Gig Report: Lancashire Hotpots

Date: Saturday 2 April 2011
Venue: The Witchwood, Ashton-Under-Lyne
Face Value: £12 (or thereabouts)
Support Act: Darren Poyzer
Gig Buddy: The Husband

You might be getting deja-vu right about now. Surely I went to see The Lancashire Hotpots recently, right? Which means I should just copy and paste the last gig report and no one would be any the wiser. Except that this isn't the same gig. I really did go to see them again. The first time around I had just been introduced (quite literally) to the band by The Rock Goddess, a trustworthy source of good music recommendations (ToTo and John Farnham notwithstanding). And now, well, I'm a bona fide fan of T'Hotpots. I am a Hotpotter. And you know that seeing a band that you're actually really fond of is loads better. So when I heard they were playing again, I risked life and limb (I went to Ashton-Under-Lyne, 'nuff said) to hear them again.

And they rocked.

Every favourite played, the boys made us laugh till we choked on our perry and real ale. If you don't know their stuff, I urge you to check out the folk parody on youtube.

I didn't get the full set list on account of enjoying myself far too much to be diligent enough to write anything down, but they played for a full hour and a half, easy - excellent value for the 12 quid entry fee. For this we got Chippy Tea, eBay 'eck, I Fear IKEA, He's Turned Emo, The Beer Olympics and the classic Bitter Lager Cider Ale Stout. Plus so many more. The boys are delighting the crowds with their piss-take on just about everything all through the summer, so please check them out and take a listen to their new stuff including 'Hard Core Quornography' which is about the trials of dating a vegetarian...

Nice one, cockers!

Gig Report: Elbow

Date: Friday 25th March
Venue: MEN Arena
Face Value: £27.50 or thereabouts
Support Act: no idea
Gig Buddies: The Rock Goddess, Sheffield, a couple of old workmates that will still go to gigs with me even though I got really hammered at the Foo Fighters gig and The Husband.

Right, first things first: I don't know much about Elbow. There is precisely one track that's vaguely familiar and even then I'm sketchy on the lyrics. What I do know is that The Rock Goddess has usually excellent taste in music (her penchant for John Farnham and Toto notwithstanding) and so when she says she has tickets to something I'm always all ears. I'm also all ears when dinner is in the bargain as well. So, come Friday 25th March I drive to Manchester where I am very happily surprised to find an additional couple of gig-goers joining us. I'm more than mildly embarassed that the last time I went to a gig with them that it ended in me being really drunk. Really really drunk. So it's a good thing I'm driving tonight.

Dinner at The Grinch who do fabulous pizza and then we head up to the MEN arena to procure some drinks (red bull for me, natch) before the show begins. Like I said, I don't know their catalogue at all, and I've only just bought their new album. If you are searching for a set list, you'll need to look elsewhere. However, I can tell you that Elbow put on a bloody good show. Lead singer Guy Garvey engages frequently with the crowd - it's obvious he is proud to be from around the corner in Bury, Greater Manchester and that this homecoming gig is going to be special. Everything from the sound, the tracks, the stage effects was spot on. Guy acknowledged those of us in the nose-bleed seats and made the arena feel MUCH smaller than the 11,000 people it was holding. Actually I don't know how many people were in the arena that night, but it was a fuck load.

One question though - in the picture above (dear Guardian: please don't sue me for using it) does the guy on the far left look like Zach Galifianakis from The Hangover? Or is it just me??

FomFest! Be There!

FomFest is a brand new festival heading our way to Cheshire. I was told about it today at work and I risked setting off alarms to our internet traffic police by looking at "definitely non-work stuff" to nab myself a pair of tix. And I'm not even sorry. For £89 you can enjoy the tunes of Badly Drawn Boy and The Charlatans who are headlining Saturday and Sunday night as well as a host of other lovely acts like the Young Knives, The Buzzcocks, The Lightning Seeds. For an extra £39 earth pounds you can get yourself VIP tickets! And so I did. If not for the exclusive spacious camping area with 'unfettered views' but for the boat rides and access to VIP champagne bar!! Yes, fucking please!!

So, get yourselves there, May 20-22 round these here Cheshire parts and be sure to don the Hunter wellies and tweed.

Album Review: Eliza Doolittle

I buy quite a few CDs. Some of them are a bit shit, but that's what you get when you take a lot of chances, musically. However, here's one I got recently that I just can't relegate to the back of my iPod yet. It's Eliza Doolittle's album - a whimsical purchase that is really rather good. Like, leave it in the car as a go-to-album kind of good. Its accessible catchy upbeat tunes will make you tap your feet and put a smile on your face. The big band backing gives it credibility and the chirpy tweeting voice of Eliza herself makes it a decent purchase all round.

