Actually it was more like Saturday afternoon by the time we set off, but we still made it there in plenty of time. Arriving at the town hall of malmesbury it became rather evident that not much really happens here, and found ourselves surrounded by scene kids with broad accents. But this worked to our advantage, we were looked after brilliantly and the show kicked off well with us afterwards getting rather drunk and pissing about in the band room with Youthmovies after the show, Lewis giving a loving rendition of Factory Walls to everyone present on a forlorn-looking piano in the corner of the room.
Morning came and off to London we went, getting a taxi to Swindon to catch our National Express. Reubens hopes of busking were quashed as soon as we entered Swindon, or more like Swindon't, bus station which was over populated with what can only be described as drunks and chavs. We felt quite out of place with our violins and cellos and were pleased when the bus arrived for London. Arriving in London we had a Sunday lunch of Maccy D's before hopping onto the train for Teddington, where we were to stay with Sam's nan (rock n roll eh) and her partner. She'd left us a lovely cake and we all sat and played cards at the dining room table and read our paperback novels until she and Jeff arrived. For the second night in a row we had pizza for dinner,then went and watched The Dark Night, the truly wicked new batman film, and then soon after crashed into bed with bellies full of 7up and popcorn.
The next day we split up and Lewis and I ran off to Brick Lane for record purchasing and a bit of shopping in beyond retro etc, whilst Sam and Reuben spent the day busking around Teddington and lugging around everything we needed for the show that night at the Macbeth. We all met up later in the day and hauled all our stuff on and off the tube, at rush hour. At our change on the way to Hoxton the train was actually so rammed that we couldn't possibly fit on there, especially with the cello. As we were discussing this on the platform the train left, we turned around to include Lewis in the conversation and to our surprise and amusement saw the hilarious sight of half of my cello stuck between the tube doors, with Lewis's terrified face staring through the window. Seconds later the doors were forced open, train in motion, by two pairs of strong hands and a couple of men inside the carriage hauled Lewis and the cello fully into the train. Luckily, no damage was caused! From this moment Lewis appears to be on a string of shame...
We played the show, having pizza for dinner for the third night in a row, at The Macbeth, upon being greeted by Alex our lovely promoter we were informed that "you're all 21 from now on" because it seemed he would be getting a good bollocking for booking a group of "tweenagers" as he has dubbed us! The lovely Jeremy Warmsley came down to the show to watch us, and everything seemed to go quite well despite a few hiccups. However the battery went in Lewis's guitar at the end of the set, just before our last song, and the monitors were going crazy with the feedback, so we resorted to playing The Ground Will Take Us Down minus guitar, which apparently sounded better! Something I'm not sure Lewis was too pleased to hear, but the rest of us found rather amusing. The rest of the evening was spent getting increasingly drunk, watchingn the wonderful Jonquil who we all adore more every time we see them, and selling no merchandise. After the show finished and the venue closed, we all departed with Alex and Lewis was drunkenly proclaiming something about being a "pope fock hero" (folk pop hero?).
Third night in London, it's now the 5th and we are all a bit bored and keen to move on to Cambridge. All I have listened to for the past three days is Xiu Xiu and despite being really keen to buy Fabulous Muscles Lewis has forbidden me to own anything until he does, which i fear may be a long time. Whilst having this debate in Rough Trade East we notice that Eugene McGuinness and Noah and the Whale are doing an in store this evening. So we are quite relieved to have something to do than sit in and watch TV with Sams granny, as lovely as she is, and decide that's what we'll do this evening. Lewis spends the day recording demos in Jeremys bathroom, and Sam and I drag Reuben around Brick Lane to get him some much needed new clothes, then the boys head off to the Imperial War Museum and I meet Lewis for dinner at MacDonalds. Yummy! Despite good intentions none of us catch Eugene, Lewis and I wasted a lot of time in a cafe round the corner drinking and I think the boys were just engrossed at the museum. But we all made it down for Noah and the Whale, who I'm rather keen on, and their set was quite pleasant, found a few of their lyrics rather hammy but definitely of the feel-good stuff which is easy to enjoyably tap your foot to.
