Bristol-May 5th

It was a late morning start for Paula, Stephanie and I as we were driving from Paula’s house to Bristol. We had been able to relax yesturday but now it was off to another OMD gig.  The drive was pretty uneventful except for a bottleneck at the junction of the M4 but once we got through that, it was clear sailing.

I’d never been to Bristol so this was going to be a first and the girls had Gold packages so I took that time for wandering. For anyone who’s not familiar with the city, it has a small canal that runs through the city with a long walkway on both sides.  When we had asked the hotel man how far to Colston Hall, I had asked if he had a map as I was going to wander a bit. He pulled one out and right away suggested I go and do the walk and see the “SS Britian” which is a massives ship along the ‘shore’. He said to then take the water taxi back to the other side so I figured “OK, why not?” 😆  Colston Hall was nice and close so I walked there with the girls but shortly after, it looked like they had to go upstairs so we decided a hotel meet back at 17:30 and I was off. I hit the very city center first for a yogurt snack and watched as little kids played in a fountain (well, and in one little fellas case, fell in the fountain.  It was kind of slippery for very young kids. :sad:). The weather was absolutely lovely so many people were out on the walkway or taking the ferry to the SS Britian, plus, with being a Sunday and a bank holiday the next day, there was no need for people to get back home and ready for work so the center was bustling. 😀  I thoroughly enjoyed the walk, saw the SS  Britian from afar (there was a tour but didn’t do it since I didn’t have too much time) and then decided to go see the Bristol Cathedral. Massive and beautiful….from the outside. There was a mass starting so no ‘general visitors’ were allowed…darn! 🙁  Walked up a huge hill to get to what I thought was another lovely church but ended up being the Bristol University so back down the hill for a bit more wandering,  then back to the hotel.

Steph had set up meeting places to gather prior to the gigs and though I hadn’t done London since that was a GA gig, I didn’t have to worry about getting to the venue early tonight so after a quick dinner at the hotel, we went off and met Mark (Dumble, not bouncing buddy Mark…that’s tomorrow :lol:)and later a woman who the girls had met at the Bristol gig for HoM, Elizabeth.  A short visit and then since Steph wanted to see John Foxx again and I was game, we all left and headed over.

OK, so I promised more on him so….it was a bit loud tonight but we were also close to the front and right dab in line with the multitude of hanging speakers so I’m guessing that was why.  They come on at 19:50 so that he gets a 40 minute run and he mixes new with old. First off, the title track to his newest release “Evidence”. It’s definitely a darker, more moody piece but has a strong feature from Hannah Peel who’s playing violin (and keyboards on some of the others, along with occasional back up vocals).  Honestly can’t remember the next song (though it was another slower one) but then the pace picked up a bit as they launched into “”Evergreen.  The other member of “The Maths” is an older (well, older than Hannah that is) man playing an electric drum pad. I was on his side so found it fun to watch him bang out the beats…electric pads can be so fun LOL.  “No One Driving” was next and another I enjoy (despite having it stuck in my head for the rest of the night and part of the next day after the London gig. 🙄 :lol:).  Early on, some one yelled “Catwalk!”…well he got it but not before a few others like “He’s a Liquid” and a rather forceful “Running Man” (JF hits his chest quite a bit during the “I..I…I…am the Running Man”).  The whole set is definitely electronic music so it fits the bill for an opener of OMD and when they finished with Underpass (had to do that one!), despite everyone around Steph and I acting like they didn’t know who he was, a guy in the row behind us stood up and one by one, more stood (including Steph). They were  scattered but still made JF’s night I’m sure.  He introduced the other two, I was waiting for one of them to say “John Foxx” and point to him but nope, he just thanked us, grabbed his little note pad and they all walked off.   I’m slowly warming to the half of set I wasn’t too keen on in London…he’s no Diamond Rings but he’s not bad. 😀 I’ll grab some vids at another point as I was told Bristol can be very strict with that and I didn’t want to get busted before OMD even  came on.

So when I originally decided to change my plans for coming over and do a bit more gigs, Bristol was showing awful seats available (row Z on the floor or half way up the second balcony 😯 :sad:) but after the OMD packages got put back, I managed a seat in row G.  I decided early I’d use tonight’s distance to record some of the “can’t stand still” songs LOL but as it turned out, I wasn’t 7 rows back, I was only 4 as they had pulled out the first 3 rows.  I remember a mix up from the HoM tour with those  rows but tonight things ran very smoothly and I was closer than expected (but still grabbed the vids LOL :wink:)

There’s a few things I forgot to mention in the last blog (sorry, sensory and info overload at that one 😳 :lol:)  First, the stage. Not only did they have the white and black banners on the side and flags hanging but for some of the songs, the flags would have the black and white stripes and for some, images of the videos that were also being projected onto a screen behind the guys. (I realized the flags would be rotated….so it seems one side is striped and then when they want the images, a rotation takes them to a blank white so that things can  be projected.  An advantage to sitting back a bit….you can see more of a big picture :wink:). Also, the platforms that Mr. HX2 and Mr. C. stand on are higher. Much like in LA as Mr. M. is reflected in Mr. H.#2’s drum and Mr. C. is rather high up too.  There is a white and black striped covering in front of all three platforms and at times the white would glow which was cool.

