Sunday 27th August 2006 saw the day that I would finally see Pete Doherty in concert. Despite him being my idle for near enough the last 2 years I had never got round to going to see him but this was my chance, not only that but to see a whole load of other good bands at this great mini festival.

Me and my sister got to Clapham common tube station by about 11ish and followed the crowds down to the area where the gig was to be held. Of course the whole area was surrounded by 8ft high fences to ensure no free loaders could get in. We had to wait there until about 12 before the gates opened and we walked inside. Woo we had just waited the best part of an hour to get into a field. It was no ordinary field though it was a field.. of dreams.

For the first half an hour or so we scouted round the field to see where everything was and we also made a plan of who we really wanted to see and who we could live without seeing. Also we managed to pick up as many freebies as possible. From the 3 phone company van we managed to blag a sun hat, a draw string bag and two boxes of jellybeans, we got some free hair gel and some other stuff that I cant remember. So that was that and then we moved onto the acts.

The first thing we went to see was a set put on by the comedy store in the guilty pleasures tent, it was reasonably funny, there was 2 acts and a compare who were all quite good but could have been better. Nevertheless it was quite an easy start to the day.

We then made our way to the second stage as it was so cleverly called to see the 'grindie' star that is lethal bizzle. Of course I have been floolwing 'da bizzle' for many a year now.. ok so i'm not his biggest fan but I liked that one song of his that I knew where he did a rap remix of a rakes song. And despite it basically being a set of rap music I quite enjoyed it, very lively and lots of crowd participation shouting things like OI, brilliant.

We stayed in the Second Stage tent for the next act. Yes Kid Harpoon wooo, one of the must see acts of the day, he was amazing. Despite just being a man with a guitar he has a real stage presence and is brilliant. I definately recommend people listen to his stuff.

We then moved out to the main stage to see Lily Allen, my sister hates Lily Allen with a vengence but I decided that she had to be seen, she maybe a complete chav but her songs are quite good. The chav persona wasnt helped by her coming out on stage wearing a hood and huge loopy gold earrings but she still managed to put on a good set which I thoroughly enjoyed, and to you who are familiar with her work, she has a song called Alfie about her little brother and when singing it she dragged him onto the stage.. he was worse then her, he was about 12, wearing a hood and smoking. He looked like a right wanker. Also during this set some stoner and a drunk woman were having a great time in front of me pouring alcohol over each other whcih provided quite an interesting spectical.

Back to the second stage tent we went to listen to the pipettes who too were great and out of all the bands we saw the nicest to look at, for those who dont know the pipettes their lead singers are 3 women who wear 60s clothes and dance around looking nice and they actually have pretty decent songs aswell.

Now we came to a part of the day where there was nothing much good on.. we had a choice between some shitty emo band or Bez.. so yes we sat down and had some lunch/dinner type thing. It was horribly overpriced and not particularly tasty but we were quite hungry and needed a sit down after standing for the last 4 or so hours.

The next thing we saw was the young knives and we only went to see them because we had nothing else to see, I still believe that they are pretty rubbish, apart from one song which is alright they are a boring band.. but we used this opportunity to start making our way as close to the front of the crowd as possible.. also we managed to bag ourselves a get loaded beach ball which was nice.

Then there was a quick DJ set as there was between all the acts on the main stage and it was during this me and my sister decided that we would sacrifice going to see British Sea Power and the Guillemots in order to get as close as possible for Babyshambles. And so we did.

Buzzcocks were the next act to come on and already by this point the crowd was getting quite rowdy at least as much as the milburn gig and I knew that this was only going to get worse as the night progressed yet I stayed there and tried to enjoy the 30 yr old punk sound brought to us by very middle-aged looking performers.

Another DJ set followed before Graham Coxon came on stage with his band, by this time I couldn't actually move at all, I was just one with the crowd and despite the elbows being locked into my side and the sweat pouring off my whole body i was still quite enjoying the show. I would have preffered Graham Coxon to have been on earlier for me to really enjoyed it properly.

