Leamington Spa

[Michael Heatley]

Frankly I havent watched since William Hartnell left. Or was he sacked? How these other guys claim to be Who I dont know. Especially the new indie kid. Load of K9P!

[Akeno-Pool]

Now youre not seriously suggesting those first 6 songs had a greater entertainment value than Dr Who are you? You cannot dis the Doctor he's been around longer than Man even. Several thousand years actually

Hmmm  Who's dissing?
Anyway I didnt watch it tonight (and never have) so I am in a good position to comment that  Dr Who was rubbish tonight, what with that new assistant and the change in theme tune, another different Dr who isnt the same as the original Dr that I used to like, and other things I know nothing about.
I'm insulted.

[Gavin Crumpton]

Funnily enough, my friend Deke doesnt take sides. Bob, another of my friends, was on the way to play a gig in Leicester. He said 'Give the boys my love'. And he wasn't being sarcastic.

If he, and George, can move on, then surely it's time everyone else did. And that's a bit of friendly advice.

PS If anyone wants my thoughts on the gig send me a message, as my initial post seemed to cause unexpected controversy.

Michael, you havent read my post about rattling cages either have you?
I cant make it any clearer really.

As I said 3 years and you lot still dont disappoint.

Did Bob say whether he'd got his royalies for KON yet? I know Bob and George love Martin really they tell me all the time. I reckon he'll be one of the special guests at their gig. What do you think?

Seriously Michael those first 6 songs even you must have found that hard, or did you disappear to the bar to watch Dr Who?

The farce continues and the circus rolls on to Hamburg next. Which I undersand is being filmed for DVD release.
They should be match fit as its the last gig of the European tour. Has it been commissioned to a professional company or is it the guys that did Rex? Lets hope its in synch this time and 16:9, surely it wont be HD. Did I tell you Effigy is professional now? Not that Martin could afford us, or that we'd work with him because he just cant be trusted on the financial side of things as you well know. And well those first 6 songs would be a problem. Take Dekes songs out of the equation and the set list for the DVD will be, well not great will it. Perhaps they'll drop the novelty songs and plunder the back catalogue. Who knows or cares. Hopefully somebody will send me a copy of the DVD when it comes out I do so enjoy waching live comedy.

That really is it for this year. Unless Martin answers my email which of course he wont.

Until next time. Love and peace, and dont forget look out for the Who T-Shirt on Dec 17th, although I may be wearing body armour underneath.

Ramble on!

PS Michael, you're on the memorial concert DVD singing "If Paradise was half as nice" In perfect harmony with AFL. Hope you'll waive your performance royalties as its for charity.

[Gavin Crumpton]

Now youre not seriously suggesting those first 6 songs had a greater entertainment value than Dr Who are you? You cannot dis the Doctor he's been around longer than Man even. Several thousand years actually

Hmmm  Who's dissing?
Anyway I didnt watch it tonight (and never have) so I am in a good position to comment that  Dr Who was rubbish tonight, what with that new assistant and the change in theme tune, another different Dr who isnt the same as the original Dr that I used to like, and other things I know nothing about.
I'm insulted.

I heard that the Doctor's assistant was verbally and physically abusive to the shows technical staff, but its probably not true as`it says on the Dr Who Archive that the root causes were complex and multiple. And the archive prides itself on always being factually correct. I also heard that the new Dr Who pocketed royalties from DVD releases of previous series that should have been shared out among the entire cast and he didnt even appear in some of the episodes? Can believe thats true he seems like such a nice timelord. But if it is true that would make him a very naughty timelord indeed!

None of thats true, its just a dream I had...

[Tel]

Frankly I havent watched since William Hartnell left. Or was he sacked? How these other guys claim to be Who I dont know. Especially the new indie kid. Load of K9P!

Heatley you Heathen 

WH left at the end of the first Cybermen story, The Tenth Planet, through ill health, in fact he was so bad he's hardly in The Tenth Planet spending a lot of the plot unconcious.

Matt Smith did take a bit of getting used to after David Tennant, but I remember him in Party Animals, a political drama about a Labour Party Minister where he played one of her researchers. The MP was played by the gorgeous Raquel Cassidy(*) who was also in Dr Who earlier this year.

(*Note to Rob W - that's a proper older woman fantasy!)

And he was very good.

Like all Doctors there are parts of his character that annoy me but he'scertainly grown into the part. And Alex Kingston(#) has always impressed me as an actress. I watch the re-runs of ER hoping she'll be in them.

(# Note to Rob W - as above).

