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bulldog3d@hotmail.com
Los Vikingos De Gira. Madrid July 14th & 15th 2006.
Los Vikingos De Gira. Madrid. July 14th & 15th 2006.
After all the carry on with the Liverpool Summer Pops gig, it’s fair to say that everyone was looking forward to a far more relaxed affair in sunny Spain. Baldrick picked me up to take me to Luton airport shortly after two on the Thursday and to be fair to Darren, he drove like a mad man to make sure we got to the airport in plenty of time for a nice cold lager before the flight, we met up with Nick King and waited patiently for Al and Mark to arrive. Mark is always late. Al arrived just after our first beer and decided to get another in. Bit of a mistake that was, anyway Mark arrived right at the last minute as we said our cheerio’s to Baldrick and headed for the flight. I was dying for a piss as we passed through to the boarding gate, unfortunately we had to wait for what seemed like an age in the swealtering heat, Al was even more miffed cos there were a few lads in Watford tops or “Scummers” as he calls them. After getting on the plane I waited patiently for the fooker to take off so I could head to the bog, I was not having much luck as I had to wait a good half an hour, by the time I got to the bog I was in there for a good five minutes. We have moments like this loads when we travel from Corby upto Glasgow for Celtic games, you don’t want to be a Jessie yersel, so you always wait for someone else to ask the driver to stop! Anyways another few beers were had on the plane and we were there in no time.
We touched down (after a few more beers) in Madrid shortly after 9pm local time and headed straight for a taxi to our hotel. Jarvo had already been in contact with the Pompey Order and Stash, Stash had done his usual and headed off to find a local Irish bar, top lad. Whilst Gary, Gordy and Dave Legge settled in their hotel bar waiting for us to join them, which we duly did, after dropping our stuff at our hotel a short 5 minute walk away at the other end of the road. We had a couple of beers in this hotel bar and decided to go meet up with Greg, Ness, Alex, John, Christine, Margaret, Pedro (A Catalonian living in, working in and hating Madrid, top lad though) and Norbert of the German Order. Nice enough wee Irish joint as we sank another couple of beers and were joined by Dave and two girls he was with (Mandy & ?????) and talked gigs and footy, at this point we had only just found out about the Italian fixing scam. So talk was on Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio being dumped into Serie B and Milan staying up but ducked 15 points next year and losing their Champions League spot! Cannae remember who had enough of the Irish Bar, but it was decided to head somewhere else, we ended up 15 yeards away in the next pub up the road where another few lagers were sunk. Dave told a few of us off for correctly pronouncing his name Hibell, he insists it’s always been pronounced Highbell, ultimately leading to a few of us arguing, as is the norm when Dave starts. I think we got back to our hotel about 3ish and settled for a night of me listening to Al and Mark try to outdo each other’s snoring!
We arose too late for breakfast, again, the norm for us lot as we sent a few texts out and decided to head into town to meet up with some of the others to decide on the day’s plans. Alex and Colin I think headed to a museum as we headed off to get something to eat, by which time we were joined by Mr & Mrs Milky, they knew where they were going as we headed to a nice wee Spanish eaterie with dodgy lighting and waiters that looked like they wanted to gob in yer grub cos you didnae speak the lingo (we upset him by asking for a menu in English) I chose well with a gorgeous bit of Pork tosted with Paprika and Cheese. Needless to say we had a couple of beers, though the San Miguel was not to my liking. We headed off a bit later to Saint Anna Square where the others were gonna converge upon as well, it was fookin roasting so a few of us decided to take the safe option of having a few coke’s before heading on to anymore beer. The Milky’s informed us it was 30% more expensive to order beers whilst sat outside these establishments, so we took the cheaper (and cooler) option of sitting just inside the gaff. Nick King smokes more than I do, which feckin amazed me, and as we were sat outside we looked 30 yards down the hill and noticed loads of the other Vikings sat oustside ordering their beers. So we shouted down and waved and were joined shortly after by Gary, Gordy, Greg, Ness, Alex, Dave Legge, John, Christine, Jeanette, Margaret and Colin. After several more beers sat out in the sun, discussing the wankers amongst the security and police of the Liverpool gig the week before, everyone decided more food was needed. It was about this time several of us gave up on the Coke and started on the “Tostado’s” a type of Spanish home brew which had a weird