The Annual Douieb Review

Here we are at the last day of 2011. As some people would say, its been a year of ups and downs. I agree with this. I’ve been up some hills, particularly over August in Edinburgh, and I’ve also been down the same hills in order to get back to where I lived. I’ve been up some escalators and again, down some later otherwise I’d have had to live upstairs in a shopping centre. There have been some good times, like 22.22 which I always find aesthetically pleasing and some bad times like 15 x 276, which is too difficult for me. Personally though I’ve found 2011 a difficult year to decide whether or not it can join my non-existent log of good years – the annums not favourite tyres or blimps. I should point out that I honestly don’t have one of these. Partly because I consider the end of the Edinburgh festival to be my end of year comedy & career wise, but also because I find that in my cynical old age I know full well that it’ll hit midnight and nothing all that dramatic is going to happen. Unless the Mayans were right and 2012 is going to be the end of the world, in which case I’m very glad I’ll embrace it sitting at home with L having a drink, finishing my drawing of a viking rather than being surrounded by mega twats moshing their skin off in an over priced underground ship’s container. And yes, I know the Mayan’s predicted the end of the world will happen in September so really, that’ll be after Edinburgh anyway and technically in my next year.

But let’s board this band wagon and look at why 2011 was indeed one of shits and giggles. In terms of the world, it was proper massive elephant sized dung shit. The economic crisis swept across the Western world allowing several governments including our own, to make horrible cuts and changes that all very much affected the lower classes and not at all the banking pricks and the rich that caused them in the first place. Several ‘evil’ dictators died or were killed while other people have been put in place that those who dictated why the original tyrants should be usurped can more easily sell weapons to. Horrible natural disasters have happened, thousands of people have died unnecessarily and overall we all felt very much more mortal and vulnerable. We became the first generation of people who think their children will have a worse future than they will and that is a truly horrible thought. Though at the same time it may save us having to read them really sickly bedtime stories with happy endings and instead go for Cormac McCarthy’s The Road or repeat viewings of Mad Max to prepare them. We’ve had more and more obnoxious people trawl the internet making nasty comments unnecessarily, generally being shit to each other and all the while instead of preventing or dissuading the public from doing this, the press have proved itself to be far more responsible for such ills than anyone else. Oh and Gil Scott Heron died which was a terrible loss for the world. Then again to balance all this, there was Frozen Planet and that was great.

Personally though, I’ve had a great year. Sad times mean comedy thrives and career wise I haven’t been busier. I’ve gigged in several different countries, to thousands of amazing people, done a bit of telly and more importantly than any of that, I’ve gigged at protests and events I’ve felt were important. I’ve written material and spoken about things I actually give a shit about and get passionate about rather than just harp on about bears. Which to be fair, I’ve also done. I’ve honestly never felt more pride standing up in front of a massive crowd on Westminster Bridge on a sunny afternoon talking to a massive crowd about why we need the NHS. Or way back in March on the big TUC demonstration, doing stand-up hundreds of people while police helicopters rattled over us. Edinburgh was a mixed bag but of all the things that I didn’t expect, the children’s show that was written in three hours and put together in such a ramshackle haste ended up being a 5 star hit and has lead to some very exciting things. Above all this, I’ve met someone who I completely adore, managed to get a car, went to three zoos, found Adventure Time, was a best man for my best friend, found out I can’t snowboard, and last night I pretended to be Guy Garvey and getting the entire room to sing the chorus of ‘One Day Like This’ so I could stop for a second and drink more beer. Music wise I saw James Blake silence a tent of thousands at Bestival, Elbow smash both the O2 and Glastonbury with an amazing reverse Mexican wave at the latter through the entire crowd at the Pyramid Stage. Me and L watched the National sing ‘Vanderlyle Cry Baby’ acapella while the crowd whispered along, sending a chill down everyone’s spines and we both witnessed DJ Shadow perform to incredible visuals from inside the Shadowsphere. I watched Radiohead from a rainy hill while the gorgeous people of the Pink Bus provided shelter and food, peeked into the tent at Lounge on the Farm where Goodnight Lenin played and then decided they would be the opening track to my Edinburgh show. I watched Sam Duckworth do an amazing solo gig at the Borderline club to an awestruck crowd, which, along with previous meetings, led to my Small Guy Garvey show last night. I’ve worked with a puppeteer who was involved with so many films and tv shows I’ve loved, I struggled to hold back tears, clutching L’s hand so tightly while watching Translunar Paradise at the Pleasance Dome and I won the Slammer. So y’know, it’s been pretty good. Oh yeah and I started drawing a viking.

