Gigs We've Done: 2006
Here's all the gigs we played in 2006, along with a brief description of what happened. Click on the date for the full blog entry I wrote at the time or click the venue name to go to their webpage.| Friday 27 January | The Grapes, Sheffield An Italian meal before the gig (so sophisticated), support from Scarlet Tuesday, and live debut for the full band version of Leave My Brother Alone. |
| Wednesday 8 February | Push, London At Chicken Royale with The Fighting Cocks and Leevil - a rare solo outing for The Symbol Of Our Nation and lots of other 'The ' songs. |
| Friday 17 February | Matilda, Sheffield Benefit gig for No Sweat in a very cold factory, featuring the live debut of the new version of Sod It Let's Get Pissed followe d by a night out at OFFBEAT. |
| Saturday 18 February | The Marlborough Theatre, Brighton Tough gig playing to Brighton People, but The Lovely Brothers were GRATE. |
| Friday 24 February | Firebug, Leicester The first ever SELLOUT at The Firebug, due rather more to the fact that 7 Seconds Of Love were headl ining than anything we'd done. They SKANKED so hard that the CEILING shook! |
| Tuesday 28 February | The Quad, LSE, London Playing with Winston Echo, The Young Playthings (and their Hong Kong/American accents), and Chris T- T. This gig caused much CONTEMPLATION re. The loneliness of the international traveller, also The 'F unny Song'/'Serious Song' AXIS. |
| Saturday 4 March | Carpe Diem, Leeds Everybody in Leeds was DRUNK and I had to FIGHT somebody to stop them taking over the stage! The Lod ger headlined, and between us were Sarandon, who were GRATE. |
| Friday 7 April | Wimbledon AFC, London Playing with Boo Hewerdine and James Richard Stevens - a different set from usual, the PREMIERE of < a href=http://www.mjhibbett.net/songs/lyrics/itonlyworksbecauseyourehere.htm>It Only Works Because Y ou're Here, and Kev The Promoter did a DUET with Mr Hewerdine. |
| Thursday 13 April | The Luminaire, London Emma was excited to find non-urine-soaked toilets, we all had a GRATE time, RENIE the guitar had, I think, her first gig outing, and My Sad Captains were dead good after us. |
| Sunday 16 April | Fox & Firkin, London 2bob's acoustic Sunday Session - I did She's A Spaceman for the first time in about 15 years, and me t the MIGHTY Mr Phil Wilson. |
| Friday 21 April | Red Rose Comedy Club, London A STRANGE night - proper Comedy Songs from the Amateur Transplants guy, a very complicated setting u p process, a LOVELY set from The Graham Parsnip Liquidiser Torture Think-Tank (Project) and then int ense theatricality from The Lovely Brothers. |
| Sunday 23 April | Hannakin's Farm, Essex An all-dayer to promote the Phoenix FM compilaton… which hadn't arrived back from the manufacturers! I played in a big echoing leisure centre to very few people, shortly after iDou (i.e. the bloke fro m Carter) - video evidence HERE!. |
| Saturday 29 April | Bunkers Hill Inn, Nottingham A ROCKING night supporting Dressy Bessy with dancing and ROCK ANTICS. |
| Monday 1 May | The Victory, Leicester Second gig of the day to some pals and a very jolly bunch of LEFTIES (except for a Woman Who Wanted To Talk About Palestine). Also featuring a young girl singing HARROWINGLY and The Bobby McGees (not at the same time though). |
| Monday 1 May | University of Sheffield Students' Union, Sheffield I played during a rainy afternoon, sitting down in a tent as YOUNG people gathered around to hear my words of WISDOM. Perhaps fittingly this was the afternoon I had my first EVER pint of mild. |
| Friday 26 May | Buffalo Bar, London Beat Hotel Night where I thought I was playing my final EVER Uberset but really wasn't. Also featuri ng Winston Echo and The Retro Spankees, both of whom were GRATE. |
| Wednesday 21 June | Pop, London A RIGHT rum old do, as I was roundly ignored by Friends Of The Other Bands and played to ONE person, Jon, who I then went for a pint with round the corner. I'd enjoyed the gig itself, partly BECAUSE i t was so rum, though I'd worried myself that all the gigs I'd been booking for the forthcoming tour would be like this. Still, the pint(s) round the corner were GRATE! |
| Thursday 22 June | The Living Room, Cambridge This was supposed to be with Yamit Mamo, J.Louis Steel and Rough Edge Quartet, though I'm not surel y who actually made it as one of the bands was stuck on a train and I don't know if all the others t urned up either. Certainly not many audience members as usual were there due to the weather, the tim e of year, and the football, so I sat on the front of the 'stage' (NB more like 'step') and did a To tally Acoustic gig, without PA, and, as ever, had a BRILLIANT time. 'Back For Good' got into the set |