colouring to it, but to be fair it didnae taste too bad. We were also joined by Mike Garrity and Ren around this time, both of whom came in their usual garb of Hawaiin t-shirts and shorts! Food was now needed, now, I am not being funny, but I think I can safely say there’s not one place in Corby that serves such delicacies as Octopus and Squid!!! This is what Al, Mark and Gary ordered, obviously, being just about game for anything I decided to have a go. I am a dick. As I placed the Octopus thing in me mouth the smell hit me, trying to bite into it, my stomach immediately told me to gob it out, much to the amusement of the others sat around the several tables. As I looked at the other plate, I thought, them onion rings look a bit tasty, it was then I was reliably informed that it wasnae onion rings, but in fact Squid. Again I thought why not, as I bit into this it was a wee bit chewy and again the taste is hard to describe “fucking minging” was the term I used as the Squid joined the Octopus on the floor. I settled for a bite out of one of the Spicy Potatoes they serve over there, which was by far the lesser of three evils, though hot spices and me don’t mix either so I had one of these and gave up and ate feck all. The funniest story of the day belonged to Gary, he told all of us that whilst they were all at their hotel getting their breakfast, Alex was moaning left, right and centre about not having any butter, so Alex turns to Gary for the Spanish for butter. After several shouts Alex grabs the waiter and says “Amigo – Preservatives!” The waiter took one look at Alex and walked away trying not to piss himself. The reason being that in Spain the word “Preservatives” means condoms, classic! Alex seeing the funny side actually applauded Gary.
For one reason or another we all headed down to the gig early, I think it was 7 when we left to get taxi’s, we had a right carry on, cos the first two or three taxi’s we jumped into refused to take us down to the gig. Luckily we had Gary in our taxi, and that lad knows a good bit of the lingo! We ended up walking towards the centre as we spotted a copper and decided to ask him to sort us out (well, Gary and Mrs Milky asked, we just stood and watched) after a few minutes of haggling and the policeman grabbing us a couple of taxi’s we were on our way. Gary made the remark that the Police in Spain were far different to those in the UK, which was hard to argue with really. Everyone was now in good spirits, both with the alcohol consumed and the fact we were on our way to see New Order. As we got to the site it wasnae looking to shit hot as Alex phoned Al and mentioned there may be a problem with our passes, luckily for us, Alex had sorted this by the time we got down to meet him as we were all given the orange summercase wristbands. I had made my first guestlist and was more than a wee bit feckin happy about it!!! We waited for the other taxi loads to arrive and then headed into the site, I have to say it was not the greatest as the floor was just a dust-bowl (as Al had predicted) not only that, but it was another of these fookin events where you have to queue up twice for a drink, once for tokens and again for the drink itself, we also met up with Norbert from the German Order. So after we all grabbed some refreshments we headed to the VIP area, unfortunately it was a case of “yer name’s not down yer not coming in” but not to be deterred, Alex, Colin and Mr & Mrs Milky done the sneaky whilst the security was destracted and lasted a good half an hour or more until the Security clicked that they didnae have Blue wristbands. We actually caught two of the bands on before New Order, first up were the Dandy Warhols, gotta say they didnae impress me, just noise to me. Then it was Starsailor’s turn, of all the Vikings I was stood with, I was the only one who really enjoyed their set. It was a bit of a strange venue, as soon as one band finished the crowd would disperse and disappear elsewhere, whereas at festivals in the UK, most people tend to stay at the same stage, meaning it’s a right cunt to barge yer way to the front when the Order come on. As soon as Starsailor finished (and we grabbed another couple of beers) we walked right to the front of the stage without any problem whatsoever, that I did enjoy! I noticed a lad staring over at us and a little later he came over to say hello, obviously hearing our accents, he was a top lad called Andy (we think) from Hull who had travelled over on his lonesome and had been following New Order since 1982. We started early with the chants and we even gave a chant to Roger Lyons, who waved over and later gave us the two fingers when a chant of “Get yer hair cut” went up. Before we knew it the band had taken to the stage, by now the crowd had swelled to a good few thousand and we could tell it would be a good gig with the swarms of people who tried shoving their way to the front. The gig hadnae started and there was already a bit of a scrummage.
