Tonight was a benefit gig for the family of the late Tommy Tee. The doors opened an hour or so late forcing us to drink beer in the pub beforehand. Once we’d finally been let in the running list was as follows:

Notoriouz
Bishop Bray (Stephen Burden)
Rev Hammer
The Almighty
Joolz
Ed Alleyne-Johnson
New Model Army

New Model Army were down to a four-piece band for most of the night due to Marshall Gill having broken his left wrist, however Dean White took on rhythm guitar duties, and Ed Alleyne-Johnson, Dave Blomberg, and Ricky Warwick filled in at times throughout the night. The setlist was as follows:

Vagabonds
Stranger
White Coats
Fate
Today is a Good Day
High
Get Me Out
Inheritance
Snelsmore Wood
Love Songs
Wired
Island
Purity
Poison Street
Green & Grey

51st State
225

I Love the World

We arrived at 7 to find the sound-check in mid-flow, so were banished to the garden with our drinks for a while. I’d not been in The Thunderbolt for a good 15 years or more, and it’s a fairly cramped venue. Annoyingly I kept finding myself stuck behind taller people, which is something of a rarity for me.

Joolz entertained us for 30 minutes or so with a few poems and endless banter, occasionally accompanied by Justin Sullivan on keyboard or guitar. Then after a short break Justin arrived on stage, joined after the first song by Dean. As always it was a superb set, only slightly spoiled by a few drunk twats in front of us who couldn’t keep quiet.

Changing of the Light
One Bullet
Heroes
Another Imperial Day
LA Push
Turn Away
Dawn
Tales of the Road
Ocean Rising
No Pain
Stranger
You Weren’t There
Snelsmore Wood

Someone Like Jesus
Stoned, Fired, and Full of Grace
Ballad of Bodmin Pill

To be honest I’d not really listened to Show of Hands much before tonight, but went on the recommendation of some friends. It turned out to be a very enjoyable couple of hours of folk music and light-hearted banter at the hands of Steve Knightley, Phil Beer, and Miranda Sykes.

A fairly quiet Thekla tonight, probably 80 or so people in there to see Spiers & Boden. Given the fact that the Thekla is a boat, there were plenty of nautical references throughout the evening. A musically excellent evening, slightly spoiled by groups of people stood at the bar talking loudly rather than paying any attention to the music and drowning it out at times. The support band couldn’t make it, so were replaced by Jim Moray playing around with a laptop and iTunes.

Tom Padget
The Old Lancashire Hornpipe / The Third Beekeeper
The Birth of Robin Hood
Three Tunes
Sportman’s Hornpipe
Brown Adam
Jiggery Pokerwork / Haul Away / Seven Stars
Captain Ward

The Rochdale Coconut Dance
Bold Sir Rylas
Cheshire Waltz
Child Morris
The Rain it Rains
Sloe Gin Set: Frozen Gin / Vinegar Reel / The Sloe
Princess Royal / Cuckoo’s Nest
Old Maui

Innocent When You Dream

Prickle Eye Bush (with Jim Moray on guitar)

Metallica rocked, TFL however did not. Thanks to them closing the Jubilee line, it took us 4 hours to get from North Greenwich back to Harrow.

The setlist was apparently something like this:

That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Harvester Of Sorrow
…And Justice for All
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
The Outlaw Torn
The Judas Kiss
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman

Overkill
Hit The Lights
Seek and Destroy

Given that my Metallica exposure pretty much stops with the Black Album, the first half was somewhat unfamiliar, but the latter part was superb, especially the finale of Seek and Destroy.

To be honest, the stage was too small for the massed ranks of Bellowhead, the lighting seemed designed to make it impossible to see the band, and the sound was a bit shit to start with, but as always with Bellowhead it was a superb night involving plenty of silly dancing.

They also played a couple of tracks I’ve not heard before tonight, but Steve was upset that they didn’t play Jordan.

Setlist:
Yarmouth Town
Trip to Bucharest/The Flight of the Folk Mutants Parts I & II
Kafoozalum
Whiskey is the Life of Man
I Drew My Ship Across the Harbour
Cold Blows the Wind
Hopkinson’s Favourite
Fakenham Fair
Haul Away
Prickle Eye Bush
Unclothed Nocturnal Manuscript Crisis
Cholera Camp
Rochdale Coconut Dance
Fire Marengo
Sloe Gin

London Town

Frog’s Legs and Dragon’s Teeth

My second trip to Bath Folk Club, and yet again Jim Gallagher was supporting.

The main musical event was a very enjoyable two hours of Irish music from Michael McGoldrick (Flutes, Uilleann Pipes, Mandolin), John Joe Kelly (Bodhran, Mandolin) and Ed Boyd (Guitar, Bouzouki).

A musical tour through history tonight, courtesy of Richard Thompson, ably assisted by Judith Owen and and Debra Donkin. Richard arrived on-stage complete with a Hurdy-Gurdy and started things off with a song from 1290 entitled Praise Queen of Heaven. They then spent the next hour covering the period up to 1900, including a few minutes of Opera before which he jokingly asked for all the exits to be locked.

The second half covered 1900 onwards, including rather oddly, Nelly Furtado’s Maneater partly in Latin. The only downside was when a song by "the other west country band" turned out to be "Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime" by The Korgi’s, rather than anything by the mighty Wurzels.

We even made it back to Stafford before the snow.

The ticket for this was an early birthday present. After eating our fill in Nandos we headed for my first visit to Komedia, a converted old cinema in town. On stage tonight were Waterson:Carthy with Mike Waterson standing in for his pregnant niece Eliza Carthy, along with Lauren McCormick, Emily Portman and Jim Causley. We were presented with about 100 minutes of traditional Christmas tunes, and more than a few bad jokes. Mike Waterson took on the role of the stereotypical folk singer, in woolly jumper, flat cap, pint of ale on hand, and a finger in the ear whilst singing. Plenty of references were made to Yorkshire carol singing which would have kept Father happy, but we were only blessed with one version of “While Shepherds Watched”.

A very civilised evening washed down with plenty of red wine.

Nowhere near as much travelling today, and a much more intimate venue. Support came from the rather good MJ Hibbett & the Validators complete with a rendition of “Hey Hey 16K”. Nigel seemed on much better form tonight resulting in far fewer lyrical cock-ups.

As with last night, there were surprisingly few people sporting Dukla Prague away shirts.

Setlist:

Fuckin’ ‘ell it’s Fred Titmus
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Restless Legs
Running Order Squabble Fest
Petty Sessions
The Light at the End of the Tunnel (is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
Bogus Official
Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
Four Skinny Indie Kids
Totnes Bickering Fair
Blue Badge Abuser
Look Dad No Tunes
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Ode to Joyce
The Best Things in Life (end)
24 Hour Garage People (98p for the Pringles)
Trumpton Riots
Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years
For What is Chatteris
Paintball’s Coming Home
We Built this Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune
Vatican Broadside
National Shite Day

Took Problem Chimp to Ideal Home Show
Electricity (OMD)
Joy Division Oven Gloves