As a HMHB fan, the first thing you notice about Carlisle is the Trumptonesque bandstand in the middle of the precinct in town. A gig there would have been ideal, but indoors was, I suppose, a wiser option. First stop was the Kings Head where I read in the local evening paper that this was the band's first gig in town for ten years, and that it was exactly the same support band with them tonight. Still tickets left though, it said. It was fairly quiet to begin with, while Cosmic Cat were on, but the numbers soon arrived. Although smaller than the Edinburgh venue the night before, there was still a fair few in, maybe two-fifty to three hundred.
At one point it looked like Nigel was going to make a dramatic entrance with a Naseem Hamed style leap over the rails at the side of the stage, but it ended up being a lot more sedate than that. And then, as Ken was still tuning up, Nigel, Neil and Carl started playing "Ceremony". Would have been nice to hear that all the way through. Neil also keeps giving us snippets of "Shadowplay" and "Joker Hysterical Face". But only snippets.
This was how it went after that.
Fred Titmus
Shit Arm Bad Tattoo
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
CORGI Registered Friends
Running Order Squabble Fest
Vitas Geralitis
Restless Legs
Bad Review
Mathematically Safe
This Leaden Pall
For What Is Chatteris?
Monmore Hare's Running
Blue Badge Abuser (I assume this is the title - still under construction it seems, but this is a tip for the top in 2007)
All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit
Bob Wilson Anchor Man
Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off
Paintball's Coming Home
Joy Division Oven Gloves
A Song From Under The Floorboards
Trumpton Riots
Twenty-Four Hour Garage People
Everything's AOR
And the encore
Vatican Broadside
We Built This Village On A Trad Arr Tune
Look Dad No Tunes
Ninety-Nine Per Cent Of Gargoyles
I picked up a tip about using a Dictaphone instead of writing it all down. Maybe next time...
For the second night running I got piss wet through walking back to the B and B. But, hey, it cheered me up no end when I realised that the band had played a Howard Devoto song, and I was stopping at the Howard Lodge Guest House!!! Well, I made the connection in my own sad little way. That place deserves a mention, though. I doubt you will get served a better breakfast in the whole of Carlisle. It got me all the way back home when I spotted that the forthcoming entertainment in my locality comprises "classic rock". That Shepherds Bush gig can not come soon enough.