overlap

After some giving it serious consideration last time I saw them, and after a more recent abortive trip to another gig in roughly the same place, Crowded House in the outdoors seemed like a fine opportunity to get properly dressed up for a saturday night out. I had been planning to wear my new white jeans, but with the recent weather's unseasonal performance, I was holding off buying the wedges and anything else I'd need to go with them until the last minute. Which was just as well, as this longest day was blessed with the sort of showers that make April and November look like desert months. And so it was I ended up with the dark blue jeans and the knee high boots rather than the white jeans. I'm happy aiming for ever so slightly over-dressed, that suits me, and the conditions required my brand new mac-style jacket and my even newer big grey handbag. With several fields full of cars and people everywhere in all kinds of rainwear, the waterproof cape was pressed into action, and I made it inside the arena to catch the last couple of songs by The Delays, having been listening to them and watching them over the fence on my way in. They seemed entertaining enough, good bouncy, poppy fun and lively enough to make the rain seem less oppressive. From my distant vantage point on my new camping chair, I got a decent view of the light show, even if the darkness didn't descend upon us until very late on in the set. I was not absolutely surprised, having seen pictures from previous gigs there, when Neil announced that capacity is 5,000 - a lot of people for me to hide among. There were a number of new songs, some of the familiar banter, and the weather just about held off until they finished. I thought about making an early break for the car, but ended up staying longer - having previously mentioned the way the situation lends itself to paranoia, you may imagine my state of mind when I realised two of Her Majesty's finest were stood behind and to either side of me. At that sort of event, stewards, security personnel, the police and all manner of hi-vis jacketed authority figures abound, though until that point I'd only been aware of them circulating around the arena. I guessed I may as well stay till the end of the encore whether or not they had any intention towards me, and picked up my handbag and chair with some trepidation. The fact I'm home already tells you nothing actually happened, and that they had simply picked that spot to watch the last few songs, but it was with some relief I headed to the car. With 5,000 people to clear the site, you may imagine there are other priorities than harassing someone who is doing no particular harm. Taking fifty minutes to move half a mile to get out of the car park was no fun, especially with the rain coming down very heavily and impatient people jumping around and even pushing the sides of my car. I should say that as well as my fine choice of new jacket and handbag, Diorshow is fabulous mascara for a more dramatic effect. And that I had a fabulous time. * is the first line of the Crowded House song Don't Stop Now

Labels: Crowded House, gigs, make up, shopping, The Delays

Unexpectedly I find that a handbag I haven't used in years, and which, if I'm honest I've only kept for the sentimental reasons of where it came to me from, works perfectly with an outfit which would otherwise be sorely lacking in the handbag department. Having twice in the last week had reason to walk a couple of miles, it is interesting to note that it's not the height of the heel that makes the difference but the fit of the shoe. In any case, it's nice to find an outfit that works this well.

Labels: handbag, make up, shopping

Funny, I remember when the January sales actually had something to do with January rather than being rushed through from Boxing Day onwards. Then again, I was on the website of a certain major High Street name, looking at the sale stock in the early hours of Christmas Day, so the truth of 'if you build it, they will come' seems to speak for itself. Having found a good haul of stuff in that sale, I wasn't so impressed to find they couldn't actually cope with getting the delivery bit right, and not for the first time. This evening I had an email reply to my letter of complaint, which was a pretty mealy-mouthed apology, so it remains to be seen if I buy more stuff there. Can't imagine why business are putting out profits warnings left, right and centre when they struggle to get stuff to their paying customers! On friday I made a late sale gamble purchase, and today I've done something I'm certain I haven't done in a very long time. Despite the provisions of the Sale Of Goods Act, I'm either very good at doing my research first, or notoriously poor at insisting on my 'rights'. So I'm quietly pleased that having bought a jacket that I really liked but then found that the extra large turns out to equate to a small size 14*, I took it back and got the refund that the shop's terms of sale entitle me to. Then I went and looked for something else that I'd seen, only to find that there wasn't one of those in my size left either, but I did finally find the sort of belt I've been looking for in New Look. Now, having been reading someone's complaints about shops which look and sound more like discos - in the case of New Look, which does of course exist for fashionable teenagers and twenty year olds, it's no surprise it sounds like a disco. No more shopping now for a bit. Fingers crossed! * Go on, guess where!