It was back to the ‘normal’ start with Crystal and Regret getting things going, even though it was mayhem it wasnae a big a crush as Barcelona last year, nevertheless, according to the Vikings who did other European dates last year this was still a helluva lot better than any of them. Most of my first pint ended up over some Spanish lad in front of me who then proceeded to lick the beer off his arm, the atmosphere was great and everywhere you looked there was one of us lot, just total joy across everyone’s faces, Barney mentioned something like “We can tell this is gonna be a good gig.” Next up was Ceremony, and if things were a bit mental after the first two tracks it was gonna get worse now, we were also treated to one of those memorable moments at a New Order gig, in the past we’ve had the fcuk up to Guilty Partner in 98 and the sound going during True Faith at T in the Park last year with the crowd singing along acapella with Barney, this time it was Steve Morris’ drums or the sequencer that failed and we had a fcuked up intro to Ceremony for the first time ever? Ceremony is Al’s favourite and he takes great relish into shoving people right into the thick of it at the best of times, but more so during this track, poor Mike Garrity was the first recipient, but he couldn’t have cared less, I can remember the look on several of the crowds faces as Al started this, basically shock! Anyways, Mike was dressed in his daft Hawaiian t-shirt and shorts and also a daft hat that he uses to record the gigs but as I say he was loving the madness of a concert abroad. It was around this time Hibster appeared on the scene, he missed out on a photo pass for the gig, so he had to slum it with us lot. 24 Hours was fookin amazing, I thought it was somewhat lacklustre at Liverpool, maybe it was the atmosphere at that gig, but from memories of Madrid, the band were really tight during almost all of the set, Hooky revelling in the shouts and adoration and storming from one side of the stage to the other. Working Overtime was met with huge roars from the crowd and it may have been this song where Gordy got semi naked and bumped into several of us and Gary and JG did the sensible thing and removed their glasses for the set as well. Many of the crowd were probably hearing Working Overtime for the first time, which would explain their (over)enthusiasm. Transmission blew WO away by a mile as the band stepped it up a gear and Phil clearly relishes the Joy Division songs, a few of us were taking a bit of a battering around this stage, not only with the crowd but with the heat as well and to confound matters I had just scoffed the last of the other pint I had. Your Silent Face was announced as “We’re gonna do an old song now, something from Low-Life” for a second or two I thought Sunrise was coming back into the set for the first time in nearly 20 years, but I should have known better! I always like a slower tempo song about this time anyway as it gives me a chance for a customary cigarette. WFTSC and Turn followed this and although they are classic songs, they just don’t go too well with each other in this order in the set list, I also have to mention that there was a right tasty blonde bird that several of the Vikings spotted and also Bobby Gillespie was at the side of the stage, which was quite amusing as Primal Scream were supposed to be on a stage around the corner at the same time New Order were playing, fair play and maybe this explains why Bobby was attacked in a bar later that night, some fan probably pissed off he had to wait an hour for their gig!
As normal we’re back to the Holy Trinity of Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith & Temptation. BLT batters the life out of everyone and Barney treats us to the sign language along with True Faith as he sings along, much to the amusement of all of us lot down the front. Temptation had everyone singing along again and people in the crowd trying to find room to dance, then they left stage, but it has to be the shortest stage exit and return for an encore, I think it lasted about a minute before they were back out, something to do with time running out. The Perfect Kiss started and again, the stunned look on the locals faces was amazing, they couldn’t believe this was being played again, I have some cracking memories of this wee rotund Spanish fella jumping up and down with us like a mad eedjit and singing even worse than mine. Blue Monday closed the set which is Mike Garrity’s favourite song. What a night, the crowd couldn’t be faulted for their efforts and all the Vikings had a cracking time, the crowd dispersed and I was left standing with Greg, Ness, Wolfram and Dave Legge, I think the rest of them headed off to the mixing desk to try and grab the set-lists. After a few minutes Andy Robinson appeared and was talking away with Steve (Wolfram) as we went over, I said hello and got an “Alright Shug” which I was chuffed with cos I’ve only met Andy a few times, and if it wasnae for him and Alex I wouldnae have been on the guestlist for both the Spanish dates! We decided to get home as soon as possible and headed for the exits, apparently no-one wanted to stay for Keane. It was disorganised chaos as the venue was in the middle of an “egg and chips estate” that was Gary’s quote for the evening – “Milton Keynes of Spain” was the other. Basically in the middle of nowhere and we walked for what seemed like an age and waited even longer for the bus which took us home, we soon met up with the rest of the others though and enjoyed plenty of banter with everyone agreeing that the gig was a corker.
I think we got back about 2.30 in the morning and most of us headed for something to eat, but no-one could decide on anything and I ended up with a Beef sarnie which was minging, thankfully I was too drunk to notice the inevitable snoring of Al and Mark though and we were all dreading the early rise to Barcelona as we were up at 7.30!
