23/05/18 Birmingham Academy 1
 

See you there!

I'll be there! My first time to Birmingham, in fact, so any advice for things to see or do the day after the gig are welcome.

I wasn't going to do it.

I was going to wait for whatever the Welsh date was going to be.

Then I saw tickets were still on sale for Birmingham, and there were still rooms in the Ibis that is literally around the corner from the venue and still cheap on booking.com. So tonight, I have said "fuck it" and booked both. Will sort out the coach a little nearer to the gig.

I'm likely going to go to the welsh one anyway, but I don't care.

Looking forward to this later!

What have we been looking at for start times so far? About 8.45?

Yes from what I've read, 8.45

Start: 8:45
Finish: 10:30

Have fun, Charlie!

Confirming that the onstage time in Mcr was definitely 20.45 and I'm assuming it will be tonight. If you are looking for a bar fairly close to the venue, Cherry Red's is pretty good, that's where I will be in a couple of hours or so ;-)

https://goo.gl/maps/3EQxp9rkKAtv8A6a7

Just walked past James having a smoking tea/coffee break — thought I should just leave him to it

I really enjoyed that gig, but what on earth was going on with the fighting at the front?!

Oh no, that doesn’t sound good

Cool! Hope you had a fantastic gig!

Eeeeeeek! Not good!

Bit weird that. Never been to a gig stopped for fighting. They did their best to kick in afterwards though.

Gig stopped for fighting ?? :eek: and there was me thinking trouble would get less with an older crowd. Obvs not !

It's the older crowd who tends to get a bit more sloshed.

There's been a weird vibe this tour, have been hearing about a lot of negative experiences in regard to crowd behaviour.

Yea, it probably wasn’t the nicest gig environment I’ve been to. Lot of people very tanked up and the academy is a bloody awful venue.
The boys were great though. Fab set, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves aside from the argy bargy.

I wasn’t there last night, but have seen on Twitter/Facebook what happened. James handled it well from the video I saw. I can’t imagine how embarrassing it would be to be told off by the band you’re supposed to be a fan of, but clearly some can’t care about such things!

Tbh I’ve noticed at gigs in general more recently that security don’t seem to be as visible as they used to be. At most gigs there used to be several stood in front of the stage looking out at the crowd, but they all seem to stand at the side and in the shadows now and only pop up to hand out water (twice on this tour they’ve tried to hand it out during You Love Us of all songs as well, which seems a bit ill-timed but there we are!). They need to be diffusing these situations swiftly before they get out of hand.

The first guy was definitely on something. Couldn’t even keep his tongue in his mouth and needed about 6 people to restrain him. I was at the receiving end of a thump in the back from him. Absolutely ridiculous that they didnt station security in front of the stage though.

Agree. I was waving at security in Manchester for help to deal with a drunk woman behind me, but they just looked at me thinking what you waving at!

Well, it led to some pretty nice banter between James and the crowd, so not a complete loss. Still baffling and shitty behaviour though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NhA0pVG_pM

Good that James tried to sort it out but he shouldn't have to. Are security scared of confrontation nowadays????

What would happen if you accidentally happened to elbow one of the those guys in the face in such a melee? Accidentally of course?

The crowd in the Shepherds Bush Empire gig on the Saturday night was REALLY old. And loads of (drunk) dudes. It was all a bit weird.

Yeah he handled it really well, a testament to the man he is.

Not sure what Nicky thought - he looked really embarrassed / bored / pissed off with it.

I only remember it happening once before at Glastonbury 99 where people were getting crushed at the front and James stopped halfway through Yes.

It’s become more often at Manics gigs over the years. Maybe it’s just because I go to Manics gigs more than any other band but they seem to be littered with bellends these days. Gobby kids with a couple of shandies down their necks.

Missed PR opportunity from Bradders. Dave Nicestguyinrock Grohl managed to go viral when it happened to him.

https://youtu.be/FR530bo4ceU

The first instance of commotion was a few rows behind me. Didn't see all of what happened, but saw enough - I've never seen anything like it before.

Apart from that, I think that's amongst one of my favourite shows from the band. I so love hearing the Truth album tracks and Sleepflower was great again. And not only that, but I think Gwenno has been really good and it's been nice to hear one of my favourite songs from Bill Ryder-Jones pre-show too.

Any idea what was actually going on? All we could glean from our side was there was some fisticuffs.

Same thing: punches bring thrown, seemed to be two or three guys involved but as to what caused it, I don't know.

The second scenario was out of sight for me so don't know what that was.

This happened tonight at Southampton too.