Blog: Bowlie Alldayer

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Thank heavens for the Bank Holiday - I'd only just recovered from The Peterborough Beer Festival on Friday night (GRATE, but i question the wisdom of having BUNGEE JUMPING at a Beer Festival...) when it was time to head off on Sunday afternoon for the Bowlie All-Dayer at The Buffalo Bar. We were meant to be on at just after eleven o'clock in the evening, but when I arrived just after 8pm I found things were already running 45 minutes late, so i GIRDED myself for a late night and adjusted my BOOZE IMBIBING VELOCITY accordingly.

The nice but Slightly Unsettling aspect of the evening was that there were LOADS of people there i knew, like Mr A Newman and Mr M Breach, but also several people I recognised from other gigs (mine and other peoples) and also off The Interweb, but who I didn't actually KNOW. It's always a bit scary in those sort of situations - do you RISK looking like a weirdo stalker and say hello, or do you ALSO RISK looking like a weird LONER and BLANK everybody who comes your way? It is a tough call, but luckily most people had been there longer than me and so any LOOKS were fairly BLEARY.

My favourite band of the evening were, as usualy, The Gresham Flyers - they remind me a LOT of The Chemistry Experiment when they first started, as I expect them to be a bit cack-handed, ramshackle and more loveable than Actually Good, when, as with The Chemistry Experiment I have NO REASON AT ALL to think so, especially as in FACT they are BLOODY GRATE - GRINS erupted around the room as they started playing a packed set of TOP TUNES, notably this time involving quite a lot of dancing on THEIR part, which is something i wholeheartedly approve of. I'm seeing them again in a couple of weeks and i look forward to it immensely, as they were ACE.

Tim and Emma arrived just as The Gresham Flyers were starting, and after that it was time for a Heated Debate about the setlist, which this time turned into more of a Lengthy Negotiation, as all of us had songs we'd like to do which the others OPPOSED. There was plenty of time to discuss it though, as the Running Lateness EVOLVED to over an hour - a CONSTANT for all all-dayers and not really a problem, except this time it meant we were playing WELL past our respective bedtimes, and we eventually took the stage at GONE MIDNIGHT, and played THIS:

Hey Hey 16K

Better Things To Do

Dino At The Sands

The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)

Quality Of Life Enhancement Device

Mental Judo

Leave My Brother Alone

Billy Jones Is Dead

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

A pretty unusual set for us, based on what we COULD play without Tom and Frankie, and for some reason more tending towards BALLADRY than normal. It felt really good though - the monitors were EXTREMELY LOUD so to start with I could hear my vocals much much more than anything else and very nearly asked for them to be turned down, before realising this was EXACTLY what I usually beg for so perhaps should just get used to it. With only the three of us playing it was a much LOOSER sound, and I think it helped the SINGING, especially the "la la" bit in Dino At The Sands which i THINK was quite nice, though obviously i may be deluded about that! The crowd was noticeably thinner than it had been earlier on, largely because it was a Sunday Night and the Last Tube had LONG gone, but there were a good few people there who seemed to enjoy it, and there were various groupings of people SWAYING GENTLY throughout. That may not have been ENTIRELY due to us, however.

We got off, packed up, and then The Pattisons began the long journey back to The Midlands, whilst I watched Strange Idols - I'd seen them before with The Gresham Flyers in Bethnal Green a few months ago and not been massively impressed either way, but this time they seemed DEAD GOOD - TAUT and POPPY and rather good fun. Soon, however, it was time to get going MYSELF, so after a few HUGS and CHEERIOS I stepped out into the night to get me a Proper Black Cab home, with a driver who played very old very lovely SOUL MUSIC all the way to Leytonstone. LOVELY.

Today I looked on the BOWLIE forums, and The Kids seemed to have enjoyed us, which is lovely, and somebody even took some pictures - we're on this page here, and down a bit, if you fancy a look. Don't we look SMART eh?

posted 29/8/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Thanks for the nice words, sir, both about the band and the event. I am truly sorry at the late running and the thinning crowd- we bit off slightly more than we could chew in terms of bands. Lesson learnt for next year. And it'll be a joy and a pleasure to buy you a pint at the Windmill!

Thom
posted 29/8/2006 by The Gresham Flyers

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