After all the carry on with the Liverpool Summer Pops gig, it’s fair to say that everyone was looking forward to a far more relaxed affair in sunny Spain. Baldrick picked me up to take me to Luton airport shortly after two on the Thursday and to be fair to Darren, he drove like a mad man to make sure we got to the airport in plenty of time for a nice cold lager before the flight, we met up with Nick King and waited patiently for Al and Mark to arrive. Mark is always late. Al arrived just after our first beer and decided to get another in. Bit of a mistake that was, anyway Mark arrived right at the last minute as we said our cheerio’s to Baldrick and headed for the flight. I was dying for a piss as we passed through to the boarding gate, unfortunately we had to wait for what seemed like an age in the swealtering heat, Al was even more miffed cos there were a few lads in Watford tops or “Scummers” as he calls them. After getting on the plane I waited patiently for the fooker to take off so I could head to the bog, I was not having much luck as I had to wait a good half an hour, by the time I got to the bog I was in there for a good five minutes. We have moments like this loads when we travel from Corby upto Glasgow for Celtic games, you don’t want to be a Jessie yersel, so you always wait for someone else to ask the driver to stop! Anyways another few beers were had on the plane and we were there in no time.
We touched down (after a few more beers) in Madrid shortly after 9pm local time and headed straight for a taxi to our hotel. Jarvo had already been in contact with the Pompey Order and Stash, Stash had done his usual and headed off to find a local Irish bar, top lad. Whilst Gary, Gordy and Dave Legge settled in their hotel bar waiting for us to join them, which we duly did, after dropping our stuff at our hotel a short 5 minute walk away at the other end of the road. We had a couple of beers in this hotel bar and decided to go meet up with Greg, Ness, Alex, John, Christine, Margaret, Pedro (A Catalonian living in, working in and hating Madrid, top lad though) and Norbert of the German Order. Nice enough wee Irish joint as we sank another couple of beers and were joined by Dave and two girls he was with (Mandy & ?????) and talked gigs and footy, at this point we had only just found out about the Italian fixing scam. So talk was on Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio being dumped into Serie B and Milan staying up but ducked 15 points next year and losing their Champions League spot! Cannae remember who had enough of the Irish Bar, but it was decided to head somewhere else, we ended up 15 yeards away in the next pub up the road where another few lagers were sunk. Dave told a few of us off for correctly pronouncing his name Hibell, he insists it’s always been pronounced Highbell, ultimately leading to a few of us arguing, as is the norm when Dave starts. I think we got back to our hotel about 3ish and settled for a night of me listening to Al and Mark try to outdo each other’s snoring!
We arose too late for breakfast, again, the norm for us lot as we sent a few texts out and decided to head into town to meet up with some of the others to decide on the day’s plans. Alex and Colin I think headed to a museum as we headed off to get something to eat, by which time we were joined by Mr & Mrs Milky, they knew where they were going as we headed to a nice wee Spanish eaterie with dodgy lighting and waiters that looked like they wanted to gob in yer grub cos you didnae speak the lingo (we upset him by asking for a menu in English) I chose well with a gorgeous bit of Pork tosted with Paprika and Cheese. Needless to say we had a couple of beers, though the San Miguel was not to my liking. We headed off a bit later to Saint Anna Square where the others were gonna converge upon as well, it was fookin roasting so a few of us decided to take the safe option of having a few coke’s before heading on to anymore beer. The Milky’s informed us it was 30% more expensive to order beers whilst sat outside these establishments, so we took the cheaper (and cooler) option of sitting just inside the gaff. Nick King smokes more than I do, which feckin amazed me, and as we were sat outside we looked 30 yards down the hill and noticed loads of the other Vikings sat oustside ordering their beers. So we shouted down and waved and were joined shortly after by Gary, Gordy, Greg, Ness, Alex, Dave Legge, John, Christine, Jeanette, Margaret and Colin. After several more beers sat out in the sun, discussing the wankers amongst the security and police of the Liverpool gig the week before, everyone decided more food was needed. It was about this time several of us gave up on the Coke and started on the “Tostado’s” a type of Spanish home brew which had a weird colouring to it, but to be fair it didnae taste too bad. We were also joined by Mike Garrity and Ren around this time, both of whom came in their usual garb of Hawaiin t-shirts and shorts! Food was now needed, now, I am not being funny, but I think I can safely say there’s not one place in Corby that serves such delicacies as Octopus and Squid!!! This is what Al, Mark and Gary ordered, obviously, being just about game for anything I decided to have a go. I am a dick. As I placed the Octopus thing in me mouth the smell hit me, trying to bite into it, my stomach immediately told me to gob it out, much to the amusement of the others sat around the several tables. As I looked at the other plate, I thought, them onion rings look a bit tasty, it was then I was reliably informed that it wasnae onion rings, but in fact Squid. Again I thought why not, as I bit into this it was a wee bit chewy and again the taste is hard to describe “fucking minging” was the term I used as the Squid joined the Octopus on the floor. I settled for a bite out of one of the Spicy Potatoes they serve over there, which was by far the lesser of three evils, though hot spices and me don’t mix either so I had one of these and gave up and ate feck all. The funniest story of the day belonged to Gary, he told all of us that whilst they were all at their hotel getting their breakfast, Alex was moaning left, right and centre about not having any butter, so Alex turns to Gary for the Spanish for butter. After several shouts Alex grabs the waiter and says “Amigo – Preservatives!” The waiter took one look at Alex and walked away trying not to piss himself. The reason being that in Spain the word “Preservatives” means condoms, classic! Alex seeing the funny side actually applauded Gary.