Labels: shopping

That was fun then. There's a distance threshold that governs what I consider practical travel, and whether time off work is required. Getting to the end of the year and having annual leave to use up or lose makes this sort of thing a bit easier, and leaves room to be a bit more ambitious too. * Monday - work, and up the road to Wolverhampton to see Damone (too much 'we are Damone from the United States, let me hear you say 'yeah'', not enough of the serious business of writing songs) opening the Wildhearts pre-Christmas tour. Further to the one-off excitement in September, Wolfsbane got signed up to do five shows with The Wildhearts, and while some people missed September's show, this one was a) the first since then and b) the closest to a local show, so Wolverhampton was sold out and rammed with excitable people in fifteen year old Wolfsbane t-shirts. They were as good as they ever were back in the day, and internet consensus seems to be that they were even better than The Wildhearts, who I'd agree didn't have the best show of all time. Nice. Motorway roadworks and other shenanigans meant I got home about half past two. Not so nice. * Tuesday - work, and a relatively late trip to Bristol, and back to the same venue I'd been less than a week before with my nearly matching pink jeans and handbag. I saw support band New Generation Superstars at that show in Tamworth in September,and while they have a name that ups the ante somewhat, they are not quite there yet. Like a junior version of The Almighty, but just missing that little bit of memorableness in their songwriting, I like them and I'd happily watch them again but they've got nothing I'd rush to track down to listen to repeatedly just yet. Headline band Love/Hate I also saw a long time ago, but this is the third time in the last couple of years I've seen a different reformed line-up, with three of the original four members making this the most genuine version. Skid twitches like his bass guitar lead is a high pressure firehose that he's struggling to keep under control, and spends most of the show with a bleeding forehead from headbutting the mike. Joey is solid as ever on the drums. And Jizzy is the same wired frontman of legend, with the sort of brooding presence that lesser singers (and I'm looking directly at you, Hutchence and Gahan) couldn't hope to match in their wildest dreams. Great stuff and a relatively pleasant 'early' night. * Wednesday - no work, but a fun afternoon heading north, and east. Checked in at the hotel in downtown Stockport in time to make it to the venue just before doors. Hotels, and even the b&b type of accommodation, are an exotic novelty to me, and the sort of thing that elevates this above and beyond the norm. I wouldn't have made this trip without the lure of Wolfsbane, that's absolutely certain. Damone are largely as before, but with the sound not quite as good. Wolfsbane were even better than monday and I once again found myself a couple of people from the front, though I got bounced out of there within a couple of songs of The Wildhearts' set. I don't know if it's coincidence, but I'm struggling to recall seeing any gigs which weren't in some way troubled in Manchester. There's an inevitability of jumping up and down at this sort of thing, but all the same there are a couple of over-exuberant and over-lubricated kids that contribute to several different confrontational flare-ups that could have got nasty, and having seen the mighty Wolfsbane I left before the Wildhearts' encore and was back in the hotel in time to catch up a little on my sleep backlog. * Thursday - having removed the ice from the car, I took my time crossing the south-eastern edge of Cheshire and back down the M6, and still made the consumer paradise that is Merry Hill just after lunch time. And spent five hours enjoying the sport of shopping, coming away with a dress I'd liked the look of last time but which was now even further reduced, a pair of shoes, jeans, a couple of tops and few seasonal gifts that weren't for me too. Down the road to Stourbridge, where the venue is just around the corner from a Domino's so I pushed the boat out and had pizza in my car before going in to a venue that was borderline empty, and the first venue I have ever seen using a gas-fired space heater to try to warm the place up. Wouldn't have made the journey on its own for this either, but it made the hotel seem worthwhile and gave me something to do with the time other than just go home and watch Eastenders or something similarly educational! Support act Timothy Parkes is an interesting if slightly intense character, and his songs are perhaps a little rambling for my taste, but his guitar playing is very intricate and tight. Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls close their half-year of touring with a decent set that is happily based around more solo stuff than Stuff stuff, home for about one thirty I think this time. * Friday - off to London, on what is forecast to be the most challenging traffic day of the season, but which turns out to be nothing like as much trouble as it might have done. There's a queue up the side of the Astoria, where I first saw The Wildhearts suporting Wolfsbane a full seventeen years (and a few days) ago, and my partner-in-metal for this show turns up in good time. Damone, well, you know. Someone's been up in the loft, or busy rooting thorugh a lock-up garage somewhere, as the stage is crowned with a Wolfsbane banner of a certain vintage. This is perhaps the best of the three, no doubt partly due to the fact that nobody knows if this will be the last ever set they play, and while I've got a number of stills and some video from the other gigs, mostly I'm stood watching and enjoying and soaking it all up this time. It speaks for itself that Wolfsbane, who've only done six shows in the last thirteen years, still rank as fourth in the bands I've seen most stakes, and indeed some people might think that putting another thousand miles on the car for a total of less than two hours of Wolfsbane would be something they might not go for themselves. And from my perspective it was well worth it. We watched The Wildhearts from the balcony, where I've never been before, and the end of tour spirit and their very short new xmas song lifts this one to the best of my week too, probably. Out into the fog, and home for about 3.30 - 'tis the season to be having a rest now!

