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[ema]

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[chocabloc]

I'm sure kieron will give you a proper review, i said hello to him so he was there,with a big camera. it was a rocking show. i remember them playing

arrow
posters
chelsea hotel oral sex
short history of communism in china (part 4?)
they always knew
no lsd tonight
they also did a number with professor louie, and a bunch of crass songs

i ain't thick
banned from the roxy
systematic death
end result (i think)
gasman cometh

and probably other stuff. professor louie was amazing, and i even got a nice picture with the boys. great night

[/list]

[Neil]

I was also at the Edinbuger gig. It was great! My favourite bit was probably the 500 bpm version of "We don't need no LSD tonite" that they squeezed in to beat the 10 o'clock curfew! Awesome!
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"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
-- Albert Einstein

[Kieron]

There you go Ema - need i say more?

Well, there's not much to add. But i'll start from the start. Saw the love gestures and jack outside, so had a wee chat with everyone. the Love Gestures came on, with Cammy playing the opening chords to Walls (which is my fav LEB song) and then broke a string. Five minutes of swearing and cursing later, they were back playing, their set was shortened but it was one of their best gigs, i think. the band thought it was crap, but i really didthink it one of their best.

Then the prof came on, all growling flemmy voice - very distinct! His directness was quite refreshing, and none of his stuf seemed that superfluous. I was especially taken by the cockroach song!

at some point i chatted to helen at the merch table, and bought fuff4 (even though i don't yet have 2 or 3!), a tshirt for me and emma to share and 2(!) prof louiooiuie cds.

anyway, this is more like a day-in-the-life of kieron than anything.

so jeff came on, he played his own, then he played some crass, then played his own again. Second song was arrow -which is just my most favouritist jeff song ever - i though i was going to pee myself! but it was so good. i have to say, it was one of the best gigs i have been to in a very long time. i woke up t 5am really happy and excited from the night before! (and no, i didn't do any extacy )

Only problem was - the place was heaving, made especially annoying by the large volume of people who seemed to not give a toss, but would rather like to tell their freinds they saw jeff before he was famous (or some such twaddle). There was a super-tall girl infront of us who snottily wouldn't let us pass, who did not move throughout the whole of jeff's set - i was dancing like a crazy man! why couldn't this prissy girl just go to the back and let REAL fans have fun, huh?! oh well, it was still all good!

Congratualtions if you managed to read as far as this

[ema]

congrat me then!
i thought you'd never see that topic!
you woke up at 5 am?! hahahahha....it usually takes me hours to fall asleep after a gig...i just keep thinking about how good the show was and how i spent such a great time, trying to remember which songs they played, ect...i'm just too thrilled about the whole thing to sleep straight through the night!hehe

i'm so glad to see that you had a supergreat time!Cammy broke a string?! haha... awww..that's not a bigga deal....he was prolly nervous as hell...it makes the night more special..like when the singer forgets the lyrics, gibberishing (is that a word?) blah blah bleuuuh instead...i like that!
you bought the yellow t-shirt? me too...that's a v cool tee!
but i did not buy the prof louie cds as he did not tour in france...bahhh..are they good?
yeah, arrow is such a terrific song, love it as well...and i'm so jealous that they played chelsea, man!!!!!! i never saw him playing that song ...or was it the low budget vid?
you know you have to kick some ass to be on the front row...sorry to hear about the super-tall-bitch...but as long as you had a good time..that's all that matters, right?!
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[ema]

hey, nice smiling pic chocabloc!

@ Neil:
neil neil neil...the jlb driver ? Neil from the love gestures?

anyways, glad to know you all had a great time!
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[ema]

[Kieron]

[Neil]

[Kieron]

[Michael]

Kieron!

I echo your feelings about new folks at Jeff shows who don't seem to give a toss (and YES! I know I sound like a grumpy old man at this point!). The recent Bradford show was a case in point. The band played a high octane set, but we were denied a few of Jeff's quieter ones because the band had clearly sussed that no one would have been able to hear them due to the incessant noise of folks talking. It was the first time I had been in an audience for a Lewis concert that seemed to be treating it as just another indie show.

The gig a couple of weeks after at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds threw up a different problem. It was a ticket-only affair and it sold out in advance. There were some "real" fans (ugh, I'm really not liking the way this must be coming across...) outside who had clearly turned up expecting to be able to pay on the door (as usual at Leeds AFNY shows) but had been turned away. There were some girls crying because they couldn't get in.

To be fair, the audience who had got tickets were very respectful and gave both Prof Louie and Jeff and co the best of attention, but I wondered what Jeff should do now? Should he move to larger venues and risk losing the intimacy of gigs at places like the Brudenell (capacity 300)??? Or charge more for tickets to put off the casual audience member? Or maybe play a residency of two or more nights in the same town?

Anyone else got an opinion? Or had a similar experience? I'm curious to know how many folks he pulls in other towns. I don't want to sound like the sort of Jeff fan who despises other folks getting in on "my special thing" - I just think Jeff would lose something from playing the larger venues. The new projections of the "lo-fi" videos already seems to suggest that he is up-sizing.

[jewis22]

This is an issue I've thinking about especially after the current tour which was our biggest UK tour. (it's not so much an issue outside of the UK where we usually play for 50-150 people) I'm glad you noticed some of this as well. I did feel there were more people just there to hang out and talk. We sometimes prefer playing for folks who don't know us and winning them over. But there were a few shows on this tour where people seemed to know a lot of the songs and that just feels amazing and gratifying.
I was wondering what would happen if we charged more for tickets. If that would weed out the casual fans, or if it would just screw everyone.
There was one show in Norwich that a bunch of people were talking up near the front of the stage. After a while I got annoyed and asked a few people to keep it down.

[Will Oldham]

I got pissed off at some people talking loudly at the bristol show at the start of the tour it was at the back by the bar and maybe it was louder to me as I was on the merch' but it was during some quiet songs and it really surprised me as I'm not use to it at the shows normally all eyes are glued to the stage, it seemed really disrespectful

saying that I've just remembered, at one of the windmill gigs a year or two ago some people were talking during champion Jim and nearly the whole audience told them to shut up! it pleased me greatly
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www.myspace.com/will_oldham_horror

[jack fe]

Yeah, I noticed that a bit at the Brixton show, but not to a huge extent.

I am someone who gets defensive about good bands, although not a complete Nazi. If the band are getting more fans that's great, but if people are just wandering and chatting, that can't really be helped but is annoying as hell.

People taking during shows is pretty much my most hated thing. I'm there to see a band, dance and have a good time, not to talk to friends over the music. Hell, you have more than enough time before they play.
I get really angry when people pay no attention/respect to support bands especially.
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[graveyard]

i think its great for jeff hes gettnig more & new fans, but at the oxford show, at the start during the quieter songs there were 2 people stood behind me, talking throughout them, then as soon as they started playing louder they left. also, when jeff was doing the history of communism, some idiot was heckling throughout the start of it (shouting stuff like 'BORING')