For one reason or another we all headed down to the gig early, I think it was 7 when we left to get taxi’s, we had a right carry on, cos the first two or three taxi’s we jumped into refused to take us down to the gig. Luckily we had Gary in our taxi, and that lad knows a good bit of the lingo! We ended up walking towards the centre as we spotted a copper and decided to ask him to sort us out (well, Gary and Mrs Milky asked, we just stood and watched) after a few minutes of haggling and the policeman grabbing us a couple of taxi’s we were on our way. Gary made the remark that the Police in Spain were far different to those in the UK, which was hard to argue with really. Everyone was now in good spirits, both with the alcohol consumed and the fact we were on our way to see New Order. As we got to the site it wasnae looking to shit hot as Alex phoned Al and mentioned there may be a problem with our passes, luckily for us, Alex had sorted this by the time we got down to meet him as we were all given the orange summercase wristbands. I had made my first guestlist and was more than a wee bit feckin happy about it!!! We waited for the other taxi loads to arrive and then headed into the site, I have to say it was not the greatest as the floor was just a dust-bowl (as Al had predicted) not only that, but it was another of these fookin events where you have to queue up twice for a drink, once for tokens and again for the drink itself, we also met up with Norbert from the German Order. So after we all grabbed some refreshments we headed to the VIP area, unfortunately it was a case of “yer name’s not down yer not coming in” but not to be deterred, Alex, Colin and Mr & Mrs Milky done the sneaky whilst the security was destracted and lasted a good half an hour or more until the Security clicked that they didnae have Blue wristbands. We actually caught two of the bands on before New Order, first up were the Dandy Warhols, gotta say they didnae impress me, just noise to me. Then it was Starsailor’s turn, of all the Vikings I was stood with, I was the only one who really enjoyed their set. It was a bit of a strange venue, as soon as one band finished the crowd would disperse and disappear elsewhere, whereas at festivals in the UK, most people tend to stay at the same stage, meaning it’s a right cunt to barge yer way to the front when the Order come on. As soon as Starsailor finished (and we grabbed another couple of beers) we walked right to the front of the stage without any problem whatsoever, that I did enjoy! I noticed a lad staring over at us and a little later he came over to say hello, obviously hearing our accents, he was a top lad called Andy (we think) from Hull who had travelled over on his lonesome and had been following New Order since 1982. We started early with the chants and we even gave a chant to Roger Lyons, who waved over and later gave us the two fingers when a chant of “Get yer hair cut” went up. Before we knew it the band had taken to the stage, by now the crowd had swelled to a good few thousand and we could tell it would be a good gig with the swarms of people who tried shoving their way to the front. The gig hadnae started and there was already a bit of a scrummage.