2012 has a lot to live up to. Selfishly, I’m not looking forward to the Olympics and Euro 2012 destroying the comedy scene for several months making bill paying tough. I’m also not looking forward to the effects of the government’s cuts continuing to destroy UK society. I know it’ll be another year where I will be consistently baffled as to how some people can operate by being so horrible and inconsiderate to others. But there’s loads more I am looking forward to, because (and excuse the retchy seriousness) life is always what you make it, and right now I’m enjoying making it fun. I hope the rest of the world realises that we can make stuff happen if you put your minds to it and frankly, we don’t have to stand for the oppression we face. I’m not doing resolutions as such, but aside from cutting down on eating entire bags of Kettle Chips in one sitting (less of a resolution, and more of a ‘trying not to die’ plan) I aim to continue to do what I can to voice my opinion in an accessible way and hope to make a difference as minor as it may be. Oh and I’m totally going to finish the viking drawing.

May you have an excellent night tonight, whether you be brave enough to go against expectation and be out partying, or like me and L, stay in and eat curry. I hope you’ve all had a great 2011 and will have an even better 2012. I hope you make some decisions, chase some exciting dreams and stick to them all and make them all happen. And if you can’t think of any, why not start with a viking drawing?

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Mind Numb

I’m sure I’ve complained about this loads in the last few weeks (I never re-read my blogs. True story. You could tell me that last week I wrote about that cyclops that killed my cat and I’d totally believe you), but I am stuck in a massive writer’s block. If Writer’s Block was a place, I’d be in the flat on the 14th floor where the lift is broken, the stairs smell of wee and my only window looks out onto an air vent. My cupboards would only have tinned food in, the TV would be stuck on one of those endless sales channels where people insist they are enjoying selling china ornaments of Jade Goody over and over again, and I’d only have those mini-books on the shelves that people read once when they are on the loo, chuckle maybe twice throughout and then find a place to hide them. That’s how bleak my writing brain is right now. Add that to the fact that I’ve just read three Walking Dead graphic novels in quick succession (volumes 12-14 geek fans) which ended on the most miserable note since Massive Attack put that horrible wave sound for 3 minutes as an extra track on 100th Window (if you haven’t heard it, don’t. It makes my ears want to cry with dull).

I blame a number of things for my inability to make happy quips. A comic needs inspiration from somewhere and lately, I have been surrounded by dull. This article yesterday, by Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian sums it up nicely:

THE NEW BORING

 

As far as I’m concerned, that nails it. Society is really boring right now. I got caught watching some pap for Children in Need on BBC1 last night as organised by Tory Boring King Gary Barlow, and felt glued to the screen even though every second of Jamie Cullum singing with Hugh Laurie felt like it wrenched creativity from my very soul, threw it under a dog and let that dog crap on it. I held on till Guy Garvey and Elbow helped replenish tiny bits of joy, heard Fearne Cotton announce JLS and turned off the TV quicker than a neutrino (yeah! Current reference!), before condemning myself to read about zombies. Ironic really as most people watching that shit resemble zombies far better than any horror creation. Apart from Frozen Planet though, and watching Adventure Time and Louie on my laptop, there is nothing exciting on telly at all. It’s all just bland.

Then why not write about the real world Tiernan? Well I will, and I have been but it strikes me more and more that while when playing fun small non paying clubs around the country during the week people will happily get on board with some chat about the Eurozone crisis and how evil Cameron is, the big payers at the end of the week have audiences of people who want the comedic equivalent of easy listening. Please don’t remind us at the end of a hard week’s work just how shit things are, please just point out things in the world that are obvious and we all know are funny without having to read.

Add to this that its cold, actually cold now, I’m generally happy in life and I just want to hide under my duvet with an X-Box game and zombie books and wait until global warming kills off all the incompetent people in the world so we can have fun again. Sorry. This blog wasn’t meant to end like that. During writing I got a phone call saying my gig for tonight and tomorrow has moved from Watford to Basildon and I honestly felt seconds away from just putting my face through my laptop screen as I think about how many times I might have to talk about ‘vajazzles’ just to get a laugh. This was posted on the Guardian today:

THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE STORE

Bring it. I’m ready now.

