First off, apologies carried over from the Sheffield gig last October. I didn't mention Mike, as well as Graham Le Taxi who, as usual, took a photo of the set list at the end of the night. With that gig being well before Christmas, we had to do without the "Cliched" song. And with this one being early March, we made do with playing the video at the appropriate time.
Some notes taken from Chris's site after the Sheffield gig... The support band that night was a Devo covers band and I had said that I couldn't remember a covers band doing this job previously. Thanks to Worried Man who pointed out that The Sisters Of Murphy had provided the support when HMHB played at Holmfirth in 2006. That was one that I missed. I was flying out to Australia that day. On the subject of flying, that was a good effort from Mike's girlfriend, flying in from Minsk (1,394 miles), but it's short of Lorna's journey from New Hampshire (3,161 miles). And Scoff's time gap between gigs (12,355 days) will take some beating.
The Searchers are back in business. I read that they were claiming to be Britain's oldest working rock and roll band. Maybe so. I reckon HMHB need to carry on for another twenty years if they are going to get close to that record. The band (and me) in their early eighties will be something to behold.
In the literary world, I read A Continual Farewell by Lindsay Reade. She was married to Tony Wilson (or Anthony H Wilson as some would know him). He was an all-round good egg. Well, Lindsay might not always agree with you. The chap behind Factory Records, The Hacienda and various Mancunian bits and pieces. The book documents Lindsay and Tony's life together and apart. Seek it out. At the same time, have a look for Triggers by Glen Matlock, giving his view of events in The Sex Pistols.
We only had a few gigs to light up the darkness between Sheffield and Cardiff. We caught up with John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett at Selby Town Hall. Still as crackers as ever. Then there was Indignation Meeting, launching their second album at the back of the Jumbo Records shop in Leeds. And live, original music returned to Pontefract with Desperate Measures headlining on a chilly Saturday afternoon (supported by Filthy Filthy and Sin City Rockers). A trip to Wakefield Theatre meant that we saw the always entertaining Mark Thomas. One of his sketches concerned football crowds going to church. We were close to breaking out with Midnight Mass Murder.
You may have spotted that Oasis are giving it another go with a few gigs in the summer. At face value, tickets are about five or six times the cost of tonight's gig. Who knows what they will be once the market is controlled by "dynamic pricing". I'll stick with HMHB, thank you very much.
Things have progressed from strawberries. A local farm was offering PYO Christmas trees. Worth looking out for, later in the year.
On their excellent show on 6 Music, Radcliffe And Maconie feature vintage session tracks from various bands. HMHB got their turn when Joy Division Oven Gloves was played. This was from a session for Marc Riley's show way back when. "Marvellous," commented Stuart afterwards. They had Sarah from St Etienne on talking about their new album which is, in her own words, "more song based". Clearly an idea borrowed from HMHB's Breaking News.
Ghost Of Kirkus in NZ said he heard Eno Collaboration on RNZ National. Radcliffe And Maconie (and Gideon Coe) notwithstanding, the band gets as much airplay on the other side of the world as it does here. At Christmas, for example, the only time we heard "Cliched" on air was courtesy of Gideon.
Tony told us that he was at a wake recently. They played Tending The Wrong Grave. How come I never get to funerals like that?
Helen!! For the fans of life imitating art, I lifted this from the BBC site... "Four people have been hurt after a double decker bus crashed into a railway bridge tearing its roof off in Kilmarnock. Emergency services were called to the collision on MacPhail Drive, near Culzean Crescent, in Kilmarnock at about 14:00 and police sealed off the area. Footage of the scene posted on social media showed people standing on top of the roofless bus near the bridge, which is marked for vehicles below a certain height."
Ronnie Boyce RIP. Cracking goal, warranting a mention in Ode To Joyce. Enough said.
At Christmas, Karen got me a handful of copies of the fanzine Lunchtime For The Wild Youth. As with other fanzines, it's always interesting to get other views of the world. Issue 62 featured their favourite albums of 1991. McIntyre, Treadmore And Davitt gets a mention. "Good, but not a patch on the earlier stuff." Well, we are all entitled to an opinion, especially when you can be bothered to put a fanzine together. They also did a detailed review of This Leaden Pall. Favourable.
"Eight shit bands you pretended to like because the NME told you to" was a feature I saw on some online forum. "THE NME has traditionally heaped praise on bands that were trendy rather than actually good. Here are some you slavishly pretended to like in the hope of being cool: Lush / Birdland / Silverfish / The Seahorses / The Family Cat / Manic Street Preachers / Northside / Spacemen 3"
Gigs coming up... Bethesda Ulverston Castleton Glasgow Wolverhampton Manchester. People were once again chasing tickets in the run-up to the Cardiff show. Hopefully everyone can get sorted out in advance for all of the above.
