I tried to keep this short, but I failed...
We should have been early to the pub but ended up late, rushed in, didn't recognise anyone except Mikey and Tony so we had some nosh with them round the corner and then went looking for faces I did recognise. Saw Sarc, Mrs Sarc, Ean, Ila (thanks for the stickers), Pete, Tiggie and InstantKarma. Nice to meet you all. At this point everyone else had buggered off into the queue, so we did likewise. Found Damian at the entrance, looking as panicked as I was about the late opening doors. We all rushed inside to get down the front for Eureka Machines. Just in the nick of time too. Then someone foolishly bought me a pint. This went mostly over the people around me, I'm really sorry if any of you are reading this!
I thought it was a real shame the doors opened so late because the crowd was very small at the start for Eureka Machines, but the harmonies sounded great in the big echo-y space. Am sure that their next London show will be better attended.
Bumped into Eyeheartsatan at the bar, hello! I’d meant to be in the pub a lot earlier and I was a bit annoyed at myself for being so scatterbrained. Sorry to those folk I said I'd meet but didn't get chance to.
God Damn Whores I thought were just good in some places but great in others, for example 'We're in the Army' was great, but 'She took me out' didn't really do it for me. I crossed over into drunktown at a point during 'Silvery'. Didn't want to be so wasted I couldn't remember the night so I had one more and then quit.
The ‘Earth vs’ set was almost heaven, and I say almost because I thought the b-sides set was even better. Couldn't see much for a long time, I'm not short but there were a lot of tall blokes in front of me. Just had to pogo higher. Once we got into the b-sides set I was able to get closer and also enjoy being less bruised. Today I am walking like the hunchback of Notre Damn – I managed to pull muscles in my stomach (I didn't think I had any muscles in my stomach), sides and also shins. I can only assume that jumping up and down for 4 hours is good for you if you are up to it, but I'm not anymore. I can’t cough, laugh or stand up without it hurting, but in a perverse way I kind of like having the battle wounds. Bruises aren’t too bad this time, the worst ones are on Mr P’s toes where I jumped on them. Ooops…
The B-sides were really the most special part of the night for me, I’ve seen them do most of the songs off Earth vs before, but very rarely the b-sides and I felt extremely grateful to them for doing the whole thing, it’d be so easy to just forget your old stuff and just keep plugging your latest CD for sale. And how hard did Ritch work? He was unbelievable! Those drums got just non stop punishment from start to finish.
Afterwards I braved the crush at the merchandise stand, which was worse than down the front of the stage! Some knob decided he’d get served faster if he pushed harder, but it doesn’t work like that. We all got served equally slowly, and I don’t think there was much left by the end.
Got outside and couldn’t see anyone we recognised so headed off. Mikey had a grand plan to get over to the Astoria 2 to see Andrew WK, so after a quick stop off at our hotel to ditch our merch, and a slice of dirty NYC style pizza we hopped on a tube to Tottenham Court Road. The queue for the Astoria 2 was round the block so we went to the pub. After a few more drinks we decided to call it a night while Mikey and Tony went on to the Astoria 2 to see if they could get in. And they were never seen since.
On Sunday we went to the British Museum for some mummy action. Saw plenty dead Egyptians, had lots of coffee, caught train back to Leeds.
Heavy Metal Ending.