Summerburnin’

Its about this time of year I like to hugely cheat with a blog and just tell you what I’ve put on my annual Summerburn playlist. For those of you that know not about the Summerburn, its a brilliant brilliant idea invented by the lovely people at funjunkie.co.uk whereby you get sent two random people’s addresses and they get sent yours and you all send each other a compilation CD of your favourite summer music. Lovely huh? What’s the catch? Well aside from what happened to Helen Arney where she received an entire CD of German Techno one year, there really isn’t one. All that happens is you share something you love with other people around the world and they share it with you. Its one big audio long distance orgy and every year I get stuck in.

I currently have two Edinburgh shows to write and a shedload of other work I should be doing, but instead I’ve been carefully crafting a playlist to represent the listening I may undergo on a balmy Summer’s eve in London and working out what to decorate the covers and tracklisting with to make it proper fancy. You don’t get all the fun bits, but here’s the tracklisting and for a short time you can download my mix from the link below. Enjoy!

1. D’Angelo – Everybody Loves The Sunshine – I defy anyone to ever make a more soulful summer tune than this ever. As soon as I hit play I immediately imagine dozing on the grass on a hot sunny day. Such a shame D’Angelo got into that heroin. That man had more soul than a shoe shop in the largest city in South Korea.

2. Keb Mo – Every Morning – I’m not sure how this is classed as Blues when it’s so frikkin’ happy and lovely but it is. Great name, great voice, bloody lovely tune that does everything except give you the blues.

3. Nick Drake – Saturday Sun – Nick Drake is one of the small list of artists I have who I wish I’d got to see before he died. It would’ve been impossible as I wasn’t anywhere near born when he did and I only hope time travel is invented so I can see him live one day in the past. That and so I can visit the vikings.

4. Elbow – Lippy Kids – I really wish I could stop playing this song incase I overdo it for myself, but its so beautiful its been on repeat ever since I bough the ‘Build A Rocket Boys!’ album back in March. I heart Guy Garvey.

5. Fleet Foxes – Montezuma – I have sadly only seen Fleet Foxes once and it was at Bestival the one year the sound on the main stage was shit. I then missed them at Glastonbury this year and being such a fan of their modern day Crosby, Still and Nash harmonies I was pretty gutted. They sing lazy summer as far as I’m concerned.

6. Home Life – Fair-Weather View – When I saw Home Life live several years ago they played, as well as the usual instruments, a toy laser gun and a small plastic waving cat. They’ve won me over ever since. This track has a lovely South American feel to it and seems as though it’d be wrong to hear it any other way but with a mojito and a warm night.

7. Michael Kiwanuka – Tell Me A Tale – Michael Kiwanka is in his 20′s yet sounds like he has the soul gravelled voice of a man in his 50′s. I’m not sure how. He might well be possessed. Either way this is one of my fave tunes of 2011 so far.

8. Gil Scott Heron – The Summer Of ’42 – I don’t need to go on about how much I miss this dude. Legend. Utter legend. Even though there was the midst of World War 2 in 1942 I still want to go back to that summer and enjoy it on the basis of this track.

9. Aloe Blacc – You Make Me Smile – There are so few good soul artists around at the mo, and Aloe Blacc is one of the best. ‘Dollar’ was such an awesome track but this is my choice for Summerburn due to its heart felt lovely sentiment that makes me melt a tad.

10. Yesterday’s New Quintet – Sun Goddess – Jazz wonderousness

11. Air – Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi (Dan the Automator Remix) – Air don’t ever really need remixing, but this is one of those brilliant remixes where Dan The Automator adds just a few extra sounds to make it that teensy bit more thumping as a tune.

12. DJ Shadow – You Can’t Go Home Again (Album Version) – I was a huge Shadow fan to the extent I went to several secret gigs and would harp on about him to anyone I knew. The he made The Outsider and I felt betrayed. Then this year I saw him at Glasto and all his new stuff is awesome and he’s now forgiven. This, sampling Simon and Garfunkel, is amazing.

13. Five Deez – Omni – One of the most chilled hip-hop tracks ever. I barely  listen to any other track on the album, even though they’re all great. This however, will always get played at least three times in a row.

14. Minnie Riperton – I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun – There are so many amazing versions of this song – the first I ever heard was Roni Size Reprezent play it live at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire ages ago – but Riperton pulls it off with a gravitas unbeknowst to none.

