Taking the short trip up to Bolton on Friday night (much closer than we thought being only 15 minutes door to door) we parked opposite the uni-studentish hangout Bolton Soundhouse on Ash Street for Little Man Tate's warm up gig for T in the Park on Saturday. A couple of support acts played - the first one was good (though I didn't find out their name) and the second one (Wax Planet) was average - and the place filled up for the sold out headline act. The crowd was a very middle class 18-35 selection but the lack of edge was not the biggest thing we noticed - it was the lack of smoke. This was indeed our first time out since the smoking ban and what a difference it makes. Clearly the ban to protect the people working in such venues hasn't hit the spot with everyone as the security guards regularly opened the large doors at the back of the venue so that they could smoke and not leave their post... oh well, at least the rest of us were smoke free. The other nice thing about the evening is that drinks were super-cheap - and that's ignoring the softies I was having on account of being designated driver for the evening.
Little Man Tate enter the stage to the sound of chanting (L-M-T!) and it's clear from the start that it's going to be rowdier than we expected. Now, I don't remember the order of the set-list, but I can say for certain that most of the album was included and that by 2 songs in, the crowd surfing and beer tossing began - all to the apparent surprise and amusement of frontman Jon Windle. The boys looked like they were having a great time, the sound was solid and confident, a perfect ego-boost festival preparation for the Sheffield lads - and it's hard to believe that the band are barely a year old.
Big things definitely ahead for these boys....
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