Labels: gigs, Love/Hate, Miles Hunt, shopping, The Wildhearts, Wolfsbane

What do Wolverhampton, Bristol, Manchester, Stourbridge and tomorrow London have in common? Answer: my carbon footprint this week. Friday will be my ninth gig in thirteen days, and I've been having a great time. I'll catch up with this week in due course, but I can say that I enjoyed the novelty of waking up in a 'hotel' in Stockport before driving across Cheshire in the fog and frost to spend a very long afternoon in a midlands consumer paradise - just don't ask how much I spent on one dress, a pair of jeans, two tops, shoes and even some stuff that wasn't for me. I'll be glad to sleep through most of saturday, but hell it's been fun!

Labels: gigs, shopping

The brief change in routine was just starting to get to me, so it's as well that today was the first day of back to normal-ish. On the other hand, the predicted money "saved" has now disappeared into various tills. I had been planning on something else entirely, but as is frequently the case, what websites claim to offer and what the racks actually have can differ. Which meant that lunchtime spending was limited to enjoying the dubious irony of someone with a mortgage and a pension plan buying an album of Crass songs, prompted entirely by this review, not that I'm in any way suggestible. Not being suggestible I then took my search for shopping out in the car for a couple of hours, and again came up against the same website <> in stock issue. And having drawn another blank headed somewhere a little closer to home to find I couldn't find what I'd hoped to find there either. However something else did catch my eye, and I found what I needed to make it work, albeit in a slightly different way to how Myleene models it! * Just nobody draw too much attention to the email I've had this evening to return for a refund my ticket for a gig which has now been cancelled. That's definitely being re-absorbed into the fuel budget. * asked nicely I might just email a link of what that looks like

Labels: gigs, shopping

It's been a funny couple of days, with a brief run of stuff not working quite the way it was supposed to. But there's no better antidote than a burst of frivolity, and anyway I've had my eye out for shoes for a little while.



I'm well aware that the fashion police may feel entitled to express an opinion, but in the context of trying to break out of a habit of plain black shoes best characterised as aiming for smartness and sobriety, I'm more than overdue for something a bit more frivolous. And besides, the blue colour will work fine with my summery turquoise skirt and the purple colour goes with my purple dress, so it's not as if there's nothing they'll go with. Having seen them on the website, for once I was pleased to find them also in stock in my size. I'm pretty sure this is a first of me asking for the partner shoe to go with the one that was on the shelf. Picking my moment when there wasn't already a huge queue, with a slight shortage of staff and several people also wanting to be served, there was still a small audience by the time I was asked by someone half my age if I wanted to try them on. Which for some reason remains one of the funniest things I've heard all week. Despite the smirk from her colleague, and it being a fair bet the question came purely out of habit, there's something faintly touching about being treated as any other customer would be, and equally it's no bad thing to have felt entirely comfortable with simply answering in the negative rather than with protesting too much that they weren't for me or some other equally transparent lie. And so I now have colourful new shoes that I like.

Labels: shoes, shopping