Barenaked Ladies, Hammersmith Apollo 30th March 2007

So on Friday benc and I headed up from Canterbury to my mum's just inside Greater London so we could buy one day travel cards instead of day returns with travel cards to save money, jumped on a train to London and headed to Hammersmith to check in to our hotel (Premier Travel Inn at Hammersmith - looks like a converted office block) and find somewhere meet dmc, Mich and Adam Horn & his partner (can't remember her name :( but they gave us a lift back to the Hotel after the show) and eat dinner (Wetherspoons - The William Morris) before heading to the venue for 7pm when the doors opened. On the way we got stopped by at least 4 ticket touts asking if we wanted tickets - never really seen 1 tout before, so was spoiled for choice - of would be if I hadn't had a ticket :P

Got there nice and early, brought our murchandise (I got a black "I went to one of their concerts :D" tshirt while benc brought Boothby Graffoe and Vanity Project CDs & a download token for when the show eventually goes up for download and got our seats. The seated area where we were seemed really empty for ages, still not nearly full when Boothby Graffoe came on and did an excellent set including some contributions on instruments and backing vocals from some of the Ladies (Kevin first, then Jim, finally Ed). He did Baseball Playing Spider, a song about a drowning sailor ("Does anybody know how to sail a boat" perhaps?) and Bungee Girl.

By the time they all went off we were well and truly warmed up and only had to wait 20 mins or so till BNL came on and opened with "One Week", straight into "The Old Appartment". Cue all the people who had not yet made it to the still fairly empty seating area all rushing in at once and spoiling my view as they wandered around finding their seats and stuff :( I have to admit, it pissed me off quite a lot. If they couldn't be bothered to turn up on time, why bother coming at all? </rant>

I was delighted with the mix of songs on there, it was a great mix of old and new and two of my favourites from the new album made it on there - "Sound of Your Voice" and "Maybe You're Right" (my personal favourite of the whole night). "Brian Wilson" was fantastic and wound everyone up to fever pitch as they walked off. I wasn't a great fan of "Easy". It was better live than on the CD but I didn't like being taken down a notch from my uber fever pitch. "$1,000,000" followed and was amazing and wound us all up again. By this point everyone in the seating area was on their feet and stayed there till the very end. Brilliant ad-lib about oyster cards basically saying what everyone thinks of them and another one from Ed about how rubbish camera phones are :D

Much better than the concert I went to on the Holidays tour in 2004, though I think I preferred the intimacy of the Shepherds Bush Empire over the size of the Hammersmith Apollo.

Random thought: Liked the M*A*S*H referrences with some of their murchandise :D

I'm sure I've left some stuff out. If you were there, comment and correct me. This is really a brain dump of what was there. Brilliant show :D

Want to go again! When are they back? ;)

( Set List )

Other (better) reviews can be found here and here

Cross-posted to barenaked_fans

Barenaked Ladies, Hammersmith Apollo 30th March 2007

So on Friday benc and I headed up from Canterbury to my mum's just inside Greater London so we could buy one day travel cards instead of day returns with travel cards to save money, jumped on a train to London and headed to Hammersmith to check in to our hotel (Premier Travel Inn at Hammersmith - looks like a converted office block) and find somewhere meet dmc, Mich and Adam Horn & his partner (can't remember her name :( but they gave us a lift back to the Hotel after the show) and eat dinner (Wetherspoons - The William Morris) before heading to the venue for 7pm when the doors opened. On the way we got stopped by at least 4 ticket touts asking if we wanted tickets - never really seen 1 tout before, so was spoiled for choice - of would be if I hadn't had a ticket :P

Got there nice and early, brought our murchandise (I got a black "I went to one of their concerts :D" tshirt while benc brought Boothby Graffoe and Vanity Project CDs & a download token for when the show eventually goes up for download and got our seats. The seated area where we were seemed really empty for ages, still not nearly full when Boothby Graffoe came on and did an excellent set including some contributions on instruments and backing vocals from some of the Ladies (Kevin first, then Jim, finally Ed). He did Baseball Playing Spider, a song about a drowning sailor ("Does anybody know how to sail a boat" perhaps?) and Bungee Girl.

