You Always Remember The First Time

I'm supposed to be in Grantham for 8.30 to reccie my first course at the dog show there but I'm not due to run the course until around 11.30. So rather than hang around in the rain for three hours, I opt for lie-in instead. I'll just turn up late and wing-and-a-prayer it.

So after a lie-in, and the vitally important sex, Doggo and I trawl over to Grantham. Only to get there and find it's been cancelled. Waterlogged pitch. Apparently it was cancelled late last night. Damn, should have checked on internet before I left. My parents, now hardened dog show groupies, turn up too. Spot of rain doesn't put them off. We have a coffee in the car then we drive back home.

As Doggo has now missed out on his exercise, I take him on the park in the rain. We have plans that don't include him tonight.

Then I get the bonus of being able to watch the Tour de France mountain stage live.

L serves up a carbo-loading Weigh Watchers curry for tea. I have the Hathersage event tomorrow. She makes the curry mild; I don't want to spend all my pre-race prep time in the little boy's room.

In the evening we head of to Rock City to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Daughter joins us, she is now allowed in because she is fourteen. I'm not sure if this is a momentous moment for L or not, being there when her Daughter loses her concert virginity at Rock City. Of course she been to concerts before but this is a real venue complete with all the weirdo's you'll ever wish to meet and many that you didn't. However one of the most striking things tonight about the place is the lack of smoke. I never thought they'd get the smoking ban to stick in places like this but there are no dissenters tonight.

Black Rebel are a no-frills three-piece rock band, and a bit of an acquired taste. As Daughter isn't really familiar with their music, I wouldn't say this was a good choice for her first time but then again do we ever get to really choose our first time? It is though a typical Rock City gig. Take the support band for instance - The Black Angels. Also from the US they claim to be inspired by The Velvet Underground which I can see but to me they remind me of some of the darker bands of the 1980's Goth era. They're quite good in a dark and brooding sort of way, jolly they're certainly not. There slogan is 'The Black Angels are marching forward into battle for your souls'. Quite.

Black Rebel themselves are late taking the stage which means it could be a short show, as Saturday is a club night and they're supposed to be off stage for 10.15.

Rock experience wise, it starts well, Robert Turner is in the crowd before the first song 'Took Out A Loan' is even half way through. When he isn't strutting around the stage or jumping into the crowd he often puts his hood up, like a sulky teenager. Before he goes down on his knees with his guitar and tries to stoke up the feedback, with seemingly little success. I think the sound engineer won that particular battle. Little did I know at the time but the gig nearly didn’t happen. Last nights show in Bristol was cancelled because Turner had a throat infection. So I suppose he deserves extra credit for the tracks he took vocals on.



A lot of the set is taken from their new album 'Baby 81', although the band regularly dip back into their earlier albums and even pull songs from their country detour 'Howl'.

As they mix their old and new, it occurs to me that they are even a bit like Daughter, or perhaps like any woman, in that they have a penchant for dramatic mood swings. E.g. here's a song to jump around to (e.g. 'What Ever Happened'), here's a folk song to make you cry (anything from 'Howl'), here's a moody one to have sex to (e.g. the long brooding 'American X').



Towards the end most of the band go off stage leaving lead guitarist and singer Peter Hayes on his own. With his guitar and his harmonica he delivers a couple more songs from 'Howl'. The rest of the band return to play two requests. The crowd shout, predictably, for 'Spread Your Love' and 'Six Barrel Shotgun'. Although not necessarily my choices, they go down well, particularly with the crowd surfers who seem to have turned up late. My favourite 'Stop' goes unplayed.



They play one more, 'All You Do Is Talk' from the current album. Then they are gone, although I think they would have happily played on if there hadn't been the club night induced curfew.

A good performance, although not as good as when I've seen them before. I thought it was all a bit disjointed, perhaps trying to hard to knit their differing material together.

As for Daughter, I think she enjoyed it. It was certainly an experience and you do always remember the first time.

Maximum Velocity

Tempted by L but I am strong. I am already later than I intended and I really do need to bike today. I ride in through Sandiacre weaving through all the traffic.

L is struggling with her injury again and says she hobbled in to work. In order to get her through Sunday’s event she resorting to drugs, her GP's receptionist thinks she can her some more of the drugs she had before, without her having to be seen. Shouldn’t be a problem, GP’s don’t really like seeing patients anyway.

Ride home through Ilkeston and feel it gives my legs a good work out. Then I kick the dog around the garden for half an hour with his ball. Then I make my excuses to him and head into town to meet L. I do a Son and call in at the chip shop. I have a healthy tea of two portions of veg. - chips and baked beans.

