Worcester Marrs Bar.
Our home away from home.
The first of two Buck Brothers gigs at the venue over the weekend.
A brilliant line-up:
And what will be left of them? (
http://www.myspace.com/awwblot)
Buck Brothers
Meg
Although the trek from London to Worcester was plagued with nasty weather and ongoing gridlock (not to mention Buck flatulence), neither of these factors bothered us as we knew this was going to be a special weekend for the band. We arrived at the venue just in time for soundcheck and received big hugs from all of our Marrs Bar family. It felt extremely good to be back.
The show started to a largely seated but well attended crowd.
"Meg", first on, are a Kidderminster based four piece band that recalled Granddaddy and Dinosaur Jnr. We loved their set and they're all incredibly nice lads to boot. As the lighting system at the venue was playing up, the film "Fame" was projected onto the band instead of the normal lights/gels that are used to illuminate the performers. It added a kitsch value to the band's set.
And then it was time for us to go on.
Although we enjoyed our gig, it was much more ropey than usual. Thanks, in part, to our consumption of one too many Diesels (Snakebite & Black) before we went on. I suppose that the welcoming charms of the Marrzy can have negative effects too. Apart from one technical problem (Per's guitar not working at the beginning of the first bar of the first song), our set went off without a hitch. Prior to the gig, Sam 'The Tour Bitch' Roberts informed us that his friend Neil listens to Buck Brothers' "Manish Girl" whenever he's depressed in order to cheer himself up. Armed with that tidbit of info, I dedicated the track to him during our set. I like the idea of someone cheering themselves up to a Buck baby. One thing that may have created a few laughs was my onstage barnet. Thanks to an onstage fan right next to my microphone, my hair probably looked more "electrified" than it normally does so I'm amazed I didn't get any Back to the Future references. It was probably our loosest gig to date but it seemed to go down well and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. I came off the stage to several enquiries about how I get my bass to sound "that way" and many lovely compliments from complete strangers too. Every CD that we had displayed was shifted and two people indicated that we were their new favourite band. Not bad considering the fact that all three Bucks considered this show to be sub-par. Rather than dwell on the negative, we immersed ourselves in Diesels and many shots of Sambuca. I even managed to experience a repeat of my "sticky finger" experience (see Amsterdam blog below).
"And what will be left of them?" were on next. To my amazement, they used Buck Brothers' very own "Stingray" intro music complete with "Ladies and gentlemen....heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer's Buck Brothers" to start their set with. Complete with two finger signs to yours truly. I really love them. This local five piece band are close friends of ours and we are extremely big fans of their energentic, catchy and alluring set. So much so, in fact, that we'll be doing some mini-tours together very, very soon. Their set was sublime and I really love their new tunes. The track "Hi-Fi Low Life" was a highlight for yours truly.
I had many great conversations with people both known and new but particular thanks (and apologies for my enibraited babblings) go out to: J J Mitchell, Hay & Louise (a more entertaining trio would be hard to find), everyone from Meg, Brian Maher, Jon (thanks for helping us to load the equipment), Jenny Marrs (for keeping the 'Dykes for Norfolk' faith, Pete Rawlings, Willis and everyone else that I may have rubbed drunken shoulders with.
After leaving the Marrs Bar at around 2 am, we carried on the "Worcester Bunker" which would be our home for the entire weekend. Many of the people listed above came along and the fun and frollicking lasted well into the morning.
And, in a drunken haze, Lucy and Sam "The Tour Bitch" Roberts suggested that we walk up the Malvern Hills the following morning.
All three Buck agreed to this and, here's the lovely part of the story, we actually managed to do it.
We'd be running up that hill.....
Despite hangovers that were akin to being blasted with a Chris De Burgh compilation being blasted at deafening volume levels and a few hours sleep - Sam, Lucy, Per and yours truly made our way up the Malvern's "Pixie Steps" and up to the top. Poor Jack, however, was unwell and remained in the van. "The Lady in Red" was quite clearly on repeat in our lovely drummer's internal jukebox. Poor lad. I really felt for him. I wasn't feeling 100n top form and had to do a really dodgy impression of a Welsh accent for much of our trek to keep me distracted. But not for too long. The Malvern Hills are truly gorgeous and the views were invigorating. "This is the life" I muttered to myself as we reached the summit. And I meant it. And then, in order to prevent the cheese factor from setting in, I indicated that I wanted to meet some incontinent Welsh women with a view to checking their knickers for leaks.
Fancy checking their smalls for leaks?