Blog: Manchester

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I had a lovely LIE IN on Wednesday, and was feeling pretty DARN GOOD all round - the last couple of times I'd been to Glasgow I'd been a little INCAUTIOUS about what I'd drunk, including stupidly drinking a pint of Guiness that the landlord had explicitly warned me against, but this time I'd been VERY careful, having BELHAVEN from upstairs at The Captain's Rest (and STOPPING drinking a pint of John Smiths that smelt like Toilets - as a beer EXPERT i know this to be a BAD SIGN) and then having some LOVELY Deuchar's IPA in The Liquid Ship. CUNNING.

Anyway, I met Warren downstairs and we headed off to The 13th Note to meet Pete, on the way bumping into Rowan from The Just Joans. We had a couple more delicious pints and also some delicious GRUB and then said hello to Rowan again, as she came in for HER lunch. I really like Glasgow, it feels like the sort of place you could be at home in, and the fact we bumped into someone we knew TWICE only increased the feeling.

Soon it was time for the train and another lovely journey featuring much discussion of topics diverse, and some cups of tea. Once in Manchester Warren guided us across town to The Castle Hotel, before he went home and Pete and I stopped for a quick pint - I tell you what, the idea to do gigs in pubs with nice beer is a REALLY GOOD IDEAS, we had some lovely beer in there.

Pete went off to collect his Mrs, I went and checked in round the corner, and then I met them by accident half an hour later in The Angry Takeaway. Everyone in there seemed to want to fight everyone else, and the grub was a bit crappy too - Pete had a Vegetable Wrap, which seemed very nice from the description, with tomato, potato, onion and all sorts... but it turned out that this was just transcribed from the ingredients list for the Cheapo Aldi's Breadcrumb Vegetable Burger that was the ACTUAL content.

We sauntered back to The Castle, which was a VERY nice pub - it reminded me a LOT of The Magazine from days gone by, in that it felt GROOVY and also as if it was very close to falling down. Warren was already there and we were soon joined by The 10p Mixes, who'd come in Halloween Costume... although I must admit it took me a while to realise this. "Why's he got red on his shirt? He looks like Shaun Of The Dead! AHA!", was my thought process - you can see for yourself, as Warren's just put up his tour pictures!

People gradually arrived, including Ms Ellen Pemberton and Rachel Cherryade, and once again I kicked us off with a ukeleles set, like so:

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Red & White Sockets

Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine

Programming Is A Poetry For Our Time

Leaning On A Lamppost

This one went MUCH better! Next up were The 10p Mixes, who were GRATE - we were extremely lucky with the bands playing with us, as indeed was I to have Pete with me, as he was ACE every night too. The only drop in quality was when he got some idiot on with him to play ukelele on "Share Your Kit". You think he'd remember how the song went, it being one of his favourites, or indeed how to play the right chords at all - I can only guess that Pete took pity on him. Whoever he was...

The whole Totally Acoustic policy worked dead well again, although there was an annoying couple who came in and talked DEAD LOUDLY throughout - i wanted to Have A Word, but they were obviously regulars so it would have been a bit rude, and I think they just didn't understand that we could hear them - they didn't talk between songs so I'm thinking that's the Charitable Explanation... although neither of them put any cash in the whip round at the end, so actually, GRR to them!

ANYWAY, after all that it was my turn, and i did THIS:

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

Hey Hey 16K

Never Going Back To Aldi's

It Only Works Because You're Here

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Billy Jones Is Dead

I Did A Gig In New York

The Gay Train

Easily Impressed

The Lesson Of The Smiths

It all went dead well, and I even did some BUSINESS running out of the room during I Did A Gig In New York - I'd meant to sing out of the door and back again, but got out of breath with the unexpected exercise! It was all dead good anyway and after we finished off our beers we headed off to our respective beds happy with progress, and a bit surprised that we were already over half way through!

posted 2/11/2007 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Rice and beans! That's what it said. Vegetable wrap with rice, beans, and other nice things. Last time I ever trust a mediocre Manchester takeaway!

To start with I read "I kicked us off with a ukeleles set" as "with a useless set", and I thought "hey, Mark's being a bit hard on himself there, isn't he? I really enjoyed it!"
posted 4/11/2007 by Pete Green

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