Friday 24th September 1999

Hartlepool - The Studio

It's very long drive all the way from Brixton, it took us about 8 hours door to door and Ben had to drive the whole way as the rest of us useless bastards can't drive. The motorway was chocka all of the way too which made for a pretty boring journey. Luckily the van had a tape deck this time so we had some entertainment from The Fall, Radiohead and various other bits of musical wonderment.

We were given a very warm welcome by Andy and the crew from The Studio and after a quick cuppa, and a painless soundcheck we tucked into beer and sandwiches.

We all watched the local support band Jacob, who went down very well with finely crafted britpop and even a great versions of Blur's Beetlebum and Parklife. I think that one cover would have been enough, but both songs were played with such enthusiasm, I couldn't complain. Jacob are a very young band and I have an idea that there is a bright future in store for them if they keep going the way they have been going

We were pretty well oiled by the time we boarded the stage, but it didn't matter as we played one of our best gigs ever in front of a lovely crowd. I heard quite a lot of the local gossip in the quiet bits of the songs, but bit by bit the audience warmed to the unfamiliar sound of Abdoujaparov. I had a simply lovely time and I think that the rest of the band would agree.

I'm not going to bother writing down the setlist as it was exactly the same as the last two gig except that we didn't play Benjamin and Jumble.

After the gig the drinking continued until the wee small hours and the night ended up with Ben having to fetch me from underneath a table so that we could drive to the local B & B. The landlady and landlord of the B & B were asleep we arrived but we the venue had organised a key for us. It was a very nice B & B too, I had a very good night's kip and a lovely boiled egg for brekkie.

So the verdict on Hartlepool? Lovely place lovely people. Cheers to everyone who helped the day be special.

Love fruity xxx