Cageless..

Playlist
Various – Annual Top 10 Albums 1959-2009
Various – Prognosis 2
Shooting at Unarmed Men – Tryptich
The Pack AD – Tintype
Real Ones – Home With the Girls in the Morning
Tandy Hard – Tandy Hard
Holy Ghost revival – Twilight Exit
Kristofer Astrom – Sinkadus
Lukestar – Lake Toba
Steve Abel & the Chrysalids – Flax Happy
Darkblueworld – The Perilous Beauty of Madness
Settly – Settly
Autorotation – Everything is Everything
Meditronica – Meditronica
Dean Owens – Whiskey Hearts
The Olympic Symphonium – More in Sorrow Than in Anger
William Fitzsimmons – Goodnight

Off to Manchester today, despite the still painful arm as, Pet Shop Boys tickets plus accommodation and travel had all been bought and paid for prior to the date of the op being set...

Up early but failed to leave the house at the same time as the Exec Producer, opting instead to investigate some last minute directions re making it from the station in Manchester to the hotel...

Consequently arrived right on the button at the agreed time of 9:30 in Waverley Station to meet up with chum Chris...

We both bought sustenance and reading materials – I purchased a mag on Prog rock (£8 but it did have a “free” CD attached) plus the latest edition of Private Eye, while Chris opted for Nuts and the Daily Star – the profusion of unclad women in each later causing me some embarrassment as I leafed through them on the train...

A three and a half hour journey whizzed by – I spent most of it with the headphones in my lugs to avoid the loud mobile phone conversations of fellow passengers at the other end of our carriage and the coughing, sneezing, snorting and hacking of the two German guys who shared our four seat table...

Chris is a train fan, or rather non-steam train fan and took the opportunity, when we arrived at Manchester, to take a couple of snaps – emulating a strange man at Preston who had done the same...



With one minor unintended detour, we made good time from the station to the Central Travelodge but they wouldn’t let us check in 45 minutes early without charging us £10 for the privilege, so off we went to the nearby Slug and Lettuce and sat in the window seats with our drinks watching the natives go by...

Back to the hotel and we secured neighbouring rooms on the ground floor overlooking the river, before setting out for some shopping...

At Vinyl Exchange, I went a bit mad and ended up buying 18 CDs - including the new solo album from Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle – the rest of my haul comprising promo copies of recent or about to be released albums, each costing either 50p or £1...

Bargain...

After trawling round a few more shops and a quick sandwich from Subway, we returned to the hotel where I used my trusty CD walkman to sample some of the purchases – realising also that I’d been overcharged slightly...

No matter, that could wait for tomorrow – now it was off out for the gig – stopping at Burger King for dinner - a boat was being pushed out but it wasn't ours...

We arrived at the venue around 7:15 and joined a very long but, thankfully, fast moving queue and were soon inside, finding a spot with good vantage points for us both...

Support act Frankmusik impressed Chris but, on balance, left me a bit cold – then it was time for me to stress out as the area filled up with more and more people, increasing the chances that my excellent view might be blocked by a giant (or even an average height person in platform shoes – not uncommon at a PSB gig)...

Luckily, all passed off peacefully and we bopped our way through the 90 minute set comprising some rarely played oldies, some massive hits and tracks from their latest, “Yes”...

The stage show was excellent, making use of large white building bricks, reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” show thirty years ago...

Here're two shots - one from the start and one from the end of the show...



All too soon it was over and we made our way out into the night air...

We stopped off at a pub in the town centre before heading back to the hotel for more drinks in the late opening bar accompanied by tasty pizza and chips...

Drink = drunk = appetite...

We turned in around 1am and I stayed up listening through my purchases again until around 2:30 before finally giving in to sleep – the arm now extremely painful...

A good day though...



Highlight of the Day : Pet Shop Boys live...