Re: Fleece

["Nick Walters" <nickw@bl...co.uk>]

Forgot to mention the air conditioning - I am a fat bastard, and wear a 
heavy leather biker jacket, and often get hot / sweat a lot - especially 
at packed out gigs. But last night - not so much - only took the jacket 
off once or twice!

As Robyn Hitchcock said when he played earlier this year, "The air 
conditioning is in the key of G."

NW2
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Sound Lizards 
  To: blueplanes@bl...org 
  Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 6:57 PM
  Subject: Re: [BluePlanes] Fleece


  Fully endorse Nick's views, the Fleece has well and truly got its soul 
back. Inspired choice of support acts, great mixed crowd - an atmosphere 
most other bands can only dream about and those unique little touches like 
the attention given to the placement of bike lamps (this will be 
meaningless if you weren't there). It's left us hungry for more and 
optimistic about the future. 

  Application for a Fleece season ticket already in.

  Nigel




------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: nevstreet@ho...com
  To: blueplanes@bl...org
  Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 17:17:21 +0100
  Subject: Re: [BluePlanes] Fleece


  Nicely written Mr Walters. Pleasure to read that review of the evening 
:-)

  Neville

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Nick Walters 
    To: A Discussion list for The Blue Aeroplanes 
    Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 4:03 PM
    Subject: Re: [BluePlanes] Fleece


    Amazing it was!

    I was not in the mood for it at all after a post-work real ale session 
on Friday which left me with a stinking hangover on Saturday. This meant 
that I took it easy (for me) and experienced my soberest Aeroplanes gig 
ever - only 5 pints over the whole evening - and they were probably what 
kept me going right up until the end of Breaking In My Heart!

    Missed the first act but caught the Paris Riots and the Yes Rebels. 
The former had a really tight, powerful sound with amazing bass and great 
guitarist ("he leaves plenty of space - not many guitarists these days do 
that" - Paul Vallis). The lead singer with his shaggy locks and Jim 
Morrison poses played up the total rock star, very entertaining! Some of 
the songs built up to quite amazing crescendos. The Yes Rebels (who used 
to be Fortune Drive I'm told) were also excellent - amazing energy and 
again extreme volume - my poor ears! - with an amazing drummer, who could 
give John Stapleton a run for his money!

    In between acts a female compere dressed in a kind of baroque 
burlesque music-hall costume introduced the act and revved up the audience 
with, in my opinion, rather too much use of the word "beautiful". But 
still - "it's a good idea to have a compere 'cos most bands are crap at 
telling you who they are" - another pearl of wisdom from the mind of Mr 
Vallis. 

    As we entered we were handed paper aeroplanes (GUESS which colour!) 
with the intention, presumably, that we let fly with them at the band when 
they took the stage. This, however didn't happen - probably for the best, 
as they had quite sharp points and could have hurt if caught in the eye 
(or Wojtek's nipple), though Gerard would have been safe behind his 
shades. A blue balloon did the rounds for a bit though, until some cunt 
burst it.

    The Aeroplanes took the stage at 10.55, and immediately took of with a 
storming Broken and Mended, followed by an incredibly storming, blastingly 
loud, triumphant sort of "greatest hits" set which included (in no 
particular order), Jacket Hangs, Raise The Roof, 25 Kinds Of Love, Yr Own 
World, Pony Boy (which didn't break anything this time, except my 
eardrums!), Sulphur, a new one I don't know the title of, a Rita song, a 
Gerard Starkey one, Oak Apple Tree, Warhol's 15, Severn Beach (don't think 
I ever heard them do that before!), Fun, and the usual climactic Breaking 
In My Heart, during which I entered the Death Zone and received the 
requisite number of bruises. 

    After the gig Ann Sheldon bounded and twirled (yes, quite literally!) 
up to us and invited us backstage, and so we (PV2 - not the Vallis, the 
other one)  and 1) trooped upstairs to a bizarre little attic room 
complete with washing machine. We chatted to Wojtek for a bit  - he lives 
in London and teaches English (not through sex and death I hope) to 
Bangladeshi kids. Also chatted to Gerard about the popularity of the 
Planes in the States (they're more well known there than other Bristol 
bands e.g. MA) and bands such as the Drive-By Truckers. I tried to 
introduce him to Those Poor Bastards, who are similar to the Truckers but 
he seemed to get the wrong end of the stick and thought I was labelling 
the Truckers as a comedy band. Oh well! And it's not even as if TPB are 
completely a comedy band... anyway. We also asked him about the new album 
and, although it is finished, he told us he is still looking for a label. 
When PV2 mentioned EMI Gerard all but kicked him in the bollocks! Poor 
PV2. We are truly not worthy of Gerard. But my heart sank when he said it 
could take "6 to 8 months to find a label." Wail! Shriek! He knows what 
he's doing, but he must also know that the fanbase is gagging for it. 
GAGGING!

    Anyway PV2 and I left at about half 12 not wanting to hang around, we 
are only fans anyway, and not mates of the band, and it was a privelige to 
be allowed backstage in the first instance. Thanks to Ann for that. 
According to Rocker the party went on beyond 4 - I doubt I would have 
lasted! 

    Outside also managed to say hi to Chris and congratulate him for an 
amazing evening. And again, I will congratulate him here and thank him for 
what was, truly, a legendary evening. It really felt like the beginning of 
something! Though it was almost the end of my eardums.

    Pardon?!

    NW2







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