Well, I had got to talking to a man named Mike who was sitting at my right. Mark was a row behind me also to my right so I had told him about the SMS pose(which I ended up not doing anyways since I recorded LOL) and Mike said “oh, so you have moves” and I laughed saying yes, feel free to join in. He was excited as the last time he’d seen OMD was when they opened for Simple Minds so I told him they play a good hour and a half and he was thrilled.  When PRS came on, I jumped to the edge of my seat waiting for others to stand….nothing…until Metroland started. I then jumped up and started clapping and a second later Steph and Paula were up and gradually others joined until everyone around me was clapping and standing as Mr. M. began his singing.  When it was over, Mr. M. joked “yes, we’re going to be doing some new songs…but if you’re lucky, we’ll do some old too”. Out came Merv with Old Faithful and Messages started. Mr. M. said “looks like you got lucky quite early.” 😆  When it was over, before they launched into Tesla Girls, Mr. M. laughed and said “well, Bristol is an interesting place.  Tonight was the quickest for balcony to stand, yet we still have people sitting on the floor.” I looked around and, yeah, some people in the balcony up and ready….some people in the second half of the floor still sitting 😯 that IS strange! (though I looked around a few songs later out of curiosity and it seemed EVERYONE on the floor was up so…slow risers I guess. :lol:)

So, apparently the guys were on Radio 2 live yesturday and Dresden was played because it’s intro found Mr. M. saying something about maybe many were nursing a hang over from yesturday, or went to church, how many heard them on the radio? He said Dresden was played and it’s their next single, cool (well not that it’s the next single as we knew that but that they were on the radio :D)  HoM was one I was going to nab on tape but decided no, gotta bounce and I was happy to see the girls were up and down, another girl in their row but more center was bouncy and a couple guys on the other side were also up a lot and gradually more came.  FLaD found Mr. M. checking to make sure Mr. H. set things up right for him this time (he did) and Mike really enjoyed that one in particular. It’s always nice to see Mr. H. come out for a song and at the end, as the crowd kept cheering, Mr. M. did a repeated bow down to Mr. H. 😀

More people seemed to know IYL tonight as I saw some people around me singing along and it was then that I really noticed the graphics…Molly Ringwald above Mr. H.! 😀   Mr. M. said Night Cafe would be their next single “and don’t worry, we wouldn’t play it if it wasn’t brilliant”.  When the very first sounds of Souvenir came on, there was a huge “Ooooh…..whoooooo” as everyone realized what was coming and it went down beautifully.  As did the bing bang of JoA and MoO.  By the time it was over, more people were up in the balcony and the cheering kept going. I started to think “ya know, I think this crowd is better than London” and Mr. H., laughingly returned the repeated bow down to Mr. M. this time.

Mike had asked about Night Cafe and where it was (he didn’t have EE yet) and when Our System was over, he turned to me again asking if that was new. I said yes, it’s on EE, isn’t it beautiful? He agreed, yes, very lovely song! During TLaC, something I was actually expecting to happen at London during FLaD happened…just to Mr. M.  A nice black and red piece of lingerie came flying at Mr. M., courtesy of Paula, and he actually caught it! 😆   KtM and it’s debate for married couples to discuss found one couple cracking up after at that….I wonder if it’ll be their talk for the ride home. 😆  And then it was back to bouncing…only for me, it was the last big bounce as I recorded all the others after that. 😆 😉   The crowd was definitely moving and cheering well and I wondered if it was just because I was set back a bit but I don’t think so.  They may have been a bit slow to rise but they were making up for it now! 😀  SMS was funny because Mr. H. was “Jesus” tonight….Mr. M. pointing to him during the “turn your face….” then “nah….don’t let him in.” 😆  Locomotion and SotSS went fast and before long, it was Enola Gay and everyone in front of me were having a great time. When it was done, they all thanked us and did the intros before heading off. Louds cheers until they came back and Mr. M. said “it’s a fantastic crowd that makes a gig and you’ve been a fantastic crowd to play for, thank you!” and Mr. H. agreed.  The call to join in with clapping and ‘hey hey’s’ came next (and answered), then Electricity wrapped up the set. When saying goodbye, Mr. H. said “I hope we can see you again” and Mr. M. said “get home safe, goodbye” and they walked off for the last time. Not an unhappy face really. Mike was all smiles as we said goodbye and as I headed up to meet the girls, I saw others leaving and chatting happily or rushing up to the stage in hopes of a set list (which Merv managed to get for a few, bless his heart. :D)

So, highlight tonight…well, as crazy as this is going to sound as I obviously like (and aim for) being up front…I think I’d say being further back  for once. It just gave me a different perspective. I had been 12th row in Liverpool back on the HoM tour and it was the same then…I could see things that aren’t visible from the front so….it has it’s advantages. 😆