Saturday 10th July 1999Colchester - The TwistSomehow I managed to lose my wallet on the way to the gig which was a major pain in the bum as it had all of my credit cards in it and twenty quid. Apart from that the journey from London to Colchester was pretty un-eventful. We left on time despite me and Ben being late due to watching the qualifying for the British Grand Prix. It was very easy to navigate our way around Colchester and find The Twist which is a dedicated music venue that has been putting on bands for about 6 years now. We were given a very friendly welcome by the family who run the venue, special thanks go to Holly, Kev, Chris, Andy and every one else at The Twist for their very kind and generous hospitality. Tonight's promoter, Ben had done a great job of publicising the gig along with Uncle Squid who is a local to Colchester. The sound-check was very quick and easy, we had finished before we knew it so we decided to explore Colchester. We found the castle and the surrounding park, which was very pleasant. We soaked up some Roman and Norman history and got the feel for the town. Very nice it is too. By the time that we got back to the venue it was already beginning to fill up. There was a very healthy crowd in attendance as Pharmacy took the stage as the first band of night. Pharmacy played with us when we played in Chelmsford and I remember really liking them then. This time though they were even better, it was great to see a band so obviously into the music they were playing. The second band on Naked were slightly less to my taste to be honest, but they were very skillfull and energetic and there was a pretty good reaction from the crowd apart from the very partisan Abdou fans, bless 'em. Once again I felt like I was amongst friends as we stepped onto the stage to begin our set. I had an enormously enjoyable gig. We did a full set of 14 songs which lasted aboput 50 minutes. It was very warm onstage and I had to pause to catch my breath a couple of times. As usual, I forgot a decent proportion of the words and once again, the front row of the crowd was there to help me, especially Rob, who I use as a interactive auto-cue. We love you Rob. SETLIST Abdoujaparov Theme Song Thanks to everyone who came to the gig, you are all wonderful. Thanks to Pharmacy and Naked for their very able support and thanks again to Ben and the folk from The Twist. The next Abdou gig is at The George IV, Brixton Hill, Brixton, Sarf London on Thursday 29th July. I can feel it in my bones that it will be the best one yet, so make sure that you are there. Take care, love fruityxxx |