NME Radar Tour - Coventry, Warwick Uni.

The venue was The Copper Rooms a student Union Bar at Warwick University. It's a small dark venue will a low ceiling and you got the impression when crowded it would be very hot in there. We arrived a little after 9pm and saw the end of the Local Natives set, unfortunately Marina & The Diamonds didn't show up but the Golden Silver's set adequately made up for that small disappointment featuring True Romance, Please Venus and Arrows of Eros. It wasn't particularly crowded when the bands were playing and we easily got a good view near the stage, but, as we left we noticed a long queue of students all clambering to get in. It looked like a monstrous student party was about to kick off. So we left the rampant freshers and we headed home for some *Horlicks!

FLY 53 download album | The Copper Rooms


*Horlicks here is being used for the more general term red wine.

The Enemy @ The Jaguar Exhibition Hall, Ricoh Arena, Coventry

Sat 5 Apr – The Enemy, Boy Kill Boy, Lowline

One thing we hadn’t expected was the massive size of the the Jaguar Exhibition Hall at The Ricoh arena it is truly huge with an 8000 capacity, we hadn’t really thought about how many people that was. There is no restriction on which area your ticket allows you into and there was no seating. You were free to roam right to the front, if you dared, or right to the back and you’d still hear the sound system perfectly from there. Kids and parents', angst teens, twenty, thirty and forty something's all partied together in what was a festival atmosphere.

We arrived in the hall for The Enemy's home town concert about half way through Lowline's warm-up act performance and found a spot about half way up the hall. Boy Kill Boy followed half an hour or so later on. A dodgy DJ played between acts but he was redeemed by the selection of music. The house lights finally went down for The Enemy about 21:20ish they played for what I think was about an hour. Proceedings started with ‘It’s not OK’, included all the anthems you expected to hear added a new song 'Sing When You're In Love/ Sing When You're Out Of Love' then finished with a cover of the Sex Pistols 'God save the Queen' and finally ‘You’re not alone’.

The wait between the three acts was acceptable, although there was plenty of time for people to buy lager from the bars and throw it at each other. At no point where we were stood did it get ridiculously crowded. The pre-booked car park, although a £10 ticket, was worth the money and the queue to get out wasn’t too excruciating.

Set list:
It's Not OK
40 Days And 40 Nights
Pressure
Had Enough
Aggro
We'll Live And Die In These Towns
Song About You
Away From Here
Sing When You're In Love/ Sing When You're Out Of Love
Happy Birthday Jane
God Save The Queen
You're Not Alone

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly @ The Kasbah Coventry

Last night we went to see Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly supported by Emmy The Great at The Kasbah (formerly The Colosseum), (formerly The Tic-Toc for the truely ancient amongst us).
Arriving a little later than planned we grabbed a drink and headed for the main room as the main act had already took to the stage. The refurbishment to turn the Colly into The Kasbah seemed to focus on Morrocan arches painted in black around studded doorways, the main room was adorned in similar decor. Basically same old venue, with a new lick of paint. There was a new armband that was required to get a drink at the bars!!!
Pushing as far as we comfortably could into the main room we found that we hadn't missed much of the main act and enjoyed the rest of the performance, it included Call me Ishmael, I spy, War of the Worlds and the new single Find the time that will be available from 3rd March.

The tracks below are live from last years Reading festival.

MP3: I spy (live at Reading 2007)
MP3: War of the Worlds (live at Reading 2007)

album | website

Hard-Fi at the Colly -7 Sep 2007

Big band little venue is a good recipe. The Colosseum, Coventry, was pretty much packed and inside it was hot and sweaty, and your beer came in a plastic cup, just like a gig should be. Hard-Fi got Suburban Knight’s out of the way about third track in and the crowd really to rose it. The highlights of the show included the clash-esque Television and We Need Love which was my personal favourite. Most of the new CD was covered plus Cash Machine and a really loud version of Tied Up Too Tight, (cue crowd participation and leaping around) I can’t remember the exact set-list as I had been drinking and generally enjoying myself but I can remember a good spirited crowd who were really up for blowing off a bit of steam on a Friday night. There was an encore but my wife and I headed for the doors because we were knackered and it was also easier to get a pint in the other downstairs bar, in which I discovered there was a DJ performing. The Colly is still the good old tatty venue it has been for an age but now features a very strange fellow in the gents with aftershave and other cleansing potions and a smokers area which runs down the side of the venue.

Verdict: Good laugh