Manchester!!We drove down to manchester and the drive took the expected sort of time, and was pretty smooth going - pretty much only confusion in manchester city centre, but then city centres are mostly confusing!! Our drive down was nice, i liked looking at the countryside, as its so rare that i am not driving and actually get to look at things.... we listened to old, rare and live brandi music, as well as pink and daniel bedingfield.
One of my other friends was coming to the gig, after a shower, and grabbing a subway, i headed off on foot to the venue, i think i was offiically the first person at the venue.. but due to being the rubbish one who didnt actually know where i was meant to be going, we ended up not the first in the Q... i suck butts. Luckily we had a wall bit to sit on though... Emma turned up first, and then marina and claire arrived, there was lots to look at in the streets of manchester on our way. The Q formed slowly but surely, and fun things happened like.... a shirtless man approached us saying "*beep* off"" under his breath (pronounched "fackorrf"!) which not really help his case before he even got to us. he was carrying a white rabbit. he asked us to holdhis rabbit. we all declined. he carried on up the q and tried to put the rabbit on people (he even had a water bottle in his pocket) he was met by varying degrees of go away, no, and 'go do one' - and after lots more fackorrff, he eventually went away... and tried unsuccesfully to get on a bus, and then anther bus, and then eventually got let on a bus, with his no shirt and white rabbit. poor bunny. We saw brandi and boys head off from their tour bus up the road, brandi with her sunglasses and flat cap - she makes everything look good dammit!
We were let in in good time, but not really told where to go so we all kind of followed each other to wehre we thought the room was. again, dont think they were expecting depesreat people trying to get to the front as we all rushed in. No bags were actually checked so i probably could have got my camera in, however the stage was quite high, and mic stands were inthe way so i dont think i would have got hat great photos.... (convincing myself again) - i had not been able to speak toa nyone at the venue so i decided not to risk it and just relax and enjoy the gig and not worry. We ended up on phils side for this gig (only just though! boo to people pushing in and venues being rubbish with their checking of tickets and bags - i think the change of venues confused alot of venues with looking at tickets...).
support again from Kill it Kid - which were bearable when wearing ear plugs
Steph, the female keyboard player/singer actually endeared herself to me alot with her story about the service station from heaven with rabbits, very sweet - and they should have let her sing more!
Set list for Manchester show:
01. Sixty Years On
02. Late Morning Lullaby
03. Until I Die
04. Have You Ever
05. How These Days Grow Long/Dying Day
06. Oh Dear
07. My Song
08. Creep (Radiohead cover)
09. Cannonball
10. Mad Man Across the Water (Elton John cover)
11. Turpentine
12. Dreams
13. The Story
----
14. Folsom Prison (Johnny Cash cover)
15. Let it Be (Beatles cover)
16. That Year - on the set list but not played
17. Pride and Joy
We had written a note and put it next to phils set list of some of the new new songs and also asking for ray lamontagnes 'burn' but he said he didnt see it, and themoved his set list cos his cables were over it and covered it up! heh.
The crowd were really great again, the singing in most songs didnt seem quite so loud as glasgow but that may have been because the ceiling was lower for this gig than glasgow - this guy shouted out "YOU *beep* ROCK!" and she said "that's the best thing i've heard all day - i love when guys shout things like that" - there was also some shouting of *beep* TOOOOON! for mad man and "*beep* yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah"! i love it. someone also called the twins the twindigo boys before anything came up about the indigo girls, which made her happy i think. brandi's story about the "*beep*" mind machine was funny too. Josh was so close to us, the cello spin in folsom was practically in my face, hahaha! there was someone just behind us who was basically videoing the whole thing (not sure where that will end up) and someoen will a massive camera was there before the gig started and went before it started with a huge lens and camera i would die for saying " i dont really knwo how to use it, i've not read the instructions..." - wtf?? anyway... Dreams went down well again ( think josh filmed it this time) lots of clapping and stuff. i still think daying day would be a great first single, but what do i know? I'm not sure why that year was left off the set list - i think we were on a curfew with it being a sunday... boo!!! i can't think of anymore facts! I really enjoyed not using my camera during the gig after using it in glasgow i was happy with what i got there and just took a bit of video, but mostly just did the normal gig thing - yay!
Creep
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... d=61876454Dying Day (unplugged)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... d=61881601rocking out in Folsom
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... d=61902610We said our goodbyes to bex after the gig, as she was off to get mega drunk in canal st, we however, we going to try attempt number two to meet the lovely band. I chatted with Emma and her mates for a little bit outside the venue and then we headed off to stalk. It was first time for them all and i think they are proper converts - i will be making sure they go nex tome!