| Sunday 2 July | Fox & Firkin, London This was done at short-notice, and again HEAT and things meant it was pretty sparse, though I had a LOVELY time. My David Beckham impersonation was aired, a very DRUNK old lady enjoyed my version of ' Moonlight Bay', and I drank Corona. It was also exciting to be going through Torchwood Tower the day after it'd been invaded by DALEKS, and I think this was the time I spent a jolly hour of my in-pub time chatting to a BUILDER about BUILDING. |
| Thursday 6 July | The Grapes, Sheffield The official launch gig for the album, with support from The Fontanelles and Wickerman & Fisherman. Tim had DRUM TROUBLE, Shop Methodologies were pilotted, and Emma unveiled THE BACKDROP for the first time. |
| Saturday 8 July | The Portland Arms, Cambridge A FAB night with support from Colonel Bastard and Karmadillo. LOADs of nice people came, half the au dience screamed 'I'm videoing it!' when someone inadvertently turned the pub TV over to the last epi sode of Dr Who, a couple of songs were sung by the AUDIENCE and afterwards I lurked around for sever al BEERS, as I had a B&B booked. |
| Monday 10 July | Bull & Gate, London A step up from my previous London gig, as TWO people came to see me this time. It felt a bit weird, sort of like the end of an era, and I got the EERIE FEELING it would be my last gig at the Bull & Ga te. I wonder if it will?. |
| Monday 17 July | Lamacq Live Session, London Possibly the most exciting evening for us EVER! Tom saw The BBC Symphony Orchestra, we both saw Mark Lamarr and we ALL tried to pinch as many BBC Ear Plugs as we could. We used special BBC Personal Mi xers, got our crowd in, and then it all flashed by at HIGH SPEED. It was only when my knees WENT jus t after we'd finished that I realised how TERRIFIED I'd been, speaking to the NATION! |
| Friday 21 July | Jug of Ale, Birmingham The Tour begins, with extreme HEAT, a BALTI, and the joy of hopping into your own VAN to go home. |
| Saturday 22 July | The Adelphi, Hull A chip disaster beforehand, on Day Two, before Jody Galvin and The Rocky Nest did supports. We playe d a LONG old set that was very sweaty then went to Tom's parents' house and ate RASPBERRIES. |
| Sunday 23 July | Carpe Diem, Leeds After a 'complicated' morning having to go back to various places to get stuff we'd forgot we met th e Fighting Cocks for a very ROCK night - there was arm wrestling, there was BAND STARVATION, there w as the longest pub quiz EVER, there was very nearly a FITE with a drunken promoter, and after the gi g itself someone said he'd heard us on the radio. ROCK AND ROLL! |
| Monday 24 July | The Prince Albert, Brighton Tim an Frankie revealed their mutual love of Marillion on the way there, to the righteous DISGUST of everyone else. Tour shenanigans were enjoyed when we set Tim's drums up - WRONGLY! - and we played with The Bobby McGees and The Legend! Phil The Promoter gave us some DELICIOUS bagels, Shane McGowan and Nick Cave turned up, and various BURPS cemented our on-tour bonding. |
| Tuesday 25 July | Firebug, Leicester With The Fighting Cocks, Famous Ted and Grace Petrie - a big line-up! I broke my guitar strap throug h JUMPING AROUND too much, and we all (except for Frankie, who wasn't drinking) had a MARVELLOUS tim e. |
| Wednesday 26 July | The Windmill, London A Let's Go Baboon night, with Lazarus Clamp and Lardpony during which I got THE FEAR because my voic e was knackered, but discovered the Magic Medicine: BRANDY! |
| Thursday 27 July | Bunkers Hill Inn, Nottingham A FANTASTIC end to the tour, even if it felt like it might be a disaster, after the drummer from Bur t Backarak Fight Club 'accidentally' went home with Tim's cymbals (and took about three months to gi ve them back). He LASHED UP a replacement and we ROCKED through a GRATE evening of leaping about, sw eating, and DANCING. It was ACE! |
| Sunday 20 August | The Secret Garden Party, Huntingdon I arrived FAR too early for my set, but ended up having a nice afternoon drinking tea and reading th e paper. My bit was a bit shakey and AFEARED to start with, but calmed down by the end and, like a t rue FESTIVAL ROCKER, I went back to a nice hotel afterwards! |
| Sunday 27 August | Buffalo Bar, London Myself and The Performing Pattisons took to the stage AFTER MIDNIGHT to a determined/drunk crowd wit h more BALLADRY than usual, which turned out to be all rather pleasant. |
| Thursday 31 August | The Luminaire, London Despite saying I would never COMPERE again I somehow ended up doing it at this night, between Finlay , The Butterflies Of Love, Comet Gain and The Chemistry Experiment. I did a song before the first fe w bands, but not before The ButtLove as things were running very late. I enjoyed JAMMING a version o f The Lesson Of The Smiths with Martin ChemEx, bu t all in all it reminded me of WHY I'd determined not to do that sort of thing anymore! |
