A late afternoon arrival left me with a choice. Either a saunter round the castle or a quick march down to Carrow Road. Well, castles are castles, so it was along to the Yellows cafe bar at the ground for afternoon tea followed by a spot of shopping (8 Norwich City party cups for 99p from the club shop. Bargain!). Well, you've got to do your bit. All the talk in the local paper was that Delia is trying to sell up. All in all the club could be in a spot of bother. It all continued a football theme to the day. On the train I'd been sat at a table with two guys, one of whom was moaning about his prospective son-in-law, an Arsenal fan "with tattoos". It sounded like Arsenal wasnt such a problem, but the tattoos were not wanted. Fair enough, but some people do go on.
Later on, I arrived in good time at what was a splendid venue. The only downer about it, I would have thought, was the pillars in the middle of the dancefloor. Glad I was able to get to the front - I would guess these might have been a bit of an obstruction to those at the back. And the guy on the door was pleasant enough, with a nice little tirade against the government and the rules on drinking outside. The place itself was out of the city centre, down by the side of the river. Hence the name, I suppose.
HMHB's performance was just as you would expect. Perhaps a little more chat than usual. There was an in-depth discussion on the price of walking boots. Milletts, it seems, is not the place to go Nigel was also good enough to keep us all informed of the evening's Carling Cup scores - with a big cheer following the announcement of Burnley knocking Chelsea out on penalties. Other points to note were the quality new line in "Paintball" - "They went through hell and high water / To be in the Top Gear audience" - and Nigel's admirable attempt to hold the last note in "Chatteris".
There were also one or two tunes which had not been aired for a while. I had wondered stupidly if a gig in Norwich might prompt a Serious Drinking cover, but of course it meant instead that "On Reaching The Wensum" was brought back out. And I can't remember hearing "This Leaden Pall" or "Uffington Wassail" for a while.
Evening Of Swing
Fuckin' 'Ell It's Fred Titmus
Running Order Squabble Fest
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Uffington Wassail
Four Skinny Indie Kids
Petty Sessions
Took Problem Chimp To Ideal Home Show
Bad Review
On Reaching The Wensum
Shit Arm Bad Tattoo
Blue Badge Abuser
Secret Gig
Paintball's Coming Home
The Trumpton Riots
Look Dad No Tunes
The Best Things In Life
This Leaden Pall
Restless Legs
Everything's AOR
Tending The Wrong Grave
24 Hour Garage People
We Built This Village
Dukla Prague Away Kit
Vatican Broadside
National Shite Day
the encore was
For What Is Chatteris?
A Song From Under The Floorboards
Joy Division Oven Gloves