It was back to the ‘normal’ start with Crystal and Regret getting things going, even though it was mayhem it wasnae a big a crush as Barcelona last year, nevertheless, according to the Vikings who did other European dates last year this was still a helluva lot better than any of them. Most of my first pint ended up over some Spanish lad in front of me who then proceeded to lick the beer off his arm, the atmosphere was great and everywhere you looked there was one of us lot, just total joy across everyone’s faces, Barney mentioned something like “We can tell this is gonna be a good gig.” Next up was Ceremony, and if things were a bit mental after the first two tracks it was gonna get worse now, we were also treated to one of those memorable moments at a New Order gig, in the past we’ve had the fcuk up to Guilty Partner in 98 and the sound going during True Faith at T in the Park last year with the crowd singing along acapella with Barney, this time it was Steve Morris’ drums or the sequencer that failed and we had a fcuked up intro to Ceremony for the first time ever? Ceremony is Al’s favourite and he takes great relish into shoving people right into the thick of it at the best of times, but more so during this track, poor Mike Garrity was the first recipient, but he couldn’t have cared less, I can remember the look on several of the crowds faces as Al started this, basically shock! Anyways, Mike was dressed in his daft Hawaiian t-shirt and shorts and also a daft hat that he uses to record the gigs but as I say he was loving the madness of a concert abroad. It was around this time Hibster appeared on the scene, he missed out on a photo pass for the gig, so he had to slum it with us lot. 24 Hours was fookin amazing, I thought it was somewhat lacklustre at Liverpool, maybe it was the atmosphere at that gig, but from memories of Madrid, the band were really tight during almost all of the set, Hooky revelling in the shouts and adoration and storming from one side of the stage to the other. Working Overtime was met with huge roars from the crowd and it may have been this song where Gordy got semi naked and bumped into several of us and Gary and JG did the sensible thing and removed their glasses for the set as well. Many of the crowd were probably hearing Working Overtime for the first time, which would explain their (over)enthusiasm. Transmission blew WO away by a mile as the band stepped it up a gear and Phil clearly relishes the Joy Division songs, a few of us were taking a bit of a battering around this stage, not only with the crowd but with the heat as well and to confound matters I had just scoffed the last of the other pint I had. Your Silent Face was announced as “We’re gonna do an old song now, something from Low-Life” for a second or two I thought Sunrise was coming back into the set for the first time in nearly 20 years, but I should have known better! I always like a slower tempo song about this time anyway as it gives me a chance for a customary cigarette. WFTSC and Turn followed this and although they are classic songs, they just don’t go too well with each other in this order in the set list, I also have to mention that there was a right tasty blonde bird that several of the Vikings spotted and also Bobby Gillespie was at the side of the stage, which was quite amusing as Primal Scream were supposed to be on a stage around the corner at the same time New Order were playing, fair play and maybe this explains why Bobby was attacked in a bar later that night, some fan probably pissed off he had to wait an hour for their gig!
As normal we’re back to the Holy Trinity of Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith & Temptation. BLT batters the life out of everyone and Barney treats us to the sign language along with True Faith as he sings along, much to the amusement of all of us lot down the front. Temptation had everyone singing along again and people in the crowd trying to find room to dance, then they left stage, but it has to be the shortest stage exit and return for an encore, I think it lasted about a minute before they were back out, something to do with time running out. The Perfect Kiss started and again, the stunned look on the locals faces was amazing, they couldn’t believe this was being played again, I have some cracking memories of this wee rotund Spanish fella jumping up and down with us like a mad eedjit and singing even worse than mine. Blue Monday closed the set which is Mike Garrity’s favourite song. What a night, the crowd couldn’t be faulted for their efforts and all the Vikings had a cracking time, the crowd dispersed and I was left standing with Greg, Ness, Wolfram and Dave Legge, I think the rest of them headed off to the mixing desk to try and grab the set-lists. After a few minutes Andy Robinson appeared and was talking away with Steve (Wolfram) as we went over, I said hello and got an “Alright Shug” which I was chuffed with cos I’ve only met Andy a few times, and if it wasnae for him and Alex I wouldnae have been on the guestlist for both the Spanish dates! We decided to get home as soon as possible and headed for the exits, apparently no-one wanted to stay for Keane. It was disorganised chaos as the venue was in the middle of an “egg and chips estate” that was Gary’s quote for the evening – “Milton Keynes of Spain” was the other. Basically in the middle of nowhere and we walked for what seemed like an age and waited even longer for the bus which took us home, we soon met up with the rest of the others though and enjoyed plenty of banter with everyone agreeing that the gig was a corker.
I think we got back about 2.30 in the morning and most of us headed for something to eat, but no-one could decide on anything and I ended up with a Beef sarnie which was minging, thankfully I was too drunk to notice the inevitable snoring of Al and Mark though and we were all dreading the early rise to Barcelona as we were up at 7.30!