OK, here we go... Saturday afternoon, I got to Piccadilly station, met Dan, and went off to his house to dump stuff / find out where the meetup was from his e-mail. So after a quick kebab on the way in, we got to the Sqare Albert at about 6. We worked out who the listees were pretty quickly by the way everyone turned round to look every time someone walked in the door... Anyway, I hadn't been too sure what to expect, spending the weekend (and quite a lot of money!) in Manchester with a load of people I'd never met before, but everyone there was really friendly, it was great. Hello to anyone I chatted to, I can't remember everyone's names I'm afraid! Then at 7.30 we all went over towards the Town Hall. Then we came back because they hadn't opened the doors yet. Then a bit later we went back and actually got in. Now thanks to a number of circumstances (relatives dying at inconvenient times etc) it was the first chance I'd had to see B&S live. From this list I knew to expect gaps between songs, forgotten lyrics etc; but I also expected the best gig of my life, a religious experience. My ludicrously high expectations gave way to excitement as the evening (and the alcohol?) wore on; after all, I had to think about something when Arab Strap were on ;-). And, well, it was all a bit disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, it was a good gig; it just wasn't a GREAT gig. There were some exquisite moments; walking into the Town Hall for the first time, Isobel singing 'Is It Wicked Not To Care', when the music stopped in 'Dylan In The Movies', and didn't start again; all this was magic. I thought the stage setup worked really well actually (apart from the time it took people to get from one side to the other); but then I was fairly central, just in front of Isobel, and as has been pointed out by a couple of people, I am slightly taller than average, so I could see over everyone's heads to both halves of the stage; I'm not sure how Julia managed! But when it finished, i was left unsatisfied, I'd expected so much more of them. So then we trundled off to the aftershow, in a ridiculously small room the other side of town (1 person behind the bar, about 100 people waiting to be served...). A distinct lack of Jarvis-size celebrities this time, but some of the bands turned up (and I'm pretty sure I overheard one member of B&S describing it as their worst gig...); and at about 1 we went back to get some sleep, hoping tomorrow would be better. And it was. Having turned up about 45 minutes before the doors opened (ie when the tickets SAID that the doors would open...), I finally collected my ticket and went in. The promised festive film didn't materialise, and the Christmas food to be handed out turned out to be a couple of icecreams (just what we wanted after waiting outside in the cold and the rain for ages!), so I found a few listees to chat to whilst waiting (well OK, I butted in on your conversation, hope you didn't mind :-)). Then, with all the pomp and ceromony of a muffled fart, the band strolled on. For a moment I thought Stuart M wasn't coming on, until I realised he was behind me at the piano. And when they played, it was so different from the previous night. I couldn't say what had changed, whether it was the sound quality, the mood of the audience, or what; but the whole atmosphere had changed immeasurably for the better. The rock-out of Tigermilk (for a brief while becoming my favorite B&S song), the audience knowing the words to 'Expectations' better than Stuart, and most of all the moment in LLPJ when all the instruments crash in, perfectly in time with each other, instantaneously deafening compared to what had gone before but then just sublime (Stuart was even making signals at the man behind the mixing desk to turn it up even louder); all of these were perfect pop moments, sheer genius. This was more like what I had crossed the country to hear. And apparently Chris did actually use his vomit bucket halfway through the gig... All to quickly, it was over. Six of us tried to go to the Square Albert again for the meetup, only to discover that it was shut; so instead we opted for the huge Ferris Wheel outside the G-Mex instead (JJ; how is it possible to get so far through your life without once going on a Ferris Wheel?). Then after searching all over the place for about an hour, and losing one person in the process, we got some food, and then headed back to the pub. It was still shut, but at least there were some other people there now. So for want of anything better to do, we went back on the Ferris Wheel, and then (eventually) found another pub for a couple of drinks before the last show. And what a last show. Any high expectations were matched or exceeded. OK, so Future Pilot weren't to my taste (although Chris Geddes was to be seen at the back enjoying it). But after that, the evening got better and better. Good conversation beforehand, with David (as in D&K) sitting on one side, and Julia on the other; and then the band come on, and launch straight into 'Modern Rock Song' followed by 'The State I Am In'. After that, we didn't even mind the 10 minute break that followed whilst Isobel's cello got sorted out, a gap partly filled by 'Matchstick Men', remarks on the similarity between Pastie's riff and the theme tune to Emmerdale, and Stuart M's first 'interview' for a while... ("So, Stuart, are your band really as shambolic as people say?" "Yes!"). Despite what a few people have said, I thought Pastie sounded magnificent. Although admittedly sitting on the edge of the stage, right in front of the speaker stack definitely enhanced the sound quality (if not my eardrums!). They basically played a 'greatest hits' set, most of the favourites were there ('Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying', 'Judy And The Dream Of Horses', and best of all 'She's Losing It' quite unexpectedly). 'Century Of Elvis' mutated into Stuart and Isobel singing the chorus to 'Century Of Fakers' at the end; and they even managed to stop and restart the music in 'Dylan In The Movies' together this time. But the best had been saved 'til last; a simply wonderful rendition of 'Sleep The Clock Around', which sounded so much better than I remembered it (in fact it even sounds better on my tape of the sessions now as a result), right from the start to the climactic, all guns blazing, if-my-life-ends-now-I'll-die-happy rock-out at the end. When we were finally thrown out of the building, not wanting to leave until we absolutely had to, a few of us stumbled off to find a club that was open. When we finally did (after walking in completely the wrong direction for ten minutes or so...), it wasn't the liveliest place in the world (is there nowhere open in Manchester after 1am?!?). Oh yeah, and the ceiling was too low. But by then, I was too ecstatic to care. A few drinks and the inevitable late night curry house stop, later, it was time to say goodbye to it all, to new-found friends. And to survive a taxi-trip with a driver who had to get out an A-Z of Manchester to work out where I wanted to go. Well that ended up a bit longer than I'd intended, but never mind. I just thought that those of you who weren't there might be getting the impression from certain people that the gigs were't wonderful; they were. The whole weekend was magnificent; great company and great music - what more could you want? New Year's Eve was never going to be anything other than a damp squib compared to what had gone before; the sooner we have another meetup the better. So thanks to D&K for organising the meetup, so that we got to know each other; thanks to Dan for giving me somewhere to sleep for the two nights; and thanks to everyone I met, I love you all! Stuart "I'm not that tall, honest" Gardiner P.S. I've got about 20-30 photos from the gigs, both of the band and of a few of the listees. Much as I would like to get copies done for everyone, it would cost a fortune; so does anyone have the facilities to put them on the web somewhere? If so, can you mail me privately, and we can sort something out. Cheers! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------