15. The Bees – Sky Holds The Sun – One line in the whole song and its one of the most touching, lovely lines in any song ever.

16. Cinematic Orchestra – Arrival Of The Birds – I also heart Cinematic Orchestra. I thought I had all their tracks and then my friend Katy sent me this a while ago and I pretty much went into a calm trance as it played. A perfect end track.

 

Download that summer funk wagon for your ears right here:

T’S SUMMERBURN 2011

One Day Like This A Year Will See Me Right

Well that was quite honestly one the best weekend’s I’ve had in a long long time. I’m now home, showered, have used a proper loo and yet I’m really missing the mud of Glastonbury, especially as it was such a beautifully hot day as I drove away to head back to London. There were so many moments where I was stuck with a perma-grin on my face or just content with standing in the mud with beer and damn good friends. I could write an essay detailing everything I’ve done over the last few days but as per usual, I’ll just indulge you in my personal highlights:

- Pighenge is not as good as Stonehenge. However some of the pigs were really big and were all dragged there by human hands and no one knows how.

- ‘There are always dicks around flags’ – Tom Flood’s Glasto motto of the weekend. There was more about how it was like a disappointing rainbow with a pot of dickheads at the end but I won’t go into it.

- There are a lot of different names 4 Poofs and a Piano could have had if they’d used a different instrument. Barry Castanogla came up with a lot of them.

- I wore a really big hat.

- I went to see Jessie J with PB, PB, Mel, Monkey Liz and Monkey Hannah because we thought it’d be funny. It wasn’t. She was rubbish. She didn’t even play the only song we know for ages and ages. Then, when she did, we realised we didn’t like it anyway. Hmm.

- Janelle Monae on the other hand I’d like to carry around in my pocket. She’s so bloody diddy and amazing. Possibly the best set I saw all weekend. Amazing.

- I would like the Carnival Street bus to follow me everywhere I go playing that funk music and with the sexy woman at the front of the crowd dancing.

- I made a wish in the Grandfather tree. No, you can’t know what it is, and if you steal the 20p I put in it to make the wish then you are scum.

- Most awkward moment ever: Sitting to eat food one table away from Graham Coxon, only to have it pointed out to me by people on my table that I’m wearing my Blur tshirt. This was not intentional. Thank god for zip ups.

- Never sneak up on Craig Campbell.

- Carl Donnelly throws wee at people’s tents.

- It’s very sad when you share a moment with someone who is a total bellend. ie a man infront of me at Wu-Tang threw a water bomb into the crowd. Arsehole. But then he was the only other person in the audience who seemed to know the lyrics to ‘M.E.T.H.O.D Man’ and so we rapped them together. I still hate him.

- I met a girl from Oxford who says Thom Yorke wears ski gear when going for walks.

- The people on the Pink Bus are my favourite people in the world. Much kudos to Tom, Victoria, Caroline, Nick and Meg who saved me with lovely food and wine on a rainy afternoon.

- The syncronised dancing done by the staff at the Hurly Burly tent on Saturday morning to ‘One Day Like This’  was fantastic. Not as fantastic as the look on the man’s face waiting to get served as he realised they were doing the whole song before going back to work.

- I do not like people who like pixies and think I’m a pixie and chase me because I’m a pixie. Terrifying.

- BB King is a bloody legend.

- Warpaint however are not. Whiny bored girls. Yawn.

- Between everyone at Glasto I reckon we have moved the entire field clockwise bit by bit by misplacing mud from our wellies.

- Most boring conversation all weekend:

Him:  (pointing to my Blur tshirt) ‘Are you going to see them tonight?’

Me: ‘No. Its Pulp tonight, not Blur.’

Him: ‘ Oh. You going to see them then?’

Me: ‘No.’

End of conversation.

- I like it when old school friends appear behind the bar at a festival and give you free booze because you haven’t seen them in years. Thanks so much Marcus. Bloody legend.

- I don’t like it when the free drinks they gave you give you brainfreeze to the point where you have to have a sit down. Bloomin’ strawberry daquiris.

- Sarah Morgan didn’t weave daisies in my beard.

- Daisy however, did paint my face. So its close.

- Big Boi rocked the West Holt stage. However 1) he wore camouflage gear yet I could still see him, and 2) the lyrics to Outkast’s B.O.B on reflection, are pretty wrong.

