This blog is unsurprisingly going to be about the events of the gig and those before and after, how very exciting it must be for all of you who are sitting at home and waiting to read this.

I woke up nice and late, about 12ish I think it was after the late night the day before, amongst other things I wrote a blog and managed to not tell my mum that I had told my good friend Laura that she could stay the night. So when at 5 o'clock I came in the door and introduced her to my mum she was a little bit shocked and then embarrased when I said she was going to stay the night as the house was such a mess. And of course I still hadnt tidyed my room which I have been saying I will do for God knows how long now and so she couldn't sleep there so whilst we were out mum did a lightning clean of the house including my brothers old room where Laura eventually slept.

The first stop was the pub in Wimbledon where we were to meet everyone although that didnt go quite to plan, as Rosie and Phoebe thought we were meeting at the station before going to the pub and Matt didnt come to the pub at all but it was all sorted out pretty sharpish and me and Dave had nice pub meals and Laura bloody nicked halh my chips.

We then walked down to South Wimbledon Tube station and got the train up to Kings Cross, I had told Dave it was only a half hour long journey which was one of the draws which made him come but of course it was much longer than that, closer to an hour in fact but soon enough we were there and scala was literally 20 meters down the road. We all went in and went for a drink which to be honest maybe a tad overpriced.. I didnt actually think to ask how much my beer was but we worked out that a vodka and orange cost £3.70, disgusting.

But anyway we moved in and waited for the warm up act to come on, after a little while Rosie and Phoebe left us saying they were going to look for somewhere to sit.. and that was the last we saw of them the whole night, we tried to reunite at one point but then gave up. And Phoebe managed to get out with out paying me for the ticket.. shes a sneaky one that girl but I will get my money.

The warm up act were called Alterkicks who I had actually heard of previously which was a first for me and they were pretty good, nothing special in my opinion but nevertheless a good solid start to the evenings music although they did go on a bit.

By the time Larrikin Love came on me and Laura had moved up towards the front leaving Dave, Matt and Blondie behind. They played a very good set, a lot of ones I had heard and a couple which I hadnt. They ended on one of their lesser known songs which was a ploy that confused me but it became apparent what was happening when no one moved after the set had appeared to be finished.. they were waiting for the encore and this time they ended with a song called Calypso which is pretty much what it says on the tin. A lively, party tune and thus a brilliant one to end on.

After they had finished we all moved outside and waited for Rosie and Phoebe but it turned out that they had already gone, so we went home on the Thameslink train which was quite quick. Laura who had a little to drink was shouting abuse at me despite me being nothing but a gentleman all night to her, no manners at all. We got off at Wimbledon, Dave gave me, Laura and Matt lifts home and then I went to bed.

Earlyish (about 11) this morning Laura left for Nottingham and that was that adventure over. END

oh and P.S. me and blondie didnt get the night bus home as was stated in the last blog, unfortunately the game was given away that we had actually walked all the way home from Kingston in a journey that took for me  about three hours including a small detour (not getting lost a detour)

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