A national treasure and a national disgrace - HMHB and Blackpool. Jesus the place is a tip - we got there early expecting a bit of a ghost town, empty streets, closed down guesthouses, the occasional 3 person stag / hen do lurching forlornly about determined to "have it" in the face of adversity...... oddly, not a bit of it, "no vacancy" signs, packed guest houses, healthily busy pubs etc....
Must be because of Birkenhead's finest, surely?
A superb venue (didn't remotely look it from the website), low stage, no barrier, many of the usual suspects knocking about in their Dukla Pragues.....
Calvin Party on excellent form (quite rightly acknowledged by Nigel later on) - brilliant diverse set (listed in other reviews - thanks guys), new tracks sounding great (no Blue Badge Abuser?), no Dave the Postman shouting out bollocks......
Then there were the dicks in the moshpit. Again, commented upon by Chris in another review, and a most unwelcome development. Not much to add apart from the obvious one - guys, we don't really care if you're "Wigan's top boys" - this isn't a So Solid Crew gig. So don't stand still in the middle of the pit at the front and when someone accidentally collides with you start threatening them and offering them out - repeatedly and all night in fact, until you got thrown out presumably for one too many such twatterisms. Save it for the terraces, and better yet grow the fuck up. Were it not for the outstanding set this could have properly spoilt the gig. In the event it was just rather embarrassing and probably rather unpleasant and intimidating for the usual extremely good-natured majority who make up the HMHB throng.
Another top quality gig overall, even without Garage People, can't be at the next few but I'd be interested to see how you more committed punters feel the crowd is.