Though she's getting airplay for the 'Pack Up' track hidden at the bottom of the album, it's the Moneybox, Mr Medicine and Skinny Genes tunes that do it for me.

So, go buy the album, here. If not for the gorgeous melodies then so she doesn't sue me for using a picture of the album cover. Please. Oh and she's touring Europe at the moment, UK in March/April - go see a show while she's still doing the little venues.

Gig Report: Ani Di Franco

Date: Tuesday 25th January 2010
Venue: Lowry Theatre
Face Value: about £15 I think (again, The Husband bought them)
Support Act: none
Gig Buddies: The Husband

Close friends will know this story, but about 9 years ago I met The Husband. We worked together. Not unusual, but yes, our eyes met across a partitioned desk in the winter of 2002. He was the friendly Account Exec with the softest Northern Irish accent. I was the bright-eyed Aussie new to town, just trying to work it out in the big city.

One morning I trudged into work, as ever plugged into my minidisc (seriously, it was 9 years ago, remember those?) and sat at my desk. The lovely desk buddy greeted me with his usual cheery ways and enquired as to what I was listening to. I was a little hesitant to answer. Usually when I mention 'Ani Di Franco' people (especially men) attach the "angry lesbian" label. Nevertheless I told him and he smiled and said he liked her music too. How polite, I thought.

The very next day, I arrive at work and his smiley face greets me as usual. He pops an orange minidisc over the partition and says 'here's an album you might not have'. Turns out he wasn't being polite the previous day. He is also a massive Ani Di Franco fan. And that's how we became proper friends. To this day, I still have that minidisc, but would like to point out (in case Ms Di Franco ever reads this) that I did then go and buy the actual CD.

Anyways, that was a long way to say we are both massive long standing fans. One of my first ever gigs was to shell out $9 in 1996 to cram into a sweaty uni bar in Canberra (Australia) to catch the woman who created the genius that is Untouchable Face. I bought the album (Dilate) based on the strength of that one song and have subsequently purchased pretty much everything she has ever done since as well as seek out her gigs at every opportunity.

The difference between that first gig and the one this Tuesday night on in Manchester many years later is that Ani has mellowed a lot. Though the dreadlocks are gone, her politics are the same, but she exudes a softer more mature image. Make no mistake though, she's as talented as ever with her new material 100% pure folk joy. Her lyrics every bit as engaging and clever and the voice as powerful.

She performed loads of the old favourites (Both Hands and Fire Door both on the set list) but the absolute highlight for me was 'Garden of Simple' to which I could almost have cried out of nostalgia. All in all a fantastic night and a special shout out for the support act who was Liz Lawrence - a coy London with a catchy set of tunes.

Top gig, Ani.
Liz: sell your darned CD at the merch, I'd have bought one for sure.

Gig Report: Tim Minchin

Date: Friday 17th Manchester 2010

Venue: MEN Arena

Face Value: about £40 I think (The Husband bought them)

Support Act: none

Gig Buddies: The Husband, Rock Goddess and Sheffield

Yeah, I nearly forgot to post this - it's only Australia Day on Wednesday that's reminded me.

Anyways, just before Christmas we catch the Tim Minchin show at the MEN Arena. The Husband and I have both seen the genius of Mr Minchin before but we felt compelled to share it to our two very bestest gig buddies, since they imparted the wisdom of the Lancashire Hot Pots on us. Seemed only fair. And besides, they got married at the end of last year and we got them tickets as a present (as well as making the cake, obviously). The rock of our friendship (see what I did there?) stems back to our wedding where they bought us Guitar Hero for the Wii, so our gift was not completely out of context, okay?

Anyways, we entered the famed arena and paid over the odds for some warm booze and cold nachos and settled in for what is arguably one of the most funniest Australian acts since Steady Eddy. And the comedy is just as raw. The full 60-piece orchestra were amazing. Tim's performance was brilliant and White Wine In the Sun of course made the set list, which moves me to tears every single time I hear it.

What wasn't amazing though were the imbeciles behind us that talked loudly ALL THE FUCKING WAY THROUGH THE SHOW. Very annoying.

And our seats on the floor didn't actually give short asses like me a good view, but overall it was a top night. Shame it had to snow 3 inches in the time we sat in the arena and mean that it took us an hour to leave the car park.