Athlete - again!

We've been to see Athlete a couple of times before - originally here Thoughts on Stuff: Athlete back in 2007, and then another concert more recently in July - the night before going to Venice (which, I'm ashamed to say, I've not actually blogged about) but we went to see them AGAIN, at the beginning of December, in Manchester.

They've just released a new album - Black Swan - which is album no 4.

As I said in the original post, I quite like their music when listening to the albums, but when they play live - they're really fantastic!

Can't wait until we go and see them again - I know we'll definitely be going to see them again.

TOM!

Aghhhhhh! Tom Jones. In concert. Liverpool Arena. October 17th.


I'm not even going to try and describe how good it was. A reviewer on the Liverpool Echo summed it up nicely:

"...The atmosphere truly was electric, and as be roared out The Green, Green Grass Of Home and Delilah it was somewhere between pop concert and football match, complete with Mexican waves.

With excellent support from up-and-coming soul diva Florence Rawlings, Jones served up what was surely one of the best gigs the arena has ever seen, and certainly one of the most appreciated.."

(Rest of the article here)

All I know is that it was better than any of his previous concerts I'd been to (several!) and they were dammned fantastic! We were hoarse from screaming. Pictures here on our Picasa Album.


The Ladies


So, Tom, we'll see you next time!

PS Thanks for the lift Emmanuele!

17 again with "Heaven 17"

I'm not really one for the posed photo. I find it really annoying when people start with the "right, all stand over there, watch the birdie, hold it, hold it, smile" so I never subject others to it - hence the photos I've got here of our friends Sue and Pete are surreptitiously obtained! Dan would say 'unauthorised'! They're both looking off to the right, where a group of people old enough to know better were getting so blathered that by the end of the night, 2 had fallen off their chairs into the picnic table, and one had fallen headlong into the bin!

What was the occasion for all this raucousness in so many 40-somethings? It was the "Back to the 80's" party at Tatton Park.

SUPERB! An excuse to remind yourself that you know all the lyrics to 'Circle in the Sand' by Belinda Carlisle, and an opportunity to fall in love with Martin Fry (from ABC, as if you didn't know) in his silver suit, all over again.

5 bands/acts were on the bill - Heaven 17, Go West, Belinda Carlisle, ABC and topping the bill were the Human League. Really superb.

Each band came on and did their top 4 or 5 songs - the ones you remember - and then off again! It started at 7 and ended about 10:30 with some lovely fireworks over the lake.

We had 'priority parking' which meant we were only about 10 cars from the entrance to the event, brilliant for not having to carry the pic-nic gear very far, and therefore almost the 1st back in the car at the end. Unfortunately, this meant that we had to weave our way through the largest crowd of absolutely mega p*ssed people I've seen in a long time, on their way back to the pleb carparks or out along the track to the Knutsford entrance to the park where taxis and lifts were awaiting their wobbly arrival.

A really superb evening and thanks to Sue and Pete for inviting us! Who's up for next year?

Tewksbury & Vaughn Williams

As we were in the St James church in Chipping Campden, (which gets 4 stars in my 1000 best churches book) Jacq said, "how many stars does it go up to?" I turned the page. Tewksbury Abbey was the next church listed. It had 5 stars! "Five" I said. We looked at each other. "How far away is Tewksbury?" We worked out that it was about 20 miles. Too close to miss, we decide...and off we go!

Well it certainly was worth the journey. An absolutely stunning church (not a cathedral, they were very insistant to point out) in fact 14 of Britain's cathedrals are smaller!

As we wandering round the back of the beautiful church, round the outside of the choir, we heard this beautiful sound....



It sounded so perfect, like a recording, but as we came back round to the front of the choir, we realised that an orchestra was rehearsing for that evening's concert. A Vaughn Williams evening. Very haunting and beautiful music. It totally made the visit to the Church! The acoustics were perfect - and we decided that the sound was better when we were at the back of the choir than in the 'audience'. Fab!

Kaisers

Had a nice start to the bank holiday weekend - a nice BBQ at ours to get the day off to a swing, then we got a cab down to the footie ground and in we went to the Kaiser Chiefs concert!
It was a very good atmosphere - the stage was set up on the South stand and we were all standing on the pitch! It was manic - very crowded - an hour to queue for the loo, and longer for the beer. I'm not a major fan, but I did know quite a few songs - more than I thought I would anyway! Top night out and some really good company!

The Best Concert !

This whole public transport thing is becoming a bit of a habit; we went to Manchester on the train last night to see HARD-FI - my favourite band of the moment. They were playing at Manchester Central (formally the G-MEX) which is a venue that I've never been to before. It's kind of like a huge aircraft hanger, and I was a bit upset that it wasn't completely heaving.....BUT......at least it meant that I could get nearer to them!
They came on and played brilliant track after brilliant track. It was (I think) nearly all of the new 2nd album, with a few classic favourites from the 1st. I'm absolutely hoarse today from SHOUTING my head off in the crowd.
We took some excellent photos (they all look the same, a dark area surrounding a bright light!!) but they're up on picasa anyway!

Here's a song frm the new album - 'I can't get along without you'

Athlete

About 3 weeks ago, I came home from work to find 2 tickets on the table - they said 'Athlete' - hmmm I thought. I don't really 'do' concerts - especially ones where you have to stand up - and at the university - hmmmm again!
Well we had to park miles away and walked there from the city centre (in the rain) and queued for about 20 minutes (in the rain) you get the picture.
The first thing that cheered me up was that the beer was quite cheap! Then the 2 support bands came on...1st one wasn't too bad, the second one was, I thought, a bit self indulgent....they seemed to be all about enjoying themselves, and less about doing a performance.
Then Athlete came on. WOW. I'd listened to their new album, and had thought it was OK - but I have to say that LIVE they were FABULOUS! Go and see them if you get the chance!