As you can see with the last couple of Acts I have mentioned more about the crowd then the music, this is unfortunately because this is how i remember it, by the time Pete and Babyshambles came on the crowd was one big mush of people, if people jumped in front of you, you jumped too because you were so tightly pressed against them, this is ok if your pushed up against some gorgeous girl (some of the time) but not so much when your pushed up against some sweaty ginger bloke (the rest of the time). For a short time I was really able to embrace the fact that Pete was singing less than 10 meters away from me but then I soon remembered again that I couldnt actually breathe properly, I was in a lot of pain and within 5 minutes or so of the set starting I was on the floor with a huge crowd of raging fans peering over me. I dont think I am exagerating when I say that was one of the scariest moments of my life.. the thought did cross my mind that I was about to be trampled to death by a large crowd. I managed to haul myself up to my great relief but I didnt want to stay there any longer.. So i tried my hardest to push through the crowd grab my sister and bring us back to the less crowded areas. My sister will probably never forgive me for doing that but I really dont care, I was shitting myself in that crowd and so had to get out. I had had my time up close to pete but I knew I wouldnt really be able to enjoy the music whilst in that crowd.

We left soon after the Babyshambles set was finished and made our way home by 10:30ish

The moral of this story is I have realised that I have a fear of being trampled to death by large crowds.. until the next time bye bye

Ok this blog is a little late because it has just been too hot of late to contemplate doing anything, even a task as simple as writing a blog. But now it is here and I am sure you will all be rejoicing in the fact.

So this blog is about me and a few others going to see the wonder that was milburn playing a gig in the electric ballroom in Camden.

It started by the 3 lads, me, Dave and Tate going up to camden by tube to find a little establishment to have a quick little drinky before we started. The plan was to meet the lovely ladies, Phoebe and Rosie but NOO they had to be complicated (and not for the last time on that evening) and not turn up. It was ok though we didnt need them we met John, the loveable drunk Irishman. He was brilliant, he told us how he had never fought anyone and yet had thrown people out of windows for invading his space. At one point we thought he was going to hit an old man who was looking at him funny. And when he asked Dave to buy him a drink we didnt think we should argue. So we quickly finished off our pints there, said our goodbyes to John who I now miss terribly and left up the road to get in line.

When in line for the gig the girls FINALLY made it, then we waited a while and I saw a guy who I remembered seeing at the Essex university open day - yes the time in the queue was very exciting. Then we went in. 1st stop was of course the toilet as I had been dying to go since we left the pub, I didnt want to stay there any longer than necessary.

Then drinks which were rather pricey and of course as at all the finest establishments they were in plastic cups. So we had a couple of those met up with the John that we actually knew had another drink and then went to the floor to hear the first warm up band. Now they were called Kharma 45 and their guitarist was called Pete Doherty, unfortunately that is just about all they had going for them. They were dull, thee girls seemed to like them, I dunno maybe one of the members was devilishly good looking or something but anyway I was glad when that was over.

Me and John initially went to the bar by ourselves and i watched him down a pint which was quite impressive and then we got some more drinks. By this time the others had come back to the bar area to join us. And all of us lads were happily drinking away when I noticed that the girls weren't drinking. Being the gentleman that I am I offered to get them one, but they said no. I knew that this was due to politeness rather than not actually wanting one and so I asked again and again but I was greeted with mystic riddles. 'we wont say yes but if drinks were to appear in front of us we would probably drink them'. This would be bad enough if I hadnt already had a little drop of alcohol inside me so at this point I was getting a tad confused. I ended up getting drinks for them and by the time I got round to it everyone else was finished so I ended up buying a whole round. And If I am not mistaken they drank them. During this whole fiasco the second warm up band was going on and they were even worse than the 1st. They were called Cute is what we aim for.. what a terrible name and matched with terrible songs.

And finally Milburn came onto the stage and so we all rushed up as close as we could get. A barrier of people stopped us from getting any closer but I wasnt having that, so I pushed my way to the front before realising no one was following me. Oh well I was there being pushed and shoved around like nobodys business but it wasnt as violent as what I hear from Leanders experiences so I was still living by the end. The set was great, I heard a lot of my old favourites along with quite a selection that I had never heard before. By the end of the set though I was regretting being at the front amongst the pushing and shoving. Although it was fun and did help people including good old John (not irish drunk) to crowd surf. But the downside was the horrible amount of sweatyness I was covered in by the end of which a lot wasnt my own. It had turned out that the girls had left before the end, probably for the best that they didnt see me in that state. Us four lads though remained there 'till the end, 3 of us bought t-shirts and then trotted off back to the station. John dissapeared down the escalator never to be seen again and the rest of us sat down and tubed it all the way home.