I beat L to Cast and text her to tell her that I’ve arrived and to ask her what she wants to drink. She says she’ll have a Leffe if I am. And if I’m not having one? Then she’ll have a Leffe.

L turns up and I have two pints, a Black Sheep and a Landlord. L has two Leffes. Then we go off to Rock City. It’s Maximo Park tonight but I don’t want to be too late for the gig because I want to see some of the support band. It’s Art Brut.

Art Brut are a very odd band on record and seemingly even odder live. They make songs poking fun at people who form bands just to be cool or to get famous or simply take rock n roll too seriously. For some reason they particularly dislike the Velvet Underground. Art Brut, of course, claim they are only in it to enjoy themselves and make music.

On their album ‘Bang Bang Rock n Roll’ their front-man, a chap called Eddie Argos, sings but usually rants about other things as well, mainly his lack of success with women and when he finally does have some success, his impotence problems.



They are a band where you really need to hear what the lead singer is singing and tonight because of our position, to one side of the stage; we could only make out portions of the lyrics. It was a good spot to watch from but not so good for listening.

Tonight he seems to dispense with the singing completely and instead berates his audience like a man stoned on something. Most of the songs ended in a lot of chanting and adlibbing. Is he on something or is that just him? Argos was constantly at play with the crowd and with the songs, constantly messing with the lyrics. Which is fine if you know the songs but not so good if you don't. On "Emily Kane" he even offered an update on a meeting with Ms. Kane. Then he appended "Leaving on a Jet Plane" to "Moving to L.A."

An interesting performance but slightly disappointing too. One of their best songs was wasted when he merged "We Formed a Band" into "Bad Weekend" at the end. Then he tells the audience that they must go home and form a band. He threatens to check that they all do, he says he will come back to Nottingham and track them all down to check.

The crowd love it all. Argos has everybody in the room chanting "Art Brut, Top of the Pops", which eventually becomes "Maximo Park, Top of the Pops".

And so to Maximo Park and the all action figure that is Paul Smith.



Tonight he somersaults his way around the stage dressed as Alex from Clockwork Orange while the rest of the band seem happy to leave him to it. His actions contrast with the rock solid stance of the bass player, who looks decidedly lost. The Keyboard player is the most animated of the rest; he staggers around, seemingly having shared the shame spliff as the Mr Argos.



The guitarist turns out to be from Derby, which causes a chorus of boos.

I must admit that I have been a little disappointed with the new album. The record seems to be essentially more of the same but perhaps with a little less of the punch of their debut. It’s an album that’s perhaps more notable for its lyrical content (and possibly the oddness of them) than its tunes. So really I should love it. As Paul would say “When it comes to girls I'm mostly hypothetical, When it comes to girls I'm truly theoretical”. Whatever that means. Tonight however the new stuff really wins me over.

Opener Graffiti gets somehow lost in the commotion and the sound system but the next three tracks ‘Girls Who Play Guitars’, 'All Over The Shop' and 'Our Velocity' all sound great.

The band kick out each song the same with urgency and exuberance. Most of which are sung back with gusto by the packed and equally exuberant crowd. Every track is preceded by a long heavily accented introduction, which I rarely manage to catch much of.

‘Apply Some Pressure’ goes down an absolute storm, although it’s a bit muffled from where we are. They get a five minute long ovation for it and the band applaud the crowd back. The music seems to matter to the band and they seem surprised and extremely grateful for the way they are adored by their public.

'Gone Missing' closes an excellent set in storming style. They return to play 'Kiss You Better', 'Unshockable' and something that may have been ‘Limassol’.

No 'Acrobat', although I wasn't sure how effective that would have been live and no 'Just A Glimpse' which is a great shame.

Top band. Top gig. Even L says it was her favourite gig.

We move up to the Ropewalk where we have another Leffe with some friends who also went to the gig. This includes the friend of a friend who lost his (gig) virginity at Fratellis. It’s good to that his flirtation with the live scene wasn’t just a one-night stand and also that he’s moved on to better quality liaisons.

I talk L into another Leffe, her fourth of the night. Although it wasn’t terribly difficult. Life's a bitch for women you know. Four Leffe’s makes the night a 'binge' for L. A binge being more than seven units in a night (e.g. four Leffes). A man needs eleven units to binge (or six Leffes).

L always say that if she has more than three Leffes then she's on her back anyway. Wa-Hey. But if I have more than five she reckons she's safe from my advances. So I keep it to just the four.

To just recap, Art Brut style: We went to the show. We had a few Leffe’s. We came home from the show. We went through the front door, through the bedroom door, I had my Horlicks but I didn’t tick my box and we didn't form a band. Sorry.