29th June - Two Thousand And Ace, Amersham Arms, London
Ace Bushy road trip! This was our first ever concert outside Birmingham and we were very nervous but very excited. We left the second city at nine o'clock in the morning and headed down towards London whilst listening to the Johnny Foreigner album and some Radiohead and a mixx cd that Simon made which had ULTIMATE ROCK TUNES on it. We managed to find the venue quite quickly and dropped off our guitars and guitarists. Jeremy and Simon then proceeded to north London to find the lovely promotor and a drum kit.
As you have probably guessed by this new paragraph, finding a promotor and drum kit before getting back to the venue wasn't particularly easy. We got lost a couple on our way to finding John, all the two become one lanes and irrate van drivers not helping us particularly. Then once we had picked him up we got a bit lost trying to find where the drummer from Dead Singers lived. When we got there and put the drum kit in the car, we realised that there wasn't enough room to fit all four of us (Jeremy, Simon, John Brainlove, Dead Singers drummer) in as well. THEN we made our first enemy as a band! The drummer from the Dead Singers didn't like that we couldn't all fit in the car with the drum kit and when he realised that he'd be the one who would have to take public transport to the venue (Jeremy had to drive, John was the promotor and Simon had no money and no idea where he was) he got a bit red and a bit angry. We went on our merry way after being told not to set up his drum kit. THEN we got lost again coming back to the Amersham Arms.
Back at the venue at about 5 in the evening (originally we were due to play at 4) we met everyone and worried about our set a bit and felt a bit tired also. Chris Alcock played first and seemed a bit sad but his songs were lovely, then Pagan Wanderer Lu played a rarities set and Jeremy was afraid he'd recognise him from putting on a disasterful show with him a while back. He didn't recognise him I don't think and the set was really awesome super. Then our good friends Dead Singers played and as we were a bit at war with them mentally I think that clouded our judgement regarding their set and so yeah I'm sure it was fantastic if you like that kind of thing.
THEN we had to play! We were very fast and Arjun's guitar cut out a bit but it was fun. The three verse extended version of 'Mervyn & Isaac' was fun. We (Simon) mucked up the 'A Forest' intro bit a bit but the shouting was exciting still.
Most of us had to leave after our set to catch a coach back to Birmingham. Jeremy stayed and he said Applicants and Retro Spankees were both fantastic which was a shame as we really wanted to see them both, especially the Retro Spankees who we had missed on the Friday before hand because we had a band practice.
Setlist
- A Forest - The Cure cover
- The Introduction
- Elephant
- The World's Longest Limousine For Cattle
- Fancy Whistle Man, Whistl (Tom Wade)
- Eczema Catastrophe
- Totally Ice Cream
- "Arrogance Is My Middle Name", Said Will Davies Arrogantly
- Michael Kightly Is Pretty Rad
- Mervyn & Isaac Find A CD
- Panda Love Unit