We took the train from Wakefield to Cardiff. It was, as it were, a bit of a grind. We were the proverbial sardines in a tin for the first leg of the journey (to Bristol). That's travelling on a Friday for you. When we got to Cardiff and found our hotel, we were ahead of checking-in time, so joined Lorna, Andrew, Phill and Andy, along with Brian saying a brief Hello, while we waited for the 3 o'clock check-in time.
Once checked in, it was time for the paper review. I couldn't find a Western Mail. Does that still exist, or was it just a quick-selling day? So I was limited to Metro and The Guardian. Total silence regarding the HMHB gig. Why would that be a surprise? That said, The Guardian's Q and A session with Edwyn Collins was an interesting read.
And so to the gig. We met Andrew, Phill, Lorna, Gilly and Daisy at the head of the queue. Karen headed to the bar for cans of Liquid Death ("Mountain Water from the Alps"). Lorna had a tale about indoctrinating her husband into the works of HMHB, by playing him their entire works while driving from New Hampshire to Ontario. I spoke with Miles who had a fresh supply of t-shirts being a pastiche of a Magritte painting. That one is now added to my collection.
Tonight's support was a Dutch guy performing as The Weak And The Strong. Not always the most listenable of stuff, he took my mind back to Lovecraft, who supported HMHB once or twice, a few years back. But it was a grower. I would give him another go, but I will know to not expect anything from the Top Twenty, or any mother-in-law jokes.. I heard someone shout "It's a broad church." Yes, we can't all like everything. Of course, the acronym TWATS was not lost on us.
There were a few Hellos during the interval. Welsh John (who was pleased to see we were all still alive), Hi Vis John, Postman Tony, Steve, Niall and Sue. Actually, Hi Vis John was not Hi Vis John. Security had asked him to remove his jacket. They would have their own reasons for that. Security? Health And Safety?
Neil took a bow when he walked on stage to switch on his amp, receiving a cheer from the floor in the process. A couple of minutes later, as the theme to Zulu sounded over the PA, the whole band took their places. "Are you OK for bags?" asked Nigel, before announcing "this is a new song", being She's In Broadstairs, which opened proceedings.
Nigel was asked where his glasses were. He said he gets sweaty and they slip off his face. His optician recommended some adhesive. However, he couldn't find his glasses regardless. Nigel also noted our friend Tony's absence. Tony has been to the Hip Op Shop. Hopefully this will be the only gig that he misses. I texted him the set list, and I'm sure he'll be reading this.
"This is a song about Death Row," Nigel announced, ahead of I'm Getting Buried In The Morning. And he said "True Story" afterwards.
A guy shouted to Nigel, "Last time I saw you, you had hair." (He later revealed that his daughter calls him "The Fresh Prince of No ‘Air). Nigel replied "Yes, I recognise you by your shirt. And did you realise that Pam Ferris is stood behind you?" During the course of the evening, other celebrities were spotted, namely Sophie Raworth ("any time this year with that de-humidifier") and Jason Koumas.
Nigel commented how it had been cold outside. So cold that he had seen a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets. I had a brief chat with Michael from Flux Capacitors, a support band from the recent past. In Outbreak Of Vitas Gerulaitis, it was Dick Kryzwicki all along.
Nigel said he was in the Canton area of Cardiff earlier. He saw a man in the street hitting a woman, and she was hitting him back with a stick. In front of the children too. A policeman arrived, and she started hitting him as well. And then a crocodile came along and stole the sausages. Punch And Judy still going strong.
As always, there were shouts for various songs - "Mod Diff" and "Turned Up Clocked On" for example. Nigel played the first part and then gave up.
Neil was having problems with his amp. While that was being looked at, Nigel led some community singing - Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau and Sosban Fach. He also wondered about being a stand-up comedian. He said about others, it's easy to stand up, "but it's my job to say whether or not you are a comedian." Neil's problem was fixed, and he started playing again halfway through Sealclubbing. "Well joined," commented Nigel.
A few names were offered during God Gave Us Life. He also gave us Paddy McGuinness, Micah Richards, Nick Ferrari, Alan Carr, VAR, him over there (pointing into the crowd) and Lionel Blair.
"Anyone re-watching Breaking Bad?" asked Nigel. "I think Todd is the most evil person."
Karl and Nigel did the Rossi/Parfitt manoeuvre during Time Flies By. Except better than the originals. Before the cover song was played, Nigel introduced it as Fantastic Day by Haircut 100. A metaphorical glass was raised to Brian James of The Damned, who had left the stage the day before this gig.
The following songs were played...
She's In BroadstairsAnd in the encore:
Everything's AORApart from Sealclubbing, everything was as per Karl's set list.
At the end of the gig, I exchanged Hellos with Mike, Drew and Graham Le Taxi, and then went back for beers and discussion of another excellent show with Karen, Lorna, Andy, Gilly, Daisy, Phill, Andrew and Rob. And we're back in Wales for the next gig.