By the time they all went off we were well and truly warmed up and only had to wait 20 mins or so till BNL came on and opened with "One Week", straight into "The Old Appartment". Cue all the people who had not yet made it to the still fairly empty seating area all rushing in at once and spoiling my view as they wandered around finding their seats and stuff :( I have to admit, it pissed me off quite a lot. If they couldn't be bothered to turn up on time, why bother coming at all? </rant>

I was delighted with the mix of songs on there, it was a great mix of old and new and two of my favourites from the new album made it on there - "Sound of Your Voice" and "Maybe You're Right" (my personal favourite of the whole night). "Brian Wilson" was fantastic and wound everyone up to fever pitch as they walked off. I wasn't a great fan of "Easy". It was better live than on the CD but I didn't like being taken down a notch from my uber fever pitch. "$1,000,000" followed and was amazing and wound us all up again. By this point everyone in the seating area was on their feet and stayed there till the very end. Brilliant ad-lib about oyster cards basically saying what everyone thinks of them and another one from Ed about how rubbish camera phones are :D

Much better than the concert I went to on the Holidays tour in 2004, though I think I preferred the intimacy of the Shepherds Bush Empire over the size of the Hammersmith Apollo.

Random thought: Liked the M*A*S*H referrences with some of their murchandise :D

I'm sure I've left some stuff out. If you were there, comment and correct me. This is really a brain dump of what was there. Brilliant show :D

Want to go again! When are they back? ;)

( Set List )

Other (better) reviews can be found here and here

Cross-posted to barenaked_fans

Barenaked Ladies, Hammersmith Apollo 30th March 2007

So on Friday benc and I headed up from Canterbury to my mum's just inside Greater London so we could buy one day travel cards instead of day returns with travel cards to save money, jumped on a train to London and headed to Hammersmith to check in to our hotel (Premier Travel Inn at Hammersmith - looks like a converted office block) and find somewhere meet dmc, Mich and Adam Horn & his partner (can't remember her name :( but they gave us a lift back to the Hotel after the show) and eat dinner (Wetherspoons - The William Morris) before heading to the venue for 7pm when the doors opened. On the way we got stopped by at least 4 ticket touts asking if we wanted tickets - never really seen 1 tout before, so was spoiled for choice - of would be if I hadn't had a ticket :P

Got there nice and early, brought our murchandise (I got a black "I went to one of their concerts :D" tshirt while benc brought Boothby Graffoe and Vanity Project CDs & a download token for when the show eventually goes up for download and got our seats. The seated area where we were seemed really empty for ages, still not nearly full when Boothby Graffoe came on and did an excellent set including some contributions on instruments and backing vocals from some of the Ladies (Kevin first, then Jim, finally Ed). He did Baseball Playing Spider, a song about a drowning sailor ("Does anybody know how to sail a boat" perhaps?) and Bungee Girl.

By the time they all went off we were well and truly warmed up and only had to wait 20 mins or so till BNL came on and opened with "One Week", straight into "The Old Appartment". Cue all the people who had not yet made it to the still fairly empty seating area all rushing in at once and spoiling my view as they wandered around finding their seats and stuff :( I have to admit, it pissed me off quite a lot. If they couldn't be bothered to turn up on time, why bother coming at all? </rant>

I was delighted with the mix of songs on there, it was a great mix of old and new and two of my favourites from the new album made it on there - "Sound of Your Voice" and "Maybe You're Right" (my personal favourite of the whole night). "Brian Wilson" was fantastic and wound everyone up to fever pitch as they walked off. I wasn't a great fan of "Easy". It was better live than on the CD but I didn't like being taken down a notch from my uber fever pitch. "$1,000,000" followed and was amazing and wound us all up again. By this point everyone in the seating area was on their feet and stayed there till the very end. Brilliant ad-lib about oyster cards basically saying what everyone thinks of them and another one from Ed about how rubbish camera phones are :D

Much better than the concert I went to on the Holidays tour in 2004, though I think I preferred the intimacy of the Shepherds Bush Empire over the size of the Hammersmith Apollo.

Random thought: Liked the M*A*S*H referrences with some of their murchandise :D

I'm sure I've left some stuff out. If you were there, comment and correct me. This is really a brain dump of what was there. Brilliant show :D

Want to go again! When are they back? ;)

( Set List )

Other (better) reviews can be found here and here

Cross-posted to barenaked_fans

New Jib-Jab

(also here)

New Jib-Jab

(also here)

New Jib-Jab

(also here)

Mum's birthday weekend :)

So after the concert benc and I went back to our hotel, slept for not enough time and then tubed and dlr-d over to Greenwich to meet red_pill for present buying for no1typo's birthday in the market there. We brought the presents with fairly minimal fuss, on budget and having gone nowhere near a high street store (not even a card & paper one!) and took them back to mum's to wrap while Phil showed a mate around the "spooky areas" of Greenwich. When he returned we gave them to mum (fully wrapped by yours truly) and she seemed to like them (see here for details and pictures).

