For the first time ever,

I've been on the guest list for a gig. And I'm not talking about a Tiny Monkey one either.

Ash used to work with a guy called Scott in the kitchen at Assembly. "You should meet him; he's a bassist too," she said one day.
"Really? What's his band called?"
"The Bluetones, I think. Is that a band? The Bluetones?"
"Bloody hell. He's a real bassist."

And so it came to pass that we swanned into the Liquid Room with Ashley's friend Giancarlo in tow and barged to the front with our pints, in time for Neat People, the support band. They were serviceably good, if a little reliant on marginally twee Beach Boys-esque harmonising and clearly hailed from the Franz Ferdinand school of drumming.

(Incidentally, and this is really only relevant to band types, what the hell is going on with drummers at the moment? In common with Neat People, every single time we arrive at a rehearsal room, some art-rock indie type has unscrewed the smallest tom-tom and moved the other one into its place. Doug already moves glacially slowly when setting up (no offence, Doug :) and the last thing we need is some floppy-fringed, sub-FF fool messing around with the only rock drumming set-up he'd ever need if only he listened to a bit more Zep. Thank you for listening.)

The Bluetones, on the other hand, know which side their drumming bread is buttered on. Despite the fact I never followed them beyond the dying days of Brit-pop, rather a lot of people clearly have, and just about every song was sung along with by the audience. A few songs were also moshed along to by an out-of-place and alarming ned contingent, who spent the evening shouting "Slight Return! Slight Return!" I can only assume that these are the people keeping Oasis' record sales alive.

They did play Slight Return. And, in a stroke of genius, Push The Button. It was only kept from being an excellent gig by the fact that the bar closed at 10 pm or so.

Somehow we ended up backstage ('backstage' at the Liquid Room being more or less a shed) and were furnished with some beer while other more important people talked to the band. I tried to be impressed, but it was a shed. We met up with Scott again later in the Wash and I bought him a drink in return, thinking that on balance, I perhaps got the better deal from the evening.

An excellent night all round, really! Although there's no real comparison to be made, I was reminded how good TM's previous gigs were to play (if not to attend!) and I'm getting all in a lather about the next one. Forward the Monkey!

In other news, the flat's heating is on the fritz and I've been wearing hiking socks for the past two days. More on that later, given that it's high time I went back to the (freezing, sub-zero) flat.