Edmonton Millfield Arts Centre Saturday March 24th

You know that feeling when all you want to do is get home, and everything seems to be conspiring against you to prevent it ? Well, last night we all piled out of the gig with a general feeling of a job well done in the face of a fair amount of adversity, all looking forward to being able to get home quickly as the gear was staying in the venue overnight. We had, however, reckoned without the whims of whichever thrice-accursed, pencil – pushing, desk – bound, anally – retentive, mean – spirited, small – minded, cone – loving, hi - vis jacket wearing onanist it was who decided that tonight was the VERY night he’d stop everyone leaving London by throwing a blanket of diversions, road blocks and
“ none shall pass “ signs across what seemed to be most of the Home Counties. Less than 100 yards ( sorry …I’m old school…I don’t do metric ) from the gate of the venue we found a line of flashing beacons and barriers telling us we couldn’t turn right onto the North Circular, and thus make the very short trip to the A10, along which we’d escape from the metropolis. Slightly miffed, we duly turned left, and like good little motorists followed the diversion signs. At first all was well, but as we went deeper into the hinterland of north London’s suburbia, the roads got narrower, the people coming the other way got more aggressive, and our MIR ( Miff Index Rating ) began to increase exponentially. After twenty minutes or so of fruitless shuffling up and down the mean streets of Edmonton, the diversion signs suddenly ran out. Completely. Hopelessly lost, we popped Doris the sat nav onto the dashboard and trusted to her directional omnipotence to get us out. Now, Doris is a game old bird, and she’s guided us out of many a tight spot, but even she just couldn’t deal with the avalanche of “ Road Closed “ signs, and ended up taking us right back to the gig. Bugger. Being made of stern stuff, however, we thought “ this’ll be OK….we’ll just turn left then come back on ourselves at the first junction, and this we duly did. The roadworks were not confined to the little slip road out of Edmonton, though…oh no. The whole access to the A10 was shut. “ Don’t worry chaps “ I said brightly to my increasingly disgruntled travelling companions, “ We’ll just go along to the A1 and then take the M1 turnoff. “ Sadly several thousand drivers had had the same idea, so this relatively short hop took another twenty minutes or so. We’d just started to breathe easily again when another phalanx of cones and flashing orange lights came into view and….I think you know where I’m going with this… the M1 slip road was closed too. A few corrosive epithets were bandied about, but we continued grimly onwards to the main A1 roundabout…..only to find that it, too was closed, so the only option was to go even further west and finally achieve escape velocity on the M1. By now we’d had nearly an hour in the car and we were just leaving London, many miles away from where we wanted to be. I have thus resolved, Faithful Blogreader, to firebomb the Ministry Of Transport on Monday and shoot anyone who escapes from the fiery inferno, if any of you fancy joining me. Anyway, this little hiccup aside, today was yet another example of how well we all work together….we came up with a workable alternative to the projector problem, the band decided to drop one of the new songs which they weren’t happy with, Jamie remembered he had to come back onstage, the little jokes and audience communication reappeared, and if I’d thought last night’s show was good, this one was even better. There are two of the new songs in particular which are just breathtaking; a version of Eleanor Rigby which features Chris and Den playing the same keyboard, and a take on The Move’s Blackberry Way which is definitely going to become one of the highlights of the set. Strawberry Fields has made a welcome return, and the “ duet “ with Cher on All I Really Want To Do is both big AND clever. There was a really relaxed feeling to the show tonight, and I really DO have to remind myself that we’re only two shows in, not twenty – two. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was one of the best, most complete gigs we’ve ever done, and it takes quite a lot these days to please my jaded palate. Considering that there’s still plenty we can do to improve things even more, all of the portents for the tour are excellent. This is a great place to start the tour, too….it’s a lovely little theatre, and the staff are brilliant. Maybe we’ll go for a week’s residency next year…..! One thing that I really must do before we consign Edmonton to blogworld history is to say a very big thanks to the lovely Dawn, who left some cards and gifts for us all yesterday to wish us luck with the tour. She also left some little bits and pieces which have a high potential comedy value at future shows, so I’ll say no more about those for now !! Dawn is one of our uber-fans, but she supports the band in a quiet, dedicated way, and doesn’t ask for any special treatment or recognition in return. Dear lady, we thank and salute you !! Anyway, a Japanese, a Chinese, a Cambodian, a Korean, a Vietnamese and an Indonesian try to get into a nightclub. The bouncer says “ Sorry, you can’t come in without a Thai……”