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

As I said in the last blog, The Holloways are the subject of this blog. And what a band they are, but more about that later, first I must go through the events of the evening.

It started with me getting to the tube station too early due to my immense eagerness, then as per usual Dave being late. But by about ten to 7 we were off on our way up to central London, via Victoria station where we were to meet up with John A.K.A. PotNoodleBoy who im sure everyone remembers fondly. Anyway we met up with him half an hour after we should mainly due to Dave and not my poor scheduling..

We got to Oxford Circus station around 7:40ish then walked up to the 100 club and took our seats.

Now to the interesting part of the evening, we started drinking as soon as we got in the door despite it being a school night.. such rebels i hear you cry, but no it is true we were drinking. We nabbed a table and sat waiting for the warm ups to get on stage. Mike saw a woman flashing which i somehow managed to miss despite her sitting right in front of me and yes your probably thinking he's lying then (my gullableness comes into play later) but no because she then flashed again but in the opposite direction so i didnt get to see, how distressing.

The first band to enter the arena were Captain Black who I thought were pretty good as did the majority of the party as far as I know. They were very Indie, a 5 piece including a pianist and an acoustic guitar. Can't really say much more about them except that they were pretty good. The second round of drinks were bought during this band if I remember rightly..

Second band or should I say artist was Kid Harpoon, a soloist with an Acoustic guitar. I knew he was going to be good as I already owned one of his songs and his live performance didnt change my opinion of him. He gave off the impression of James Blunt but with talent, and when someone has a track called suicidal grandpa you know you cant be going too far wrong.

Band 3 was 'The Pigeon detectives' the band with the worst name of the night and in my opinion the worst band of the night. Not that they were awful just nothing to get excited about. The lead singer clearly thought too much of himself, even attempting a stage dive at the end of his set, he only just missed falling on the floor as people were more interested in drinking then carrying him along. It was towards the end of their set that we made the move up onto the floor so that we could get top notch views for the man event.

Me, Dave and John went up to the bar after the 3rd band had gone off where me and john both had a pint and for some reason a double gin.. John does buy weird and yet wonderful things. Then we went back towards the area where the others were standing, but when we got there we were told that Fearne Cotton was in the house, yes I did say Fearne Cotton the top of the pops and various other tv show presenter.. wow what a sighting. Dave and Mike went off trying to find her but didnt until she came and stood right next to us about 5 minutes later.. wow.

I of course had to ask her for her autograph as she is such a top list celebrity and luckily I had a pen and the caseof my holloways CD ready for the band to sign later. So in I swept and voila Fearne's autograph.

The Holloways were just about starting their set at this point and what a set it was, out of the measly 3 gigs that I have been too they are deffinately the best. They played all the classics, Happiness and Pennyless, Fuck Ups, Generator, Great Britain, Re-Invent Myself and more, plus some new numbers including Diamonds and Pearls. I must say it was pretty magic. Especially generator and fuck ups at the end, really got the crowd jumping.

Now to my amazing gullability, somewhere in the middle of the set i felt a pinch on my arse, now I thought it was a bit weird but then just assumed that someone had bumped into me or something, but then Mike says "Fearne pinched your bum" and for 2 minutes i was in heaven before realising that they were laughing behind me as it was actually Mike (who I now assume is a closet homosexual) who did it. I really hope that my gullability was at least helped along by the alcohol as now i realise that I was quite foolish to have believed him.

This was not the only action with Fearne though, amediately after the set I quickly asked to have my phot taken with her (by the way I do now deeply love her despite not really being bothered before the gig). So i tap her on the shoulder again to have my photo.. Dave was originally in this pic but I cut him out because he 'uglified' it. After I had the picture i asked her how she knew of the Holloways and I found that she actually knew the lead guitarist which was nice. apologies for creepy smile in the picture, it is made worse by the poor camera skills of Mike.

The band shouted at the end of their set that the afterparty was gonna be held just round the corner and despite knowing we shouldnt really, we decided to go. But first I bought my share of Holloways memorobilia, a horribly over priced T-shirt and a copy of their single 'Happyness and Pennyless'.

So we went round to the boardwalk where the after party was being held. It was still in its very early stages when we got there and despite my willingness to stay , my mates wanted to go. Luckily the band had just about arrived when we were leaving, so I got 3 out of 4 signatures as shown. Alfie, Bryn and Dave Danger, but unfortunately no Rob which was a pity. Buth then off we trotted, found a little take away place, had a Kebab and then made our way back to the tube station to catch the last train. I got back to Colliers Wood by about 1am where i swiftly went to bed so that I would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the morning

END