Manics gig blogs

[blackflower]

Thank you! I'm completely buzzing now, it's going to be very hard to concentrate on work this afternoon!

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by blackflower

Thank you! I'm completely buzzing now, it's going to be very hard to concentrate on work this afternoon!

Congratulations on the interview and NEW Suede material I didn't know they were doing until I read your blog! Oh the excite!

[blackflower]

Thanks Son of Stopped! Yes, the new Suede tune is really great, I'm very excited at what their next album might be like!

[marrs-guitar]

Originally Posted by blackflower

Well, it turns out my blog is taking me places! Specifically, to Cardiff this Friday, where I'll talk to a man from the BBC about the Manic Millennium! It's for a documentary about Millennium Eve on BBC Wales. Am both thrilled and a bit terrified

This sounds very interesting. Weird/horrendously depressing to think it's almost 20 years ago!

[blackflower]

Morning FD! Well, Friday was definitely an experience. The filming was done at Cardiff and Vale College in a big room circled with black curtains. It felt quite awkward a lot of the time, as during the filming the whole room was dark apart from a huge circular light which I had to stare into as I was talking, plus they asked me to take off my glasses so I was half blind into the bargain, staring at a blurry light, listening to a disembodied voice asking me questions about something I did 20 years ago! Also, it wasn't just a normal conversation as I basically had to repeat the question in my answer, eg 'how did you feel in the weeks leading up to the Millennium?' 'In the weeks leading up to the Millennium I felt really excited' etc). So I'm worried I might come across as a bit stilted and generally bewildered. However, the crew were lovely and said I did well, so fingers crossed it won't be too intensely cringe-worthy to watch! All in all, it proved that I'm definitely more comfortable with the written word than the spoken!

Speaking of which, I'm off to edit my blog post about the Brixton 2002 gig, should have that up later today

[blackflower]

So! Here's Brixton 2002, a blog post unofficially subtitled "Alas! No thighs." Did we ever find out why Nicky was in such a bad mood that night? And does anyone else remember the James's crotch vs Nicky's thighs war that I apparently started on FD in my review of the gig that night? Those really were the glory days on the forum, it seems!

[blackflower]

And now we come to the last night of the Forever Delayed tour, in Cardiff. The only time in my life I've hung around to meet the band after a gig. It was pretty damn amazing

[LA ex]

Great stuff as always.

My only Manics encounter was almost walking into James as he left the toilets when he played Newbridge Memorial hall on his solo tour many, many years ago.

[blackflower]

Thanks LA ex!

I have a couple more Manics encounters to write about on my blog: the HMV signing in 2003 (which was pretty good!) and the Rough Trade signing of 2014 (which was pretty rubbish - I stood in front of the Manics for several minutes while they completely ignored me as they were locked in conversation with a mate of theirs. Thought that was a bit a of crap way to treat their fans who'd bought their album and just wanted to say hello! It was a damn signing after all and they'd asked us to be quick! Anyway, that rant will be in a blog post to come )

[blackflower]

Hi all! Just a little heads up that if you want to catch my stellar performance as a slightly bewildered Manics fan in the Millennium documentary, there's only two days left to watch on iplayer here!

It's going to be Manics time on my blog again very soon - next up is Move festival and then the HMV gig and signing of July 2003. I've been really enjoying typing those up, it was such a fun time to be a Manics fan

[blackflower]

Aaaand Move is now up here! Singalong Manics thrills

Edit: Woohoo, lightening fast retweet from FD, thank you!

[blackflower]

GOOD MORNING! It's been a little while, work has been very busy and my health's been all over the place (NOT Coronovirus though, yet!) but I've finally managed to finish my next Manics post, about the HMV in-store gig and signing of July 2003. Here it is - dedicated to you lovely lot at FD!

https://scruffystorms.com/2020/03/15...oxford-circus/

So now I have good news and bad news for people who enjoy my posts.

Good: In a few weeks I'm taking a three month career break from my day job to focus completely on my blog and other writing! There will be lots more blog posts and much more frequent updates!

Bad: This is my last Manics gig until 2016 that I have a really long diary entry for, so alas, most of my Manics posts will be much shorter and less detailed. Many apologies in advance for that.

Still, I hope you'll stick with me! I'm planning on a new series in my blog in which I go through the back cataogues of my favourite bands (called, ingeniously, "All the albums of my life") and the Manics will of course be a part of that. And the gig blogs will still be there, just not quite so full of my hyperventilatingly scribbled, exclamation mark strewn thoughts of yore.

Finally - thanks once again to FD for the scarily fast retweet!

[LA ex]

A great read as always. Thanks for posting!

[blackflower]

Thank you LA ex!

[blackflower]

Well good morning all! Once again, it's been a while, but here I am with my next Manics gig blog post, the Isle of Wight fest in 2004. As mentioned last time, this is a shorter report than usual, but I hope it still brings back some memories!

So, back in March I was talking about taking a career break to focus on my blog. That was cancelled due to Covid, and so all my plans for a spring full of blog posts aplenty never came to be. I still hope that at some point I'll be able to take time out to focus on my writing, but no idea when that will be now. But I still plod on with the blog, it's a great distraction from the general craziness of the world right now!

Hope you enjoy this post, will be back before long with a report on the December 2004 gigs!