Another scenic journey from Cardiff to Frome, arrived mid-afternoon and had a quick look around the shops in the midst of the St David's Day procession, wandered around the Millenium Stadium reminiscing about the Liverpool triumphs in 2 FA Cup finals and Carling Cup finals before heading down to Cardiff Bay and checking into the Holiday Inn, a ten minute stroll from the venue.
The Point is a great little venue, a converted church a few minutes walk from the tourist attractions of the Bay - Welsh Assembly, Millenium Centre and a frankly disappointing Dr Who Exhibition.
HMHB took to the stage at 9pm and did a similar set to Frome, although from memory, they added Fred Titmus, Time Flies by (which Nigel struggled to remember the intro to), Bob Todd (with Nigel beginning with "Jesus Christ come on down, and kill Dan Brown") and the cover was the Beach Boys "Help me Rhonda" and a Welsh song, possibly the Welsh National anthem, and finished with "Trumpton Riots".
Nigel regaled the crowd with snippets of Welsh he had learned and his usual travelogue of places of local interest. On a discussion about guitars he mentioned that Neil had been using his Rickenbacker for 25 years and frequently bored people with stories about it, and mentioned that his own guitar was a "Fender Doncaster" - the caravan guitar was brought out for the encore but Nigel was having problems with it so reverted back to the trusty "Doncaster"
After "Lock up.." Nigel pointed to Neil and said that "He had motorcycle emptiness before anyone else".
There was a great deal more banter with the audience than in Frome, with Nigel dealing with requests with "Yep, that's one of ours" and pointed out that some of the requests, they had already played. A small Welsh bloke with a Dead Kennedys tattoo, who Nigel had earlier reassured that he was not the subject of "s**t arm" tried to get on stage but was soon apprehended by the bouncers - I am sure it is the same bloke I have seen mount one man stage invasions at Wedding Present gigs too.
Another great night's entertainment from the band, and overall a far better gig, will be good to see Ken back, but Carl proved himself a more than adequate sub if the need arises again.