Wow...what a night! we left the venue at 2 ish I think - it was that sort of evening! Anyway...our story went like this...
We arrived in Blackpool about 7 ish and booked in to our hotel. We asked them where Riffs was and the girl behind the counter said "it's not round here, there's no rock bars round here". We said "well do you know where Station road is?" and the girl said "station road in Blackpool?"...!!! So, well, yes, good start. However, I had booked the hotel because it was close to the venue so I knew she was wrong! The other woman found us a map (which was actually the same as the map as I'd already printed out) and said - "it's about ten minutes walk". So we rambled along the sea front and found station road (having overshot it once because the street name was obscured). We walked the length of station road and Paul said to me..."er, so where is this venue then?" I'm saying "it's definitely on this road, I'm not that stupid". So we nipped in to a pub at the end of the road for a quick pint and asked behind the bar..."never heard of it". Right. But one bloke says - there's a pub two streets away that has rock nights on a Friday - they'll probably know where it is. So off we set again...on the way I came up with the (I thought) quite genius plan of shouting "FREE GUINNESS" at the top of my voice, because obviously I'd be able to hear the band shout "over here" back...especially given that Blackpool seemed to be deserted and there couldn't be anyone else around us other than all those here to see GMT (Paul crushed my plan by suggesting I might get a response from an old lady who really liked Guinness...). Anyway, we find this pub (The Royal Oak if you're interested) and we asked the barman where riffs was. "Well I do know, but I can't give you directions". Right...we briefly thought about asking if they had a cat we could talk to - at this point having lost any faith in being able to get any directions from any of the people at all, thinking that a cat might be slightly more intelligent. Happily one bloke could tell us (yes, in fact, the venue is on the road you've just walked from) and downing another quick drink we headed BACK to where we had come from. I was thinking - I swear we would have seen the van if this was the right road...and lo and behold what should we find once we get back to the right road. Taz looking rather dejected having just arrived and unloaded - apparently they'd had a ten hour journey up (which was probably as ridiculous as our journey to the venue) so what stage times were anybodies guess...(this must have been about 7.30/8 ish when doors were at 8).
We then headed off for some food (worlds worst fish and chips from Pablos), then got a taxi back to our hotel, got changed and got back in ten minutes...and wandered in to the venue just as the band were soundchecking. Met Martin who runs Riffs (great venue, sadly they can't supply you with a Cosmoplitan (don't ask)) and then bumped into Mike (who we met at York - see I remember now!) and of course Taz and Rob running around like mad getting everything ready.
New Generation Superstars played their set...interesting...look like a heavy metal band, play punk. They were good, but the lead singer was a little too eager to take his shirt off and show off his tattoos for my liking - it was all a little image over substance, and their image didn't seem to match their actually fairly decent substance. And they just shouldn't let their guitarist speak. His squeaky voice made us giggle.
GMT came on...wow...you wouldn't have known they must have been the world's most knackered people. Robin was playing a new kit which sounded awesome (particulalry once the sound guy got the kick drum sound sorted) and John's new bass also sounded amazing. (And BIG kudos to Rob who had to get all the new gear up and working without any chance to try out it previously). Bernie's guitar seemed to be suffering a few tuning problems (pitting it mildly - I think what he actually said was "this is the most out of tune guitar I've ever played") but of course on the whole they sounded amazing. Bernie was also using one of these radio mics (the Britney Spears of rock n roll?!) which seemed to work pretty well except for in the last song when he seemed to forget he was wearing it and went to use the normal microphone. Speaking to him afterwards of course he also realised he can't mutter at John and Robin without the rest of us hearing while he is wearing it too...
Set list was:
Wild West
Bullet in the Brain
Wheel of Fortune
Cannonball
Perfumed Garden
Punko Rocco
Longer Than Tomorrow
Bitter N Twisted
Drum Solo
Rocky Road
Summerland
Guitar Solo
Can't beat Rock n roll
New Orleans
No easy Way
So a great mixture of old and new. The crowd was a little sparse (little wonder given how difficult it is to find the venue or indeed get there). Highlights for me included Punko Rocco which sounded even better live than it does on record and Rocky Road which never fails to get the crowd going. When Bernie was retuning his guitar he said "John tell a joke". To which John's response was "Two old blokes and a muppet decide to get in a van and drive from London to Blackpool. That's the only joke I can think of right now". Classy.
The band of course came out to chat after the show...I also met Mr Fret Melter (who it turns out wasn't actually christened "evil"...(or should that be Beau?!)) And generally there was lots of chatting and joking and probably *some* drinking. *whistles particularly innocently*
Great night, great music, loads of fun, shame about the crowd size, but it was well worth it for those of us who did make it.
I'll post photos later, I promise!
Didn't make it to Bury (despite Mike's best attempts at not-particularly-subtle subliminal messages) - I had to get up on Saturday and get to Manchester, then rehearse for 6 hours with Ultraxine which damn near killed me, so I had to return to Leeds for, well, sleep frankly!
