Hoorah-Its the first night of the Saucy Haulage Ballads tour 2003 and we are in a deserted Trading Estate...not a soul to be seen...then again it is 5.40 so a quick relocation to some boozer in the town centre with a landlord who looks like Seba Veron and introduced himself as "Asian Dave" for a bellyful of Banks's. Its gonna be a good night.
Upon returning to the venue the gig was very nearly cancelled as Carl walked right in front of our car and almost met a Spinal Tap like demise in a bizarre Vauxhall Astra incident.("good,good drummer").
Once inside we tapped our feet to the local support band who still went for the Neds Atomic Dustbin look (they were from the Black Country too methinks). In fact the singer in this band looked like Diego Forlan-this is indeed a night for South American/United lookalikes.)
Having given up hope of any more beer from the woefully understaffed bar the Biscuits opened up with Fred Titmus. A nice loosener to start.This however was the start of a very different setlist which only contained two songs from CLSC.
We had the lesser spotted Floreat Inertia and the dodo-like 1966 And All That. Both were enthusiastically received.
"This is for anyone who watches Ultimate Force" said Nigel as they started Rod Hull.... Only to find it has been wonderfully reworked as Ross Kemp is Alive - Why?. Genius.
The lads performed tasters from their new EP. We got the finished version of "tending the wrong grave for 23 years" and "it makes the room look bigger" as well as Jarg Armani and Blood on the Quad.
There was another surprise at the end with Nerys Hughes closing the set (although I can't confirm if it was re-titled "I Hate Menace Yeah" or not.)
The full set list as pinched off a frankly,lucky to ba alive Carl Henry was
F.Titmus
Fretwork
Foam Party
Venus in Flares
Blood on the Quad
1966
D.Friedman/slippers
Wrong grave
Squabblefest
Lark Descending
Uffington
24 hr Garage
Jarg Armani
Ross Kemp is alive
Light tunnel
Look Dad
Deep House/slipknot
Floreat Inertia
Bad Review
D Prague
T Riots
Room Bigger
N.Hughes
Right then, where's that Ronaldinho lookalike....anybody?.....Barcelona?........bugger.