And well, brandi must have truley made it, as there was a guy selling fake brandi t shirts outside the show - first time i've seen them! i think he slightly mis judged his market though as they were mostly v neck vest tops and all in pastel colours and whites!!! it was the heart bicycle design with her name on. not my taste, as well as many others i guess... after a little while, he grabbed what he had left, and just lef them on the wall, and drove off!!!!
we didn't have to wait *too* long, and brandi appeared from behind the tour bus, with a big 'hey guys' before heading straight to marina Smile.. i think i babbled some mindless sh*t about "are you having a good tour?" WFT LOSER. and then got to giving her the gift i'd got her. so brandi is a big fan of never ending story, but also mentioned in a video that i saw on youtube that she loves 80s films in general and mentioned the goonies - so in my side project at conventions, i got brandi and autograph from Data and Andy from the film.... i explained it was my favourite, and how i came to get the autographs and that showed them to her and she was like "these are for me???" - ha how cruel would i be to just show them to her! haha. that amused me. she seemed geniunely blown away by it. she wanted to run and find the twins to show them. and gave me a really big hug! yay! she was like oh i can give you this signed pic (or words to that effect) and got a guitar pic out of her pic and signed it for me. I also asked her to sign a photo that I had got printed from the Zurich gig and she asked if we were going to switzerland this time around (no, too expensive! ha) - marina took my photo with her (which i love because i acutally look quite normal and brandi kind of looks like 'yay!') She gave me another hug and said something like wow i can't believe how cool this is, and said that it was one of the coolest things anyone had ever got her! - man this made me so happy Smile she said she was going to put them up in her studio Smile i wish i filmed my whole life so i didnt have to remember it in my brain, haha, it fades so easily.... damn alcohol! i wasnt sure that she liked the goonies all that much, and she was like man i looooooooooooove the goonies. i said a little bit about how they are all so surprised that everyone still loved the film, and how many i'd met (and managed to forget all the characters names even though i've seen it 400 times...) - she said someone had told her about the guy from neverending story has a tattoo parlour and she should go there to get a tattoo - it's kinda cool that she's into that whole kinda fan thing about these films... she could have totally NOT been into autographs... i really hope i can get something never ending story from geek fests for her Smile I have no idea how i reacted to her reaction i probably just so "oh your welcome" or something else retarded...
anyway, at this point i started to feel quite concious of the other people behind me, so i went away.... and we hung around while brandi chatted with everyone. she asked how we liked Alison the new drummer, and i thikn it was natalie that asked if she was permanant. brandi said something like "i *beep* hope so" - they seem to change drummers so it would be nice to stick with one huh. she got asked if she had been influienced by kd lang and would play her in a film (someone had become a brandi fan through kd) and she was like yeah shes really influenced by her and would do that, but said "but i dont think i'm butch enough" and looked over at us - heh, it was cute. others asked about playing other new songs (alison doesnt know then yet) and and she explained some of the differences between crowds here and in america. someone wanted her to play same ole you and she said that uk people don't seem to get it as well, like she'll start playing 'stand by your man' and we'll all just look at her - LOL. true i guess. she said shes alot more established with crowds there too, and the atmoshphere is very differnt, i think she said something about a'southern' atmosphere, and there just isnt that here. it was mentioned how everyone in scotland and irerland sang along with cannonball and she said its because its reminensnt of some folk tune or something, and it just seems to happen!
it was really interesting watching her with everyone - she has a lot of time and i think more artists who are still at a stage where they can meet fans afterwards should take the time to do it - this is where you get your dedicated fans.... Before she headed off she stayed for a photo with the AT forum people - which is a cute photo (in the link at the end) if a little dark (stupid camera). she asked if we were going to london, and when i said "see you tomorrow" she said "thank you so much" and gave me another hug - amazing!!
on our way back we chatted briefly to the twins and josh - i really liked Phil with more hair and stubble, as he was in my main view at manchester i was was liking it more and more and thought hey, i have quite a crush on you when you look like that! haha.
there are a couple of manchester pics in the link i posted about glasgow, but otherwise, this is all the same pics as before
http://flickr.com/gp/kookie21/Y8T6J0
Um yeah. It has to be an original song, so I just finished writing one and polishing up a couple of others. Gahaaaaaa! It's a big deal for me, because it will also be the first time I've played a formal "gig" in a proper venue with original tunes in about 9 years. Heh. I'm gonna rock it as hard as I can, though! My friend Lizzy is playing bass with me, so I'll have a pal as backup.
And trust me, there WILL be video evidence. 
