Built to annoy you

That's Manchester. Chalk up another one of Britain's cities that I hate driving in. To be fair, the computer spat out directions that ceased being useful about ten miles from the venue, and I don't have a street map of the place, but a chilled driving experience this certainly was not. For some reason, the lying mapping software decided that the M62 wasn't the best option for a direct east to west run, I'd be better hugging the mountains on the back roads with an eeeek hundred foot drop on the other side of the crash barrier.... well, it was interesting; I'd love to have a bash at that road in the daylight, with no thick fog, on the bike, with both ends blocked off so the other traffic couldn't get in my way and without three inches of dock shite caked onto my headlights. But it wasn't that much fun this time. At least there weren't any tractors. And at least the crash barriers weren't "Slovene style" (bits of ordinary railing painted red and white, or strips of bunting where a truck's gone through the former). But in fairness, the journey was not enjoyed. Sorry Manchester, chalk that up as a BLAAAAGH rating for your tourist satisfaction stats.

So off to stage 2 at the Manchester Accademy; a band I'd not much interest in seeing was playing but I allowed myself to be persuaded over. Wolfsbane were supporting; a Brit band I liked of old, before Blaze Bailey allowed himself to be temped into Iron Maiden for a couple of very indifferent albums when the Bruce decided he wanted a break flying planes. And hasn't Blaze aged well. Not. Still got the ridiculous sideburns but he's turned into a porky wee fecker and no mistake. Clearly spent his I.M. royalties on ALL the pies. Heheheheheheh. And why's he got the darts player Andy Fordham on guitar? Heh, but seriously, there's another beardy bloke who's carrying a pie or two extra. They've become a fatbloke tribute band. A good noise though, if you can make out the vocal through the sound of straining floorboards.

Main attraction? Wildhearts. Worthy of a look up on the net to have a look at the history of this mob, they've been around in one form or another since Pontious was a pilot, saw them at Donnington in around '94 and frankly wasn't bothered one jot. Precisely how much IS a jot anyway? I think we should be told. Anyway's up, they had a minor hit at the time, I raised one eyebrow from the beered up haze of life at the time, then went back to watching Hellbitch 1's arse. By 2007, they've earned themselves a devoted following, do what they do damned well, have a history of spats, breakups, reformations and side projects that'd do Deep Purple justice and put on a jolly fine show, complete with Stylophone solo (!!). Slightly bizarre to hear a heavy metal version of the theme from Cheers, with a Taxi intro, but I'm reliably informed this charted to #4 which just goes to prove the British public'll buy any old tat if you wave it in their faces enough. They'll be wanting a new bassist too, they've broken their old one. Must have. Most committed performance I've ever seen from a man with 4 strings, who ended up snapping his strap and played a belter with the thing propped on his kne while his roadie feverishly worked with a reel of bodge tape to make it better. A fun night out, and they're worthy of a second look and a certain amount of album hunting. Ah, the old tradition of selecting your record collection from an unexpectedly enjoyable gig.

And now I'm back east, and about to attack the remains of the day. I desparately need to do some stuff. I've concluded that christmas is stuffed; the month has hurtled past at an unreal rate what with work stuff, and just other stuff... and I've got a bunch of cards here that don't stand a fart's chance in a thunderstorm of getting to their destination by the day. If that's you, sorry. I've almost the entire roster of presents to buy and not a lot of time to do it in. A place to tidy, let alone decorate and it's doing my head in. Can I be arsed to go to the loft and get the lights working for the window (not chance in hell to sort out a tree).....? Nah, probably not.