My gigs of 2006..

My gigs of 2006, definitive I think.

1/2/06 – Jose Gonzales, Bush Hall. Went with Ongey and Paul. Great gig, loved his Kylie Minogue cover version at the end.

2/2/06 – The Rakes. Astoria. With Trigger. They were superb here, saw them later in the year as well, but the place was full of chavs. This was before they became "Geezer Rock". Sod off with your pringle sweaters.

10/2/06 – Goldfrapp. Brixton Academy. With Dora, Bossman and Lozza. I like Brixton, the camber is good for short people, as long as some lanky streak of piss doesn't stand directly in front of me and fill me with my inner rage for having a small man complex. I wanted to take over the world after this gig, and tall people having their feet cut off would be my first order to my dark minions.

17/2/06 – The Chalets + Hot Puppies. The Angel. Bedford. With Trigger. What a hilarious night. We'd never been to the Angel before and I have to say it was a most amusing evening. We had more fun looking at the other gig goers. Stayed on and drank awful spirits, a decent rock/alternative DJ set, got back in the middle of the night absolutely trollied. The Chalets were great. The Hot Puppies were good too, Trigger saw them in the ladies toilets, and one of them didn't wash his hands. How vile.

20/2/06 – The Bravery and Stellarstar. Astoria. With Trigger. Bit of a low key one. Enjoyed Stellarstar, the Bravery looked to be going through the motions.

28/2/06 – Bic Runga. Dingwalls. With Tommo. This was a good gig. Bic Runga is humble and very engaging, you can't help but like her and her music. She had matey, one of the Finn's from crowded house on piano.

9/3/06 – The Like. Manchester Academy 3. With Trigger. The gig itself was average, but we ended up in the university student bar. Some bloke tried to pull both me and Trigger, we ran away giggling back to our hotel bar as he was freaking us out. If I was gonna go gay, it wouldn't be with some Mancunian with a fat coffee machine sized head.

12/3/06 – Martin Simpson. Hitchin Folk Club. With Ongey and Deb. After a two and a half hour set, something you should normally be grateful for, I'd had enough of ballads involving murdering your sisters suitor, who is not good enough for her and burying him on the moors. It was a Sunday night and we were knackered. Probably in the wrong mood, although I did enjoy most of it.

21/3/06 – Feeder and Goldie Looking Chain. Hammersmith Apollo. With Trigger, Paul Daniels (Kev) and Annie. I can't remember much about this gig except I'd had too much red wine, and I enjoyed myself, we jumped around, red wine is ok for an evening in, but for going out it is possibly the worst drink to have and the next day my head was steaming. I remember trying to sell my spare and the tout offering Kev a fiver. "Eat my fiver! Eat my fiver!" was what he kept saying, we just fell about laughing. "Eat my fiver!" is now a phrase I like to use now and again.

25/3/06 – Bad Manners. The Green Room, Welwyn Garden City. With Trigger.Both me and Trigger felt slightly unnerved when we entered this pub, then we realised why, we were the youngest people in the audience, not the oldest! I felt very proud, I hadn't had that intimidated feeling since my early gig going days. And some of the scarred 50 year old skinheads looked well hard. Once the music started though and the ska filled the room, it was great. Everyone was dancing, and a nice man with no shirt on rubbed his hairy sweaty tits all over me before stamping on my ankle with his size 12 doctor martins. He was too drunk for this to have been pre-meditated, I think it was an accident, at least I hope so.

28/3/06 – Goldfrapp, Antony and the Johnsons, Starsailor. Royal Albert Hall. With Deb.This was my birthday treat, thoroughly enjoyed myself, although I'm getting the hump with goldfrapp now. Probably because she looks like one of those fuzzy trolls you stick on the end of a pencil.

29/3/06 – Sigur Ros. Hammersmith Apollo. With Deb, Ongey and DoraThis was awesome, Sigur Ros are always breathtaking, put on a brilliant show, are note perfect and live, they capture that quiet quiet loud/white noise perfectly.

11/4/06 – Concretes. ULU. With Bossman. Enjoyed the new material, interesting they gave their number one stalker fan a present in the front row. Apparantley he goes to all their gigs… they got him an alarm clock, so he is never late.

18/4/06 – War of the Worlds. Royal Albert Hall. With Deb, Paul, OngeyAs a child, my elder bruv owned the album, the music and the artwork used to paralyse me with fear. I had to run out of the room and he used to tease me by playing it! Yeah, its dated now, and not very cool, but this was a great nostalgia trip. We did spend most of the gig making alien noises and laughing though, which annoyed people in adjoining seats.

20/4/06 – Him. Birmingham Academy. With Trigger and Hoxxy. You know what, I don't remember much about this night, I remember the venue was packed out, and we went to some rock bar and drank jagermeister. I think!?

21/4/06 – Be your own Pet. ULU, with bossmanThis was utterly hilarious! We like ULU, and we like Be Your Own Pet. The mosh pit was a war zone. We spent half the evening watching the band, the other half on the periphery of the mosh pit watching people take chunks out of each other. We felt like privilidged Romans watching gladiatorial combat.

12/5/06 – Rakes. Shepherds Bush. With Trigger.Full of chavs. Musically still very good, but I wont be seeing them again I think

17/6/06 – Foo Fighters, Motorhead, QOTSA, Juliette and the Licks. Hyde Park. With Trigger.A lovely warm summers day, yeah, it was good. Had a hangover though from the night before.

8th and 9th July – Oxegen Festival. Ireland. With Deb, Des, other Mel, Sean. Too much to go into in one paragraph, but a wonderful weekend.

11/7/06 – Sigur Ros. Southampton Guildhall. With Ongey and Deb.Spoilt by the heat, it was 35 degrees in there. Nasty.

27/7/06 – Howling Bells. ICA. With BossmanThis was even hotter! Great gig, but everyone was dripping, we had a drink and a pint of ice each which I used to rub on my face, I thought people would be collapsing in that oven.

5th and 6th August – Boardriders Festival. Newquay. (Feeder, The Automatic) With Trigger and Tommo.Yeah, this was a good festival. Spoilt by some fat man who looked like a sofa (I swear, he was a sofa) who kept guffing throughout the gig and creating an exclusion zone of 10 metres around his body. I shouted in his ear, "STOP FUCKING FARTING!" and he did for a while, but I guess the build up of gasses inside him needed to rip out, and he destroyed us with one monstrous one towards the end of the gig. It was disgusting, everyone was dry heaving and collapsing to the floor. There was something seriously wrong with him!

18/9/06 – The Killers. Electric Ballroom. With TommoThanks Tommo for inviting me!

22/9/06 – Mogwai. Royal Albert Hall. With John.More Post-Rock white noise melodic hell. Great stuff.

27/9/06 – Juliette and the licks. Astoria.I really don't remember much about this gig?! I don't even remember who I went with, maybe I didn't even go?

3/10/06 – Morning After Girls and Boxer Rebellion. Islington AcademyM.A.G – superb. Boxer Rebellion. Not for me.

10/10/06 – Howling Bells. ULUAwesome. See Bossman's blog for photos.

19 – 22nd October. Iceland Airwaves Festival.See my blog.

10/11/06 – We Are Scientists. Brixton. With Trigger, Bossman, Lozza.They were tired, this was a real end of tour gig. I was tired too. We all were, we bailed before the encore.

23/11/06 – Juliette and the Licks, Larrikin Love. ULU. Bossman and Trigger.See my blog.