A Suede holiday

Two days in London, lovely

So two nights at Suede, and the best part of two days in London surrounding it, what a rare treat! Clare left Harry with her mum and dad and came to meet me at work Thursday lunchtime. We left the car at work and started our adventure from Westenhanger station. Took an old slow train up to London as we were in no rush, and meandered across on foot to our hotel in Victoria, via parks, shops, and one pub. Or perhaps more Pimlico. It was the Best Western Victoria Palace something and was a bit crap, the hotel looked nice enough but we were actually in an "annex", converted flats nearby, like a pretty pokey halls of residence. It wasn't super cheap at £170 for the two nights, but was one of the cheaper options available that was central to where we wanted, so that's what skimping got us. It was clean, but very small, and turned out to be quite noisy.

As Clare was ages getting ready I headed out to The Marquis of Westminster a nice pub near the hotel and finished my book, then we headed for dinner. We met Emma near Victoria station in the Pizza Express for a fairly quick dinner then off to Brixton.

For the first night we stayed in the Dog Star until just before Suede were due on, then headed to some kind of "new" usual spot for Brixton Academy. I have obviously not been for ages, I thought we always stood at the front on the left, but no, it's all changed to standing at the front on the right. This is near the entrance to the VIP and backstage and so was the prime spot to spot a TV megastar - yes, Richard Osman off Pointless. This genuinely is a spot we were pleased with as we watch Pointless whenever it's on, via the magic of iplayer, while we're having our tea. Richard is the brother of Suede bassist Mat Osman, so we thought he might be there. He really is very tall indeed.

Suede came on to Bodies by the Sex Pistols which I seem to remember they always used as their intro music. They powered through the whole of the first album in order, a bit too fast for Clare, but it suits the album. Not too much fiddling about! The band all looked great. For the encore we got High Rising, He's Dead, My Insatiable One, To The Birds, Killing of a Flashboy, Can't Get Enough, Trash and The Beautiful Ones. Yeah I had to look that up on suede.co.uk - I am sad enough to have been occasionally twittering during the gig but not enough to be making notes on what songs they played. Not this time anyway.

No special access for us so we headed back to the tube and picked up some junk food on the way home, to eat with the bottle of D'Arenburgh Stump Jump that we bought earlier in House of Fraser.

Friday daytime we walked back in to town again via loads of brilliant charity shops near Victoria, then to Wagamama for lunch. It was the Great Windmill street branch, the first one I ever visited, I used to go there a lot when I first moved to London so that was nice. We tried the new side dishes they do and had a plum wine too. Then more shopping in John Lewis, more browsing for me but Clare bought some clothes and we got a great toy for Harry. Clare headed back to the hotel to get ready and I went to meet some friends. Saw Sean Hughes in the pub we went to. Celebrity #2! I just about made it back to the hotel again in time to head out.

We went back to the Dog Star again (why didn't they renamed it Dog Man Bar or something for this three day Suede-fest?), much more crowded on the Friday night, though we weren't there as long. We went in early so as to see the support Chapel Club. They played the single we know as the opening track but did not really thrill me. Emma had wangled us passes so we headed to the VIP bar just because we could. Even this early we got some more celebrity action, Simon Gilbert was in the bar, and so surprisingly was Frankie Poullain from The Darkness. Also saw @MatthewEveritt who we haven't seen since the last time we gigged in London which was a treat. Nice to see his face instead of just hearing his voice on the radio.

Dog Man Star turned out to be the best night of the two. It's Clare's favourite album, I would always say it is not mine but after this I realise that it probably is better than the first. It's a more showy dramatic album so they were able to do the songs full justice. Again they came on to Bodies as intro music, then strains of Still Life before starting proper with Introducing The Band and then the rest of the album in order. Only the second to last Asphalt World actually felt over the top to me.

For an encore they played The Living Dead, only slightly murdered by Brett. I say murdered, very unfairly, the only thing I can complain about is that it's a song that everyone wants to hear, and knows, and when he makes up his own jazz timings it makes it more difficult to sing along to - the audience kept coming in before him, which was odd. Still great though. And then, amazingly, we got My Dark Star, Stay Together (which I thought they hated and so never played, I've probably not seen it live before), Killing of a Flashboy, So Young, Metal Mickey and Animal Nitrate. Pretty special! All went to make the second night a lot better than the first. I expect tonight (Saturday, as I write this) will also have an amazing encore, as it's the last night, and to compensate for the actual album they're playing being slightly lighter-weight. After the show as we had passes we made the best of these and headed back to the bar, where on the first night we were hurled out in to the street. Frankie Poullain was back in the bar again, thought about saying hello but was a bit shy. We were definitely on helloing terms back in the day but that was a long time ago. Hello now anyway Frankie. Also saw @MatthewEveritt again, so nice to catch up, especially with him being a friend, ex workmate AND a famous celebrity, it ticks several boxes. Some of the band were in the bar, Richard Oakes and Neil Codling, and I saw Mat Osman and Simon Gilbert at some point, but maybe that was pre-show. Did not see Brett apart from on stage.

Did not stay up too late, got up quite early today in time to get the twenty past ten train home again. Made it back in time for Harry's lunch, he was not sulking and was pleased to see us. We all spent the afternoon at Connaught Park in Dover, some really good playground stuff there.

Now feels like we've had a full weekend, and it's still only Saturday night! I could be going out again today as Richard Herring is at the Cheesegrater in Folkestone, but four nights in a row would just be crazy, something had to give, and it was you Richard, sorry. It's the last night (possibly ever) of his Christ On A Bike tour revival, so you're in for a treat if you are there. We will have a night catching up on the TV.

Oh, I didn't get round to posting this until today (Monday) quite a risk with all that Rapture stuff in the news...

Yesterday we went to the garden centre in Alkham Valley, and cooked and ate lots of food. A full week of work for me now, first five dayer in ages.

pauly :: 2011 :: Comment / reply