I know I've said this before, but - I went to see a bluetones gig last night in Bristol, and once again, they were fantastic! If anyone knows the Carling Acadamy, it wasn't downstairs in the main bit, it was upstairs in the small bar, on a small stage. It felt very intimate and I really enjoyed it!

Go and see them!

I saw the IndigO2 gig on Saturday, and they were great as always. Also the set list was near perfect, with some of the songs I've wanted to hear live for ages finally getting an airing e.g. "Last of the Great Navigators" and "Putting Out Fires".

Also really enjoyed the support band Amsterdam. I would've bought their album on the way out, but there was a queue to get copies signed, and I was keen to beat the rush of Girls Aloud fans (who played the main O2 arena the same evening) to the tube...

Yeah, putting out fires was great, I did a shout out for Hope and Jump, he said possibly, but they didn't play it

I met a bloke who was obviously a big a 'tones fan as I am a Kula fan. We were having an unoficial "who knows most about britpop" match, his knowledge of pulp beat mine. But he called Crispian a nazi....shows how much he knows!

Don't worry dude - I'd pwn all over him when it comes to Pulp. That's my bag baby!

Cheers Beth!

I LOVE the Bluetones - last saw them in January, why are they not playing north of the border on this little tour??? Talking of Girls Aloud, did they play Call the Shots again? That was excellent! Mark has recorded it as B side for his new solo single. Got the solo album today, it's really good. He's playing a few gigs in June, but as usual, I'll be in Spain so will miss it

I'm jealous. Would love to see them as well!

quote:

Originally posted by Moriarty:
Talking of Girls Aloud, did they play Call the Shots again? That was excellent! Mark has recorded it as B side for his new solo single.

Nope, they didn't do the Girls Aloud cover, although I half expected them to given that Girls Aloud were playing a few hundred yards away at the same time (maybe the rest of the band consider it a Mark solo thing and didn't want to do it?) Mark did make some comment at the start though along the lines of "We're the Bluetones! If you're here for Girls Aloud then you've come to the wrong place. Although we will try and fit in as many costume changes as we can for you"...

Actually I did make a video of him doing that cover when he supported Dodgy earlier in the year. I didn't upload it to youtube though, cos I didn't think it sounded that good when he did it. It's a pretty repetitive song when reduced to nothing but acoustic guitar.

quote:

Got the solo album today, it's really good. He's playing a few gigs in June, but as usual, I'll be in Spain so will miss it

Yay, didn't know the solo album was out already. I should definitely buy it since I like the songs I've heard so far (especially the remake of "Lemon and Lime".) Will try and catch a June gig too if there's one near me. I really wanted to see him at The Scala (I have happy memories of seeing KS at that venue last year) but unfortunately I was in Brussels at the time.

I'm off to see Mark Morriss tomorrow night at Oran Mor Looking forward to hearing his solo stuff live, I am really liking his album.
And I read the other day that the Bluetones will be touring Expecting to Fly later this year, however no Scottish date I hope that they do play up here, or I may cry. And I'm not kidding.

quote:

Originally posted by Moriarty:
And I read the other day that the Bluetones will be touring Expecting to Fly later this year,

I saw the "Expecting To Fly" gig at The Astoria on Friday: it was great. It was obviously being professionally filmed, so at least you'll be able to get it on DVD eventually (I assume.) In the meantime you can watch my crappy videos if you want:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=huQ6XROXcZk - A Parting Gesture

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BHI7PlA5k1M - Expecting To Fly

(the latter was part of the encore where they played B-sides and other stuff associated with the album.)

quote:

however no Scottish date I hope that they do play up here, or I may cry. And I'm not kidding.

That sucks, but MM is playing some solo gigs over Xmas in Scotland, including Glasgow on New Year's Eve, which should be an experience...

Aaargh! No way! I've got to investigate this. I know that they are playing up here in March, and we're hoping it is the Expecting To Fly tour 2nd leg, so fingers crossed! You may have just made Hogmanay for me!

quote:

Originally posted by Moriarty:
Aaargh! No way! I've got to investigate this.

The dates are:

30 Dec 2008 20:00
Behind The Wall Falkirk

31 Dec 2008 20:00
Cosmopol Glasgow

30 Jan 2009 20:00
Crown Cafe Bar Dunoon, Argyll

31 Jan 2009 20:00
Flanigan’s Bar Elgin, Moray

quote:

I know that they are playing up here in March, and we're hoping it is the Expecting To Fly tour 2nd leg, so fingers crossed! You may have just made Hogmanay for me!

Glad to be of service As for the March gigs, I don't know if they're going to be "Expecting To Fly" Pt. 2. At one point on Friday Mark announced that they'd be doing some more "classic album" gigs next year, only next time around the album was going to be "Dark Side of the Moon". I think it's fair to say he was probably joking. But then later on he implied that the tour next year would be to promote a forthcoming new album. So who knows...

More Bristol gigs please!

When I saw them a little while ago (beginning of this thread) he did say they will "have new material next time, imagine that, us with new songs!"

I'm really glad they keep going regardless, hope Kula do too!

I hope that Kula keep on going aswell but now that Crispian has a bairn to look after and given the fact that he's the wrong side of 30 and the bands past splitting up situations Im not very confident that they will do any more work together, possibly release another album and finish at that but there has'nt been much info posted about that so i reckons they've called it a day. Also Crispian is probabily loaded already anyway so unless he really loves performing to an audience that is alot less than he and the band deserve then why would he carry on?

quote:

Originally posted by Geordie Sharp:
I hope that Kula keep on going aswell but now that Crispian has a bairn to look after and given the fact that he's the wrong side of 30 and the bands past splitting up situations Im not very confident that they will do any more work together

Well I don't know what comes next either, but I'm not as pessimistic as you are. The difference I think between now and 1999 is they were signed to a major label and there was a lot of pressure on them, especially given how successful their debut album had been. I think those kind of situations can break up any band.

But now it seems to me that the pressure is off them. No-one is expecting anything they do now to sell millions of records. So maybe they finally have the luxury of being able to do what they want at the pace they want to do it. Which is bad news in the short term for those of us keen to hear new stuff, but maybe good news in the long run since it means they're likely to stay around longer. That's how I see it anyway.

Or maybe they've already split up and are too lazy to tell us :P But I hope not