| Thursday 7 September | The Prince Albert, Brighton I had a MINOR HUFF as nobody I knew turned up, but then realised that the people who HAD come were a ctually dead nice. |
| Thursday 12 October | The Windmill, London John Peel Night, playing with Lazarus Clamp and Former Utopia. Not many people there - they were all playing their own gigs I guess! - but a good night, with a debut for The Mystery Train a GRATE set by The Clamp, and George's fir st solo gig since the EPOCHAL night when we played the Physio & Firkin with Sienna and nobody came. |
| Friday 13 October | Pinup Flights, Glasgow A joyous night out on the BOOZE with The Plimptons and various other Glasgow Types, including Nutty Dancing. |
| Saturday 14 October | Last Night From Glasgow, Glasgow A short set in Brendan O'Hare's studio back room for Last Night From Glasgow. It was cold! |
| Wednesday 18 October | 3B's, Reading Me, Tim and The Pines set the PA system up ourselves and proceeded to ROCK the house. Our set featur ed the audience singing along, loud CHEERS for every mention of Tim's name and even some dancing, an d was followed by a trip to REFLEX, the eighties nightclub. Oh yeah! |
| Saturday 21 October | A Wedding, Leicester Susan and Martyn's wedding - a short set played just as people were coming in. |
| Thursday 26 October | The Good Ship, London I knocked over my pint during Hey Hey 16 K, some weird loonies threw stuff at me, I spoke to Eddie Argos from out of Art Brut, and then w e all watched the Indelicates. ROCK! |
| Friday 27 October | The Brook Inn, Cumbria The first set of the evening for the Hibbett/Pattison/McClure trio. We thought people didn't think m uch to us, little did we know that we would end up doing a whole other GIG. |
| Friday 27 October | The Brook Inn, Cumbria The second gig, this time rather more raucous (NB DRUNK), taking place after closing time. Shambolic , disorganised, but UTTERLY GRATE! |
| Saturday 128 October | University of Sheffield Students' Union, Sheffield With some of us feeling RATHER worse the wear after our night out in Cleator Moor this was an bit of a scary experience, as there was proper ROAD CREW carrying things around for us, but after a few te chnical HITCHES we were soon demonstrating our OBVIOUS suitability for The Big Stage. There was a sm oke machine, AND video screens! |
| Thursday 30 November | Jamm, London A short set at Vic Lambrusco's Cabaret Hour supporting Simon Donald (from Viz!), where I did My Boss Was In An Indie Band O nce for the first time. |
| Thursday 7 December | The Living Room, Cambridge A fantastic night at The Living Room Christmas gig - my set was riddled with INCIDENT and LARKS (inc luding DENYING Father Christmas), Edwina Hayes and Moe Foe were all very good, and things got so KER -RAZY I ended up ripping my trousers! OH YEAH! |
| Saturday 9 December | Woodhouse Eaves Village Hall, Leicester The Validators Christmas Party! We set the PA up so it sounded good to US, tho not neccesarily for e veryone else, but apart from that a terrific night which ended up with a LOT of Nutty Dancing. |
| Wednesday 13 December | The Rose Of England, Nottingham A high speed set at Tasty Fanzine's Christmas Gig, with Horowitz, Orchards and Mr Pete Green. We end ed up going on rather late, HENCE the high speed, but it was MOST jolly, with a LOT of dancing from the audience. |
| Thursday 14 December | Sumo, Leicester A hastily rescheduled gig (due to a Christmas Party being booked at the previous place) with low att endance but HIGH loveliness, as loads of my PALS turned up. The band before were STADIUM PROG, much chat was made up with VANS, my set was full of CHAT, there was BEER over the road afterwards, and my Personal Best for Gigs In A Year was CRUSHED. |
| Sunday 17 December | The Good Ship, London Sorted Records all-dayer with Bobby McGees, Chapter24, Pacific Ocean Fire, Former Utopia, Lazarus Cl amp, and The Dirty Backbeats, all of whom were REALLY good, in SLIGHT contrast to Leicester Bands Al l Dayers of the past. Team Cleator Moor reunited, tho WISELY this time we drank somewhat less BOOZE. |
| Friday 29 December | The Union Tavern, London GIG 50! A lovely evening topping off a fantastic year in ROCK, with sets from Dr Neil Brown and Mr P hil Wilson, plus loads of pals and an early start which meant and early END and thus PLENTY of time for beery chat. HOORAH for GIGS! |
An Artists Against Success PresentationMaintained by MJ Hibbett & The Validators