- Important Discussion of Friday night invented my Monkey’s Liz, Hannah and Mel: Wouldn’t it be great to have boobs for hands and hands for boobs? The short answer: No.

- On the Thursday when shown to the wrong side of the festival from where we needed to park, myself, PB and Marti were stressing somewhat. A man in a stetson, smoking and with a grisled wrinkly face pulled up in his jeep. He asked in a hella cool growly voice ‘where do you need to be?’ We told him and he magicked up a pass that meant we could drive around the site where we liked. His surname? Shepherd. It made me almost want to become religious.

- Elbow are still my current favourite band ever. Being able to take part in possibly the world’s biggest reverse Mexican wave was amazing. Happy 20th Birthday you fucking amazing band.

- I still don’t know how they got that tube train in that wall. However, I love how underneath that tube train and wall is a dirty dirty dubstep d’n'b club which rocks on till 6am. Aces.

- Yesterday all I ate was a banana, two bits of toast and some churros.

- Radiohead were great. Its just a shame I couldnt see them when I could hear them and couldn’t hear them when I could see them. Dear Emily Eavis, please sort out the Park stage, thanks.

- Rain gets annoying after a while.

- Adults do not like mud. Kids love mud. Kids fall in mud on purpose. Adults fall in mud by accident. The fun adults then realise they are big kids and keep falling in mud. The belly slides down The Park slope were the best example of this.

- Blistering sunshine gets annoying after a while.

- Is it wrong to have a favourite festival toilet? I did. It was the one on the far right side of the Theatre and Circus camping area. Always seemed to be clean. Well done poo scrubbers.

- The urinals in the main fields, when the mud by them had sunk, are too high for a small man to reach. True story.

- Mark Thomas’s words of wisdom for the festival ‘Don’t get run over by tractors.’ Without that knowledge I’d be dead right now.

- Cheese strings are bloody great at festivals.

There’s more, but I know have to entertain children. They had better sit far away from me or they might inhale toxic Glasto fumes and be harmed. Back to usual blogging tomorrow.

Glastoclock

I’ve just has what may well be my last shower until midday on Sunday. Knowing that is the case it was a high density scrub of sorts with bits of me getting cleaned that haven’t seen a proper soaping in years. Bag is packed with items that only see the light of day a few times a year: my trusty maglite who’s batteries haven’t been changed since I was 18 due to its lack of use and will no doubt fail on me when most needed in a Mulder and Scully-esque moment of huge proportions; a trusty loo roll that will no doubt get wet and thrown away within minutes of arrival; baby wipes that I will use three of before realising I hate smelling like a baby and then will leave the lid open whereby they all dry out and by day three I will mourn their loss; more changes of clothes than I need and won’t use but all will still smell damp and need to be washed when I get back; my dad’s wellies that he doesn’t know I’ve stolen, again; and diabetic stuff that I will ignore the use of until I get home and have to fix myself in a major way when I do. There’s more bits and bobs including my trusty groundmat that makes no difference whatsoever except in perhaps a placebo manner, and my travel pillow that operates in a beautiful way whereby wherever you place your head is the most uncomfortable. So yes, I’m ready for my first ever Glastonbury.

 

No, I’ve never been before. Silly isn’t it? Well truth be told I’ve never been able to afford it, and until this time, I’ve never got a freebie for it, so it makes some tiny amount of sense. I am properly excited. There are a trazillion acts I want to see this weekend and despite knowing I won’t be able to see all of them I have decided I will try my best, even if that involves working out a system to be in two places at once. I’m not yet sure how I’ll do this, but I reckon booze may help a realisation. Or at least numb the brain enough to stop trying. I’m definitely going to see BB King, Wu-Tang Clan, Morrissey, Elbow, Graham Coxon and DJ Shadow. And I am definitely not going to see U2 because Bono is a tax dodging bellend cockpiece. True story. There are also a silly amount of people I know going which will be nice. I won’t see any of them of course, no matter how hard I try. I’m fairly sure Saturday night will end with me sitting in a mud puddle somewhere ten miles away from the main stage wearing a headdress and war paint, trying to work out exactly where everyone has gone.