End

The day didnt have the most exciting start of all as I had the first of my summer exams, The physics practical which to all extents seemed to go quite well despite my revision really being limited to about 5-10 minutes but that test is as much about common sense as it is about physics so that was ok.

After the exam me and 'da physics crew' as I have decided to call us all went down to wimbledon for a nice little meal at pizza hut express which was pretty tastey and then as I was going to put my rubbish in the bin I managed to chuck it onto a nearby customer which I must say was a tad embarrasing. I then quickly ran out of the area. We then trundled down to HMV where I bought the Boy Kill Boy album and also the Little Man Tate single on a special edition yellow vinyl. Leander and Ian romantically went to see mission impossible 3 together and me and matt went our seperate ways home, knowing that seeing the movie first would make it hard to get ready in time for gig.

So the original ticket holders for the gig were me, dave, shane, mike, matt bond, blondie and rossy but unfortunately both mike and rossy had to pull out so I had to quickly get in some replacements and they were in the form of Tony and John(PNB if any of you old readers still care). John didnt join us 'till later as he was shopping in sainsburys or something. Anyway we got to the 100 club pretty much bang on time and on my way in I saw the lead singer of Little Man Tate and did a friendly nod in his direction and he said "alright mate" in his strong sheffield accent which was nice. 7:30 turned out to be too early really as the 1st band didnt get on until about 8:15 but by then i was already into my second drink so it wasn't too much of a downer.

I have absolutely no idea what the name of the 1st band was and so I will merely describe in the best way possible, a bunch of middle aged men with very little talent. Saying that though they werent boring as the lead guy enjoyed his crowd involvement jumping off the stage on numerous occasions once pointing and singing at me and another sitting next to Matt and singing into his eyes, Matt didnt seem to enjoy it unfortunately giving the man the dirtiest look youve ever seen. During the set whilst I went to get another drink I managed to pull of another embarrasing feat, this time whilst trying to step over a chair, knocking it over, stamping on it and making a louder noise than the actual band, but this time i had nowhere to run so i just sat down quickly and looked sheepish. John arrived shortly after the band finished their set and so he bought me another drink cos he didnt have to pay for a ticket as such.

The second band were a damn sight more talented than the 1st but again I missed the name which is actually quite annoying cos I wouldnt mind finding some of their tunes. The lead singer of this band was clearly gay, wearing his tight pink top, tight jeans and pointy shoes. John being John went up to him after their set and actually asked him if he was which was interesting as he said he wasnt but I am pretty sure he was lying. Their bass player thought he was Flea from the red hot chili peppers as well and apparently looked like some actor or something according to Dave. But as I said they were pretty good. During this set, Matt managed to out embarras me by spilling over some strangers pint and thus having to buy him a new one.

So finally on to Little Man Tate and what can I say they were great, they really got the crowd going from the openers 'Man I hate Your Band' and 'Court report' you could see that the majority of the crowd knew the words and were singing along. Again I managed to take up the place behind the pillar but this time I didnt stand for it and moved round to get myself a better position even if it meant pushing through.  By the middle of the set the crowd was getting nice and lively and me and John had managed to get quite close to the front. The odd crowd surfing incident started to happen which didnt please the security people too much. I was getting in the crowd and jumping and singing all over the shop, it was fantastic, probably the most energetic of my limited gig going career. The climax of the set was 'Down on Marie' which was clearly a crowd pleaser and the whole place went mental, crowd surfers being chucked around everywhere and jumping and pushing (no random beatings so i refuse to call it moshing). And that was it the gig was over and it left me wanting more and so as I did at the last gig I went straight off to buy a t-shirt and also one for tate who unfortunately couldnt be there. If you ignore the startled look upon my noggin you should be able to see the magnificent t-shirt. It also has Little Man Tate written on the back. It is most beautiful.

I also fancied the poster off the wall and so with the help of Shane it was mine and as you can see from my scanned image it is great, I think I might put it up on my wall, but then I would have to get more posters so then again I might not.

And that was the end of the night for Dave, Shane, Matt and Tony but stupidly me and Blondie trusted John to take us to some place afterwards that he said would be great. Of course he didnt actually know where it was and by the time we got there it had just closed so that was a complete waste of time. We ended up walking around central London for about an hour before I gave in and just said I wanted to go home as it was about 12:30. And the worst bit is, it means John still owes me another drink.

I got home at about 1-1:30 and watched a bit of big brother, played the single once more and then nodded off to sleep and so the end of another great adventure. Until next time goodbye