In the evening we decided to go to the excellent Chipstead Tandoori and dithered a bit before finally bolting out of the door in a rush at just gone 7 as I had just recieved the awaited intel that the secret guest was supping Cobra there ;)

It was, of course a guest appearence by Giles. Bwhahaha. Much loveliness of times was had, curry and company were excellent and we even had Moet & Chandon Champagne, brought by Giles' father as a present :D (was lovely by the way ;))

This morning red_pill and I got up and made mum breakfast as is tradition, and then I took Phil to Purley to go to the LAC (which I'm sure he'll write about), came home and then galvanised people to go to Mogador - the Sportsman pub.

We'd been there before two days before our wedding when we just needed to get away and this time we took no1typo for a birthday lunch. We knew the food was good, but we didn't know it was quite as amazing as it was. We had an enormous roast dinner except it wasn't so much food to make you feel you could burst. The portion was just right and the beef melted in the mouth and (so I'm told) the veggies were cooked to perfection. It was all followed by a walk in the nice sunshine across the common :)

Finally we headed back to Canterbury, bringing Giles with us :D

A lovely time was had by all, even if I do say so myself. Pictures here.

Mum's birthday weekend :)

So after the concert benc and I went back to our hotel, slept for not enough time and then tubed and dlr-d over to Greenwich to meet red_pill for present buying for no1typo's birthday in the market there. We brought the presents with fairly minimal fuss, on budget and having gone nowhere near a high street store (not even a card & paper one!) and took them back to mum's to wrap while Phil showed a mate around the "spooky areas" of Greenwich. When he returned we gave them to mum (fully wrapped by yours truly) and she seemed to like them (see here for details and pictures).

In the evening we decided to go to the excellent Chipstead Tandoori and dithered a bit before finally bolting out of the door in a rush at just gone 7 as I had just recieved the awaited intel that the secret guest was supping Cobra there ;)

It was, of course a guest appearence by Giles. Bwhahaha. Much loveliness of times was had, curry and company were excellent and we even had Moet & Chandon Champagne, brought by Giles' father as a present :D (was lovely by the way ;))

This morning red_pill and I got up and made mum breakfast as is tradition, and then I took Phil to Purley to go to the LAC (which I'm sure he'll write about), came home and then galvanised people to go to Mogador - the Sportsman pub.

We'd been there before two days before our wedding when we just needed to get away and this time we took no1typo for a birthday lunch. We knew the food was good, but we didn't know it was quite as amazing as it was. We had an enormous roast dinner except it wasn't so much food to make you feel you could burst. The portion was just right and the beef melted in the mouth and (so I'm told) the veggies were cooked to perfection. It was all followed by a walk in the nice sunshine across the common :)

Finally we headed back to Canterbury, bringing Giles with us :D

A lovely time was had by all, even if I do say so myself. Pictures here.

Mum's birthday weekend :)

So after the concert benc and I went back to our hotel, slept for not enough time and then tubed and dlr-d over to Greenwich to meet red_pill for present buying for no1typo's birthday in the market there. We brought the presents with fairly minimal fuss, on budget and having gone nowhere near a high street store (not even a card & paper one!) and took them back to mum's to wrap while Phil showed a mate around the "spooky areas" of Greenwich. When he returned we gave them to mum (fully wrapped by yours truly) and she seemed to like them (see here for details and pictures).

In the evening we decided to go to the excellent Chipstead Tandoori and dithered a bit before finally bolting out of the door in a rush at just gone 7 as I had just recieved the awaited intel that the secret guest was supping Cobra there ;)

It was, of course a guest appearence by Giles. Bwhahaha. Much loveliness of times was had, curry and company were excellent and we even had Moet & Chandon Champagne, brought by Giles' father as a present :D (was lovely by the way ;))

This morning red_pill and I got up and made mum breakfast as is tradition, and then I took Phil to Purley to go to the LAC (which I'm sure he'll write about), came home and then galvanised people to go to Mogador - the Sportsman pub.

We'd been there before two days before our wedding when we just needed to get away and this time we took no1typo for a birthday lunch. We knew the food was good, but we didn't know it was quite as amazing as it was. We had an enormous roast dinner except it wasn't so much food to make you feel you could burst. The portion was just right and the beef melted in the mouth and (so I'm told) the veggies were cooked to perfection. It was all followed by a walk in the nice sunshine across the common :)

Finally we headed back to Canterbury, bringing Giles with us :D

A lovely time was had by all, even if I do say so myself. Pictures here.

There's some joose, loose aboot this hoose!

Old Maynards Wine Gum advert :D

Those were the days...

o/~ If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club!

There's some joose, loose aboot this hoose!

Old Maynards Wine Gum advert :D

Those were the days...

o/~ If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club!

There's some joose, loose aboot this hoose!

Old Maynards Wine Gum advert :D

Those were the days...

o/~ If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club!