 

That’s not the aim of course. The aim is to kick the fuck out of Glastonbury so hard that they won’t come back next year. Yes I know it isn’t on next year and I’m fairly sure this is entirely in preparation for my visit. Even if it isn’t they’ll be extremely pleased they timed it like that. Yes they will. So I’m leaving this blog here and won’t be returning until Monday. If you get severe withdrawal symptoms there are two things you can do. One is to listen out to my soundcloud page as I’m going to try and audiotweet a fair bit if my phone allows. That page is here:

TIERNAN’S SOUNDCLOUD PAGE

The other is that you should feel free to write my blogs for me, and post them in my comments box. Either tell me of your adventures or perhaps write what you think I’m getting up to. Please don’t write I’ve drowned in mud. My mum will get sad.

 

Right I’m off to go punch some mud in its face, down some beer and tell Bono he’s a dick. Adios chumpos. Glasto-a-go-go.

What A Guy

I don’t want to pretend that I’m a hella cool hard man or anything but there are very few things that make me ever weep a tear. Besides hayfever or unnecessary wind blown grit, its hard to lure a drop of salt water from these peepers without it being something fairly drastic. I’m not made of stone by any means, which is lucky as it’d be hard to move anywhere and I’d find it difficult using paper of scissors. I mean normal sad things will work such as bereavements, spilling a plate of food when I’m starving, and the first ten minutes of Up, but past that my visual receptacles are drier than Steve Wright’s wit. Except for, and this is a fairly recent development, when watching certain music concerts. Its happened a few times lately that when watching a band I really love suddenly leap into that track you’ve been dying to hear they just well up a tad. I’m not quite sure why or whether in older age I’ve become some sort of big Softy Softerson, but during the Elbow concert last night I came close to erupting like an anti-volcano (ie water instead of fire) about umpteen million times as Guy Garvey bellowed those gravelly tones and beautiful lyrics to some of my very favourite songs.

I became an Elbow fan slightly later than a lot of people. I’ve had a habit of doing this in my life. Having been brought up through school on a strict diet of hip-hop, garage and drum n bass, I found the Brit Pop scene several years after everyone else, and it was only at uni I got into Radiohead, Tom Waits and Jeff Buckley long after he’d died. Later still, as much as I did like Blur when I was 15-16 years old, its only many moons later that I’ve become a big Albarn fan and shelled out to see them at Hyde Park last year. I feel a bit like those people who decide to support a football team once they’ve already won things rather than loyalty. Elbow I just missed at Bestival two years ago. The sound system was rubbish that year and I’d already had the Fleet Foxes ruined by being unable to hear anything they played unless I was standing in the comedy tent on the other side of the field. So knowing I needed to head home on the Sunday night, realising I wouldn’t be able to hear them well anyway and feeling like I desperately needed a shower, I escaped while everyone else was watching them play as the sun set. I still very much regret this. A month or two later I heard Mirrorball on Mark Radcliffe’s show on Radio 2 and found myself sitting in complete silence as I listened to the words and raced home to eagerly get everything they’d ever made. Their current album has been on repeat constantly since I bought it two weeks ago and I’m worried there’ll be a point where I have to have it constantly playing on earphones wherever I go.

Finally seeing them at the O2 last night I found yet another reason to be a fan. Live, Elbow are amazing. I’m not sure how exactly they made a crowd of 15000 seem intimate, but Guy managed to reach even us at the very back and make it feel like it was our own special gig. He said at the top of the show that there would be audience participation of the cheesiest level all the way through and he kept his word. Getting us all to pronounce ‘love’ as though we were Northern, demanding a standing ovation for row z, block 108 as they were the furthest away from the stage and making sure that every track had an introduction or banter to check we were ok. Guy Garvey’s voice is amazing too. Several shivers were sent down my spine during ‘The Night Will Always Win’ and ‘Great Expectations’. Every track caused myself and Tom to lean over and say ‘This one’s brilliant!’ to the point where we just gave up as we’d become repetitive. After an hour and 45 minutes the gig finished and I found myself still wanting more. Truly one of the best gigs I’ve seen in a long time and if I can manage to stop playing one of their CDs at any point today I’ll be surprised.

That was a very gushy blog but much deserved. If you haven’t listened to them before or aren’t fussed, sorry for putting you through that, but its your fault for having no taste or being too slow. I heart Elbow.

PS Its also very worth mentioning that Villagers who supported them were just brilliant too and they have also gained a new fan. They haven’t made me well up yet though so they don’t get a whole blog to themselves just yet. And no readers, you can’t just try and find ways to make me weep just to get a blog mention. That’s not how it works, so no poking me in the eye next time I see you. Thanks.