT that Frankie has!) so we went back to the pub for a pint. You can be TOO professional.

Half an hour later we were back and once the full set of Validators had arrived we set to work. At the last practice we agreed a list of ten songs and, on the train to Leicester, I worked out an order. To my ASTONISHMENT everybody seemed fine with it, so we tried it out and... it worked! We even TIMED it, leaving gaps between the songs for REMARKS and including a rather lengthy Phaser Pedal Repair Section (it was - AHAHAHAA - just a "phase" it was going through, but - ROFL MAX - Tom was not "phased" by it) we got the whole set done in 42 minutes. We've got 40 minutes on stage, so I reckon, including Playing More Quickly On Stage in the mix, we should be PERFECT.

Also during the session we discussed a PROP that Emma's making for 20 Things To Do Before You're 30, discussed alternative lyrics for That Guy (which mostly involved saying "wanking" a lot: INTELLECTUALS AT PLAY) and said the phrase "he's dead now" repeatedly and LARFING. For some reason this has become a new BUZZ PHRASE amongst The Vlads. I'm sure it is something that will NEVER EVER EVER go horribly wrong and be said in the wrong context. Inevitably, by me.

With all that done we fell to the lengthy process of discussing which pub we would go to and eventually settled on The Criterion, where we had a lovely pint, told several stories, and appeared to agree to start recording a new album in NOVEMBER. This time we're planning NOT to have huge explosions or orchestras, and try instead to do a 30 minute Mostly Just The Band album of HITS. Mind you, we always say that, so who knows?

posted 23/7/2014 by MJ Hibbett

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