Blog: Day Three: London

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Day three began, as predicted, with a MASSIVE KIP. It was BRILL. If only more International Rock Stars could take delight in having a MASSIVE KIP rather than, say, heroin, fighting or underage girls, then the world of ROCK would be a more delightful place.

Suitably recharged I headed into town to have a look at The Curve (Leicester's new theatre: STUNNING), The High Cross Centre (Leicester's new shopping centre: AMAZING. Also, where on EARTH did all that space come from? There's even an cinema!) and MY LUNCH (Veggie Roast and BEER in The Orange Tree, FAB). I then spent a happy hour or so sat in the "beer garden" (formerly known as the "car park") of The Criterion drinking delicious beer in the sunshine. It was FANTASTIC - I seem to spend so much of my time dashing around DOING things that I always seem to surprise myself by how nice it is to just sit around doing NOTHING MUCH.

I was soon joined by Frankie Machine and we were just getting towards the end of our pints when TIM appeared round the corner - imagine our HORROR to discover that, while we'd been relaxing with PINTS, the rest of The Validators had only only ARRIVED but had also loaded the vans. I can't even begin the descibe how upset we were.

It took us a while to LEAVE, due to pints being finished and several Idiot Checks of the venue, but eventually we were on the road again, trying to tune into The Football, specifically Newcastle vs. Aston Villa. For much of this season certain members of the band have been enjoying the fact that Tim's team, the afforsaid Toon Army, would be joining THEIR favoured teams (specifically Derby and The Mighty Posh) in The Championship. It had been half joking for much of the time, but today was CRUNCH DAY, and we were GLUED to the radio all the way down the M1.

SHAMEFULLY certain members of the band (i.e. those not legally related to Tim) let out a HUGE CHEER when Aston Villa scored, and we did feel a bit guilty when we saw quite how UPSETTING it was for Mr Pattison, so much so that when we arrived at The Wilmington we left him to go through the final moments of relegation in the van on his own. We are KIND like that, also we were in the PUB.

He BORE UP very BRAVELY and after soundcheck we wandered off for TEA - there was much debate about what to have and we settled on a healthy looking compromise, only to be informed by a WAITER that they had stopped serving. HEARTBROKEN we went next door. For a CURRY! HOORAH! Astoundingly this was our first curry of the tour, and it was ACE!

I missed most of the first band as I was CHATTING in the sunshine/the pub to The Shine In My Sun and the various other PALS who had delightfully come along to see us. Like most of the gigs on this tour there wasn't a HUGE number of people in attendance but the LOVELINESS LEVELS of those who WERE there was breaking all known records, so it was with some delight that we went on and did THIS:

Red Black Gold

Best Behaviour

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Where Is My Torch?

All The Good Men

Hey Hey 16K

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

Do The Indie Kid

Easily Impressed

It all seemed to go pretty well, and sounded GRATE - the other Common Trend amongst most gigs on the tour was Good Sound, and the Sound Lady at The Wilmington is REKNOWNED for a) getting everyone to turn things down b) making it sound GRATE. It was thus a happy Validators who made their way for some BEER, returning to watch Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring, who were FANTASTIC. I'm sure I've seen them before - their is a BADGE amongst our collection of Band Badges in the kitchen which seems to imply so - but I don't remember them being quite this GRATE. I thought to start with it was all going to be one long song, as the first one went on for AGES through all sorts of changes, all laden with TUNES and beautiful sounds, but eventually they DID stop and start others, and it was all FAB. I would HIGHLY recommend getting a look at them, they were GRATE.

Once they'd done we finished our beers and started to pack away, and I was surprised during my Idiot Check of the basement (where the bands keep their gear there) to be asked by the bass player form Their Hearts... "are you doing an Idiot Check then?" It's nice to know such TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY is in common parlance!

We took a bit of a detour on the way home to drop some pals off - if any of us or them had known the WAY it would have been a lot quicker! - but eventually got back to CHEZ NOUS to enjoy a STEW cooked by The Ingredients In My Recipe, also some BOOZE, before retiring for the night. I couldn't quite believe that we were now over half way through the tour - too much fun, moving too fast!

posted 31/5/2009 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

"The High Cross Centre (Leicester's new shopping centre: AMAZING. Also, where on EARTH did all that space come from?"

I think they borrowed some from the National Space Centre.

The Criterion is smashing, isn't it? I went there before the Moldy Peaches at the Charlotte one time. It's the pub that disproves the maxim that you should never go into a pub with a flat roof.

Aw. Leicester. When can I play there?
posted 31/5/2009 by Pete Green

CONFUSED BY SETLIST!

I'm SURE you played 'We Can Start Having Fun', and I don't remember hearing a couple of the others. And I only went to the toilet once and made sure I was very swift!
posted 1/6/2009 by tom pony

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