Blog: Weekend Of ROCK: part two

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The second day of my weekend of ROCK began with SNOW! We've not had snow in That London for over two years so I was DELIGHTED to see it, although glad that I didn't have to actually walk around in it too much. Mr T McClure and I were going to the PICTURES, which was only approx 2 minutes walk away from my hotel, followed by as long again going up in the LIFT to our screen - apparently it was the highest cinema in the UK. I believe it!

The film we saw was "Dad's Army". Now, I bloody LOVE Dad's Army and any trepidations i might have had about this remake were calmed when I saw who was in the cast. It's basically as if some people in a PUB had sat around thinking up the DREAM cast and had GOT it. "Bill Nighy as Sergeant Wilson! of course!" The BEST person in it was Michael Gambon as Mr Godfrey, MAN ALIVE but he was wonderful, and the whole film was pretty much LOVELY. The only complaint I would make would be that several characters didn't get a look-in, with hardly any Corporal Jones and almost NO Mr Frasier. Maybe they could carry on and make about a hundred sequels, to give them all a go? They DID say all the catchphrases tho, and in the end they DID get to be BRAVE, so that was all good, and it's always nice to see a film where you're the youngest audience members by a good decade or two!

Not long after that Tom and I zoomed to SOUTH Glasgow to the Glad Cafe, site of the Pop!South Weekender, where we met The Pattisons, just arrived. It was incredible that they'd got there on time really - Tim had been working in Mauritius two days before so had flown to Paris overnight and then to Newcastle that morning where he'd met up with Emma and The Girls (who'd been staying over) and driven up from there. They were only staying in Glasgow for a few hours tho as they were off on a family holiday that evening. This is how they ROLL!

There then followed an INTENSELY BRISK (Most Of The) Band Meeting (Mr FA Machine hadn't got there yet) during which we sketched out plans for the album cover, final mastering, and tour dates. It was INCREDIBLE how easily and amicably it all flowed - previously there have been ROWS and almost HARSH (not that harsh) WORDS, but this time we came round to mutually acceptable agreements. This album has been PEASY in this regard - are we getting better at negotiation, or just MELLOW in our LATE YOUTH?

With that done we went in to see Milky Wimpshake, who were BRILLIANT. "It must be YEARS since I saw them last" I thought, then later wondered if I had EVER seen them. Surely I must have done - I knew half the songs, but maybe those have just filtered through via Indie Discotheques? They were GRATE anyway, and also made us feel like SPRING CHICKENS for only having been going 17 years as opposed to their 23!

And then it was US on stage! We were well aware that there was only 15 minutes between bands and then just 30 minutes of PLAYING time so we had written out our setlist with a song we could DROP if need be and were POISED to leap on stage as soon as was polite. Indeed, so POISED and READY were we, and so SMASHING was the sound man, that we were ready to begin several minutes EARLY. "We might as well start," I said. "I'm off for a wee" said Frankie, and so I introduced us until he returned from the loo and then we leapt into THIS lot:

(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock

Can We Be Friends?

Billy Jones Is Dead

That Guy

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

Do The Indie Kid

Easily Impressed

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Cor, I tell you what, when you play on your own most of the time you FORGET quite how much a) LOUDER b) FASTER c) more TERRIFYING it is with the band. As we began all of us went "WHOOAAAA!" like we were being lifted by an great WAVE. When it was over we all agreed that it had taken most of the set for us to get USED to it again, for LO! it is sort of like SURFING, kind of. It was great bucketloads of FUN, also SWEAT, and we even, for the first time in all of our history, managed to ADD rather than DELETE a song from the setlist as we had more time than expected, with Do The Indie Kid being snuck in. Note for future gigs: next time that happens make sure it's a song I can remember how to play without spending the entire first verse trying to work it out! Second note for future gigs: Don't try and introduce everybody in the band as if they are characters in Dad's Army, it doesn't really work.

We staggered off smiling and sweating and ready for the rest of the evening. We all thoroughly enjoyed Mammoth Penguins (featuring some EXCELLENT Drummer Faces) and then The Pattisons set off for the final stage of their KRAZY ITINERARY, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the delights (BEER) of The Allison Arms down the road. One of the many MARVELLOUS aspects of Pop!South was how incredibly well organised it was, including a FOOD BREAK halfway through the running order which we took full advantage of the aforesaid Allison Arms, getting back in time for a GRATE set by The School before spending the next hour or so having more BEER, chatting to the likes of Ms E Pemberton and Mr G Urquhart, and generally enjoying the AFTERGLOW of a LOVELY gig EXCELLENTLY run by BRILLIANT people and full of audience members much the same.

We ended up hopping on a bus about 10pm so that everyone else could go back to their hotels. I, of course, totally went out clubbing and taking the drugs and everything, and definitely did NOT have a medicinal Jack Daniels and watch Match Of The Day. That would be almost TOO KRAZY!

posted 16/2/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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