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Martin Carthy, Speigeltent – Bath Fringe Festival
A rather eclectic venue for the gig tonight, a Spiegeltent on the Rec. It’s a big tent fleshed out with stained-glass windows, mirrors everywhere, and wooden seating booths around the edge. The latter were slightly uncomfortable, particularly for those of a lesser stature who’s legs wouldn’t reach the ground when sat on the bench seating.
Support came from Emily Portman, followed by Jim Causley, both of whom I’ve already seen performing alongside Martin Carthy as part of the Frost and Fire tour comprising Waterson:Carthy and The Devil’s Interval. Both acts were very proficient, Jim Causley being slightly more to my taste with 45 minutes of music, anecdotes, and finishing off with a silly story.
Martin Carthy eventually appeared on stage about 10:30 and did a 70-minute set, which at times was slightly difficult to listen to, one song in particular having a particularly random cadence, almost as if the words didn’t actually fit the tune being played. Other than that he was very good, seamlessly segueing from retuning into a new song.
We eventually left the venue around 11:45 and had a very warm and pleasant walk back across town.
The Bad Shepherds – Komedia, Bath
Support came from Ella Edmondson tonight, you get the impression that nepotism has a part in the selection of support bands.
A slightly different line-up for The Bad Shepherds again tonight, this time with Tim Harries (ex-Steeleye Span and others) on double bass. If anything they seemed a little too polished tonight, at times it felt like the folk element was taking a bit too much of a back seat. Having said that it was still a superb evenings entertainment.
Setlist:
Anarchy in the UK
Up Against the Wall
Teenage Kicks / Whisky in the Jar
No More Heroes
Panic
Whole Wide World
Rise
Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
Sound of the Suburbs
Friday Night, Saturday Morning
London Calling
Once in a Lifetime
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue / Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment / Blitzkrieg Bop
God Save the Queen
Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera!
White Riot
Hurry up Harry
Posted in Bad Shepherds, Gigs, Photography
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Levellers – Komedia, Bath
You can tell when you spend too much time at gigs when, on your way out of the venue, the security guard on the door spots you and proclaims "bloody hell, you spend more time here than I do".
A fantastic night from the Levellers, a bit of a different set than I’m used to, they played a fair few songs I didn’t recognise, and left out some of the obvious classics. Shame about the slight cock-up at the end of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" though.
Amateur Transplants – Redgrave Theatre, Bristol
An excellent evening of entertainment and smut from the Doctors. I’ll never listed to Come on Eileen the same way again.
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Half Man Half Biscuit – The Junction, Cambridge
After a lazy morning I headed off on the lengthy trip to Cambridge to see the mighty Half Man Half Biscuit again, stopping off briefly to don my DPAK and swap cars, then back on the road for the last hours driving. We arrived 30 minutes after the doors opened to find only a dozen or so people in the venue, however it soon filled out as it got nearer to the start time of the only band tonight. They really should wash the floor in The Junction more often as it was rather on the sticky side, although it did mean you were unlikely to slip over at any point, or be able to move your feet at all really.
Just after 20:30 the band took the stage, and after the obligatory preliminary faffing launched into the set with Restless Legs. The mix was fairly poor tonight, with the vocals getting lost beneath the guitar and bass. However this didn’t prove much of a hindrance as pretty much everyone knew every word of every song anyway, and sang along enthusiastically.
Two hours later it was all over bar the queue for the ticket machine in the car park, and a rather wet drive back again.
Setlist (to be decoded later):
Restless Legs
Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes
Fuckin’ ‘Ell, it’s Fred Titmus
Bad Losers on Yahoo Chess
A Lilac Harry Quinn
San Antonio Foam Party
Irk the Purists
Uffington Wassail
Bob Wilson – Anchorman
Outbreak of Vitas Gerulatis
Running Order Squabble Fest
Petty Sessions
The Light at the End of the Tunnel (is the Light of an Oncoming Train)
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Bottleneck at Capel Curig
Look Dad, No Tunes
Ballad of Climie Fisher (start)
Monmore, Hare’s Running
Twenty Four Hour Garage People (the Pringles cost £1.61)
National Shite Day
Trumpton Riots
For What is Chatteris…
Apache
1966 and all that
Vatican Broadside
Footsteps
We Built this Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune
Evening of Swing (Has been Cancelled)
Joy Division Oven Gloves
Posted in Gigs, Half Man Half Biscuit
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New Model Army – Fiddlers, Bristol
A new venue for me tonight, apparently it used to be a prison. It’s certainly smaller than the venues I usually see New Model Army at only 400 or so capacity, therefore it was a little more intimate than usual, but just as sweaty as always.
Setlist:
States Radio
Get Me Out
The Charge
White Light
Mambo Queen of the Sandstone City
Peace is Only
Today is a Good Day
Disappeared
High
One of the Chosen
Autumn
White Coats
Into the Wind
Vagabonds
Wired
Wonderful Way to Go
Stupid Questions
Island
No Rest
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Hayseed Dixie – Komedia, Bath
A fantastic night rocking out to the sounds of Hayseed Dixie. Plenty of excellent songs including the fastest version of Bohemian Rhapsody I’ve ever heard. Definitely a band to go and see again, although if it’s at Komedia they’ll need to get more beer, we drank the place dry tonight.
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The Beat – Komedia, Bath
It’s not often you see a band fronted by a father and son, but Ranking Roger and Ranking Junior (you’ve got to hope that they never get interviewed by Jonathan Ross) did sterling service keeping the capacity crowd entertained. They played all the crowd pleasing favourites including a particularly good cover version of Rock the Casbah dedicated to the original rude boy, Joe Strummer.
All in all a fantastic night despite the preponderance of bass early on in the set.
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Fairport Convention – Wyvern Theatre, Swindon
An early departure for Swindon to ensure we’d be in time for a meal in the restaurant before the 7:30 start.
The support act, Dark Horses were good, and were joined on stage by Fairport for a rendition of Si Tu Dois Partir. Fairport then continued on their own for an hour before the interval which was followed by another hour of Fairport. We were entertained with plenty of good tunes and some witty and self depreciating banter. The finale was the obligatory Meet On The Ledge with Dark Horses joining in on stage.
All too soon we were back on the M4 heading home again.
Posted in Fairport Convention, Gigs
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2000-2009. A decade in numbers
- 180 CDs
- 4 SACDs
- 2 DVD-As
- 43 gigs
- 617 DVDs
- 26 Blu-rays
- 6 cameras
- 12 lenses
- 18 bicycles
