Blog: Leicester Again

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I was back on the train again on Friday night to head back to Leicester, and on the way I did a little WORK, proof-reading the lyrics for the multimedia aspects of the new EP and album. I am very diligent.

I got to The Firefly to find that one of 7 Seconds Of Love was singing one of my songs, and he was TERRIFIED to discover that I had MATERIALISED as he was doing so. It was a bit spooky. Mr McClure arrived, and he and I had a DISCUSSION about the recording he'll be doing this Friday, before other people started arriving and LO! there was CHAT and good times. I had a chat to Mr J Veitch from 7 Seconds Of Love and then the rest of his band, and WHAT a LOVELY bunch of chaps they were too. Much fun and pleasure was spreading around the room, and I managed to FORGET that I was supposed to be doing a gig later.

This forgetfulness meant I wasn't worried about the fact that only Tom and I were there, with twenty minutes to go before we were due on stage. Mr Machine wasn't able to attend - i understand he spent the evening consoling himself with TILING - but Tim and Emma were also having trouble, this time with babysitters. Yes, i know, as a group we ARE extraordinarily rock and roll. Tom and I thus did half a soundcheck, and then went back to CHAT and that.

The Pattisons arrived in good time in the end, and together we went upstairs to play. There seemed to be an announcement just after we went, as we found the venue filling up rapidly - indeed, at one point there was a QUEUE. Mr Chris Lawson stated that it was the first time he had ever queued to get into one of my gigs, which is factually inaccurate - I have a photograph of a gig he attened in 1992 which also had a queue. Why does saying that sound so unimpressive?

Anyway, there were soon LOADS of people there - Steve The Organiser tells me it was the first ever complete SELLOUT gig at The Firefly which, while not really anything to do with us playing, was nice to be a part of. Here's what we played:

Better Things To Do

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Hey Hey 16K

The Fight For History

Quality Of Life Enhancement Device

Things'll Be Different (when I'm in charge)

Billy Jones Is Dead

Easily Impressed

I felt a bit uneasy and nervous for the first few songs, as I wasn't sure how it was going, but after "Hey Hey 16K" it started to feel REAL GOOD and i Visibly Relaxed. There was VERY enjoyable heckling (especially Miss E Kawasaki calling out for Voon songs) and some DIALOGUE, there was Sustaining Whooping from the crowd, and I happily regaled the assemblage with my review of the new Neil Diamond album, it was LOVELY. Best of all, a small clutch of people cheered when I announced "Quality Of Life Enhancement Device" - that's NEVER happened before!

All in all it was GRATE, and after we'd finished Tom and I had a quick burst of RETAIL ACTION, which is always fun, before retiring downstairs for more BEER and more CHAT. A little while later we went back up for 7 Seconds Of Love, who were SURPRISING. I'd been especting some sort of fairly humble, self-effacing, jokey band made up of Blokes From The Interweb, but actually they were a rather POWERFUL and ROCKING SKA UNIT, it was ACE! I went downstairs to collect some more BEER at one point and was terrified to find that the ceiling was SHAKING. Light fittings and speakers attached to it were swinging away, and even the pot plant in the corner was vibrating, like one of the aliens off of "The Adventure Game". THAT is how much dancing was going on upstairs.

The night ended with more loafing around and chatting and general PLEASANTNESS. WHAT a nice night!

posted 27/2/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Thanks for a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

An observation was made by the pink-haired lady accompanying me. Do all the trees in Leicester have fairy-lights on the end of the branches? The trees by the Phoenix car park do, and so to the ones in the Firefly. Seeing as thats all the scientific evidence we could muster, we came to the inescapable conclusion that Leicester soil is made out of plutonium.

I'm not so sure now- and I'm pondering the possibility that trees only glow when they're happy. And trees are therefore at their happiest in Leicester. Its probably the music.
posted 27/2/2006 by Peter (aka Cathedrow)

I could leave some really rock 'n roll comment like "MJ borrowed a chair from our table", or point out that me and my brother were the ones cheering for QOLED (we heard it in Manchester last year, you see), but I'll just say, TOP GIG and leave it at that...
posted 3/3/2006 by Andrew

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