Our summer of gigs continues with Counting Crows

You wait ages for your favourite bands to tour and then they all decide to tour at the same time. This was gig 2 of 3 in a fortnight for me and Cathy, after seeing Garbage a week ago, and with another gig coming up at the weekend. 

This time we were off to The Beacon in Bristol. It was the first time we had been to the former Colston Hall since their big refurb and name change when they wanted to distance themselves from the historical baggage of links to slave trader Edward Colston. 

We were sat right at the back, in the penultimate row of the third tier. We were so high up we had a good view of the lighting riggers. I've sat right at the back of a few venues and the Beacon definitely has the best views from that sort of seat. It didn't feel dizzyingly steep either. 

After a forgettable support singer, the band came on. 

This was billed as the "Complete Sweets" tour. We were expecting them to play most of their latest album, which was released in two parts. Instead they played mainly their classics. Most of their debut album August and Everything After got an airing along with various singles. I'm not complaining although they didn't play my favourite song off the new album, 'Boxcars'.

There were also a few covers. I have heard Counting Crows play 'Friend of the Devil' so many times now it feels like it's their song (and I sing along). They also did a cover of  'the 1' by Taylor Swift. It didn't feel like there were a lot of Swifties in the audience but everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

The camera on my phone isn't good enough for pics from up in the gods, but they look colourful at least!

And so, after an enjoyable night, we are now gearing up for gig three of our summer run of gigs!

Bucket list gig: Thousand Yard Stare

I discovered Thousand Yard Stare in about 1992 when I bought a copy of Vox magazine that came with a free cassette that included one of their songs, Wideshire. When I moved to Cardiff in 1994 I found their album Mappamundi in a sale in HMV. I played that cassette to death in my room in uni digs. 

Mappamundi was their 'difficult second album'. The band split up almost immediately after releasing it and the 'shoegaze' scene they were part of declined rapidly. Over the next couple of years I collected most of their back catalogue. But I resigned myself to never seeing them live. 

Then about 10 years ago the band reunited and cut a new record. I had lost track of what they were up to and didn't realise until a couple of years ago, so I had another back catalogue to collect!

This tour was meant to happen last May but got postponed due to one of the band having health issues. It got rescheduled for the last day in February, which means it was my first gig in 2026.

I'd not been to the Louisiana before. It's a (lovely) pub with a gig room upstairs. A couple of years ago I met an online friend called Dave at a football match. Dave is also a gig-goer. He lives in Bristol and advised me to get close to the front at the venue. He wasn't wrong - it's a long room with no slope to the floor and a low stage. I ended up about 3 rows back and got a great view.

It's a standing only venue and Cathy found that hard so she headed back downstairs where there was a comfy sofa she could curl up on. She says the staff were all very kind when she said she wasn't feeling well. 

It might have been for the best that she went downstairs because the gig got a bit "moshy", no mean feat considering most of the people there were in my age bracket. Me, I felt 19 again, listening to songs I thought I'd never hear live.

And wow, they were good. They played a couple of post-reformation songs, but they knew what we wanted to hear and belted out the classics like Comeuppance ("our only hit"), Buttermouth, Wideshire, 0-0 (aet) and Version of Me. 

Stephen, the singer, introduced my absolute favourite track, What's Your Level? as "a song I wrote in response to people calling me a 'wordy twat'". They played it quite early in the set, and that's when it first got a bit moshy and sweaty. 

He is also the only singer I know who snacks on apples during a gig.

Stephen is heavily involved at Bristol Manor Farm FC (scene of my first football match after lockdown!) and had hung up some flags behind the stage. Some of the Farmy Army had come along to enjoy the show. Cue lots of banter as he kept scolding them to behave.

He also said that he didn't listen to the bands' second album until a few years back, because the band were splitting up as it was released and the reviews were negative. I was able to shake his hand at the end and tell him that I played that album until the cassette died and how much I loved finally seeing them live.

So that was my bucket list gig. Massive thanks to Dave for the advice, the great chats about gigs and football, and also sending me some of his photos to use in this blogpost!

Monthly round up - December 2024

Happy New Year! What better way to welcome 2025 than a long post about the last month of 2024?

Our Christmas decorating was delayed because we were getting a new floor and carpentry work done in our hall for the first week or so. However, we were able to welcome 'the Boys' who were dressed up ready for Christmas! 

Rather than add to the semi-permenent upheaval of stuff everywhere due to the building work, we decided not to bring the tree and decorations down. Instead, we bought a small rainbow tree to brighten up the front room.

The branches soon filled up with decorations.

Work was busy in the run up to the Christmas break, including travelling to London, Bristol and Port Talbot. In London I posed with a film star at the station.

I also saw this Lego model of the new station that is effectively going to replace Paddington station when the HS2 project is completed. (The model had 14,000 pieces.)

Meanwhile, in Bristol, two famous people associated with the city had left their marks on the pavement.

The best part of Christmas is meeting up with people. We had a great afternoon in Tewkesbury with Mary and Steve. (Selfie outside the Abbey where we saw 'The Longest Yarn'.)

Between Christmas and New Year I met up with Connor briefly in Birmingham. We got to pose with Ozzy the Bull.

We also had a great time spending nearly a week with family. Cathy's sister was in town just before Christmas and my sister drove down from Edinburgh for the day on the day after Boxing Day!

The December weather (including Storm Darragh) interrupted the football. However, I set a new record for going to games in December - managing six. There were three before Christmas and three afterwards.

I saw Barry play twice before Christmas - a cup semi-final defeat to TNS and a come-from-behind league victory over Cardiff Met. My other pre-Christmas game was watching Caldicot Town just round the corner from my house when they played Canton.  My friend Ben, who plays for Caldicot, had just become a dad for the first time so it was nice to see him and say congrats. 

I also got a Futbology badge when I checked in at the Caldicot game as it was the 10th time I'd seen them.

The games after Christmas were two Shrewsbury home games, on Boxing Day and the 29th December, and Barry's game away at Briton Ferry on New Year's Eve. On Boxing Day, Shrewsbury battled to a win against Lincoln in murky midwinter mist. On the 29th, they drew against Northampton (in much milder weather). I've now seen four Shrewsbury home games this season and they haven't lost any. 

And so to my final game of 2024, which ended 0-0. This was my first scoreless game of the season and ended a run of 49 games since my last goalless game back in March. 

Here's how my season stats look at the end of December:

And that, as they say is that. We had a quiet New Year's Eve, building Lego, watching comedy on Netflix, and then it was midnight and 2024 was done!

Changeable weather

Off to a course for the day today in Bristol, with my colleagues Matt and Ruth. We ate lunch on the grass on the Cathedral Green in lovely sunshine.

When we were waiting for our train home the rain was beating down on the station roof so hard we could barely hear each other speak. When a train pulled into the station the rain sleeted off it so violently it was redirected more than six feet under the platform roof, soaking the poor punters who were waiting there. Fortunately we were far enough away to stay dry and when our train came the rain had eased a bit.

Global warming - the evidence

Driving into work this morning under the M4 bridge and I spotted a giant truck heading west with the words Bristol Fruit Company emblazoned on the side, along with a giant picture of a bunch of bananas.

Since when have bananas grown in Bristol?