Brass Monkey's

The Arctic Monkey's are about to tour the UK - however rather than giving everyone a nice hotline and taking down the phone lines in London, they decided that it would be better if you signed up to a website. All good and well really, you would think, but they're pretty much in demand, and its first come, first served. I had an email saying "thanks, but no thanks, or and you were to slow, you fat fingered geordie fool" - well, not quiet, but for the comedy value - it works in my head.

I didnt think anything else of it, then I had an email pop up on Friday saying "not all tickets sold - click this link and enter pin code". So, I did, and got prompted to which venue I was interested in - so I entered Brum. I was then asked to enter my credit card details - so I did, then had "Thank you for purchasing tickets" - EEEEK - I thought I was only registering my interest again - whoops.

Needless to say, the lovely Jess (sadly in Leeds now) - you know the one, cute smile, funny lass, makes me giggle - suggested that they werent actually that good live. Double whoops. I had a look on ebay - and the tickets are going for 150 quid - and there is still a month left! Crumbs, imagine what you can do with that. Friendly brummie man, Bellis, is into his music, after all, he's having a midlife crisis and trying to be hip and street, so told him about it. He couldnt get tickets either, so suggested if I couldnt make it, I would sell him the tickets for face value.

Some photos from the magic numbers...

Good Books - Crazy Man shaking lemon and orange in the name of music.

Magic Numbers sign on the way out of Academy

Magic Numbers

I've been waiting a while for this gig to turn up, and I have to say, I wasnt disappointed at all. I'd asked Nomes, Palin, Bellis and Headworth if they fancied coming up with me, the latter deciding it wasnt his scene, so at 18 quid a ticket, you cant grumble much. We'd arranged to gather in Brum before the doors opened (7pm) to grab some grub and we done just that, where we ordered the smallest pizzas in pizza hut. When someone says individual, it really suggests that and after sniffing mine, it was gone - oh well.

We got to the Carling Acadamy where Nomes was checked for her tissues, looking rather suspect, we gathered around the bar ordered pints (at £3.30 each) and looked at the official tshirts and thingymebobs. I bought a nice navy blue tshirt with Magic Numbers written over it. I also purchased a set of "action" figures - because I could - and technically they do look vr funky.

Soon after, the first support act came on, they looked rather young and the lead singer looked like Max from Hollyoaks - although we all denied knowing what Max from Hollyoaks looks like - being pretty old and not wishing to embarress ourselves. They were called the Good Books, they were young, funky tho, myself and Bellis decided they were a little like The Cure / Paul Weller. Thanks to the magic of MySpace, you can actually listen to a couple of their tracks - they only had a 30 minute track, but you get the feeling they actually enjoyed it, rather than a band being asked to tour and being in the background - if you see what I mean ..? At one point, the drummer was shaking a Lemon and an Orange - all very strange.

The last support act was Dave Kitt, he started the set off good, and sounded a little like old REM with a mixture of the Cranberries (you must not let it linger). Again, magic of MySpace, you can click on there and listen to a couple of his tracks.

After the 4th pint and a visit to the loo, The Magic Numbers came on, with a nice funky track to open with and get the crowd going. As mentioned earlier, they looked like they enjoyed doing the gig, rather than being forced to do it by fat cats with cigars. One of the songs, merged into "rulling up the hill" by kate bush, which kind of blew my mind but made me chuckle at the same time. At the end, it was announced that this was the Good Books lastnight with the Magic Numbers, and had some kind of on stage party with all support acts and the magic numbers doing some kinda barn dance fest.

Has to be THE best gig I've ever been too, dont know if its because of the mix of music & song, or the fact it wasnt that packed and you could actually breathe (and maybe its because we werent the oldest people there for a change). All that was left now was the last train back to Leam, via all the stations in the world. Still smiling - will update with photos once I get my sham together.

The Kooks

Lastnight was the long awaited Kooks gig up at the Carling Academy in Brum. Myself and Captain Rich were shamming around on ebay, as this was a complete sell out, and we managed to get tickets at an inflated price. Meanwhile, Rich then cross referenced the gig date, with a trip in Germany - Doing well. I try doing at least one big gig every year, and last year was Duran Duran at the NEC when we went with Nomes, Andy P, Rich and Shamster thats Bellis - this was big gig #1 of the year (Magic Numbers end of next month)

Naive - no!

I'd originally invited Geordie Mike in Rich's place, however, due to having to work late, Gigantor Pete was invited along and kindly drove up, as it was, quite litterally, raining cats and dogs. We grabbed Maccy D's just across the corner from the venue, and bumped into one of the lads from the Football, then made our way in the venue, with touts offering massive prices. Speaking of massive prices, £3.10 a pint of carling - but it was soo soo lovely. The place was covered with attractive women, mostly with chav boyfriends, and after our beer related purchases made ourway to the "dance floor" and heard the support acts which were pretty good too.

The Kooks came on and done the bulk of their album, and some "old B side" material, along with some new tracks they must be close to releasing. A good mixture of sing-a-long tracks and rock tracks made the line up as the temperature started to rise - and wearing two tshirts was probably not a wise act.

With Pete driving, we managed to get back onto the Motorway and back into Leam for around 11:30 ish, so ended up having a quick swifty in The Well, and god knows what state I looked like with two soaking wet tshirts on and hair all over the place. Anyhooo, a fantastic night out, just nice to get out of the goldfish bowl that is Leamington Spa and do something different.