And it was a great episode, resolving a olong running storyline from last year and opening another one. (Damn you Steven Moffat - now I've got to wait anxiously again)

(Oh and Rob - I'll add Louise Delamare into the list - She was in "No Angels") 

[Rob W]

Cheers, Tel. Thanks for the various bits of advice there, I'm afraid I don't know anything about the ladies  mentioned, but as you prefer Suzannah thingy to Sian Williams, sorry matey, not taking advice from you, because  clearly you haven't a clue.....no sirrreeee   

And whilst on the subject, I was in the car yesterday, and what comes on the radio - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep. But this is the deeply disturbing bit. Did I think back to TOTP, or You Tube videos ( ! ) about wotsername there, wearing those gorgeous hotpants, showing off the sexiest bum and sexiest legs ever seen by mankind?   No!   As a result of his recent postings on the Message Board about said lady, first thing I thought of was Allan Piggin' Heron. How b*st*rd sad was that???   

Grrrrrrr   

[Allan Heron]

Cheers, Tel. Thanks for the various bits of advice there, I'm afraid I don't know anything about the ladies  mentioned, but as you prefer Suzannah thingy to Sian Williams, sorry matey, not taking advice from you, because  clearly you haven't a clue.....no sirrreeee   

And whilst on the subject, I was in the car yesterday, and what comes on the radio - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep. But this is the deeply disturbing bit. Did I think back to TOTP, or You Tube videos ( ! ) about wotsername there, wearing those gorgeous hotpants, showing off the sexiest bum and sexiest legs ever seen by mankind?   No!   As a result of his recent postings on the Message Board about said lady, first thing I thought of was Allan Piggin' Heron. How b*st*rd sad was that???   

Grrrrrrr   

But was I wearing hotpants?  That would be worrying 

[Mike Morgan]

What's not to like about Karen Gillan?

Top bird!

[helena]

I was standing next to Michael H last night and saw him using his smart phone and joked that he was posting - turns out he really was!

I'm getting fed up of everyone sniping. This is supposed to be about MUSIC for goodness sake! Here's my opinion - a sort of review - for what it's worth. I may be newish to this forum but not to Man - only to the recent politics. And if you didn't go last night, you are in no position to criticise what you did not see.

Bearing in mind that I had not seen any version of Man live since 1975 ish, I have no axes to grind but will declare an interest in wanting to see Deke play.

The band started minus Deke for a sort of “Martin Ace’s greatest hits” section. The Price kicked it off in a strong fashion, quickly followed by Mad On Her, a couple of songs from Josh which I don’t know but were melodic enough, Popemobile and X Ray Eyes. I’m not the greatest fan of Martin’s voice or songs but he was singing well and a lot of smiles around me showed that the audience (which was respectable in size – maybe 120?) was pleased with what they were hearing.

Martin then introduced his surprise for the night “someone with a ruddy face and silver pony tail – one of the only 2 surviving members of the original Man Band”. That would be Deke then, arriving dressed in black from head to toe and to good applause. Straight into a short slide intro to The Ride and The View – and it’s clear that Deke is in good voice. I say so to MH who opines that it’s much better than it was in soundcheck. He’s obviously recovered from a 5 hour nightmare car drive from Chester on what turned out to be the hottest Saturday of the year. Generally all night Deke’s voice is strong and sounds better than some of the videos from the last few years that I have seen.

7171 551, C’mon – and at some point which might have been in the middle of C’mon - MH (he said he wanted money to be quoted on this so I'll buy the beer next time Michael!) was heard to say “just like the old times”. I’m a bit hazy on song order here and might have missed something ....but.... Daughter of the Fireplace and Many are Called took us through the Part 2, the regulation long encores with Romain, Spunk Rock, Bananas and a really funky version of Do It with Deke back on fine vocal form to finish off with.

This was good music played by good musicians who really looked like they were enjoying themselves (particularly the older members!). They had clearly rehearsed and in general it was quite tight, just the odd rough ending here and there. Maybe it was a little heavy at times with not a lot of the musical space that often characterised Man – but with 3 guitars and keyboards I suppose there’s not a lot of room. There were some good harmonies, some lovely keyboard solo work from Phil and plenty of guitar from James; perhaps not as much from Deke as one would have liked but when he was playing it was instantly distinctive. Afterwards he said ruefully that he was “not match fit” but it didn’t really show, although he did admit to falling up the stairs from the dressing room to the stage on top of his guitar “the guitar’s all right though”.

The smile on MH’s face at the end said it all. If you didn’t come on principle you missed a good night. Would I go and see the band without Deke? Well, that’s another story.

[Rob W]

Thanks for the report. A good attendance, more than many would have anticipated, and more than I have seen at a fair number of Man gig's.

Maybe as discussed post '83 that the band should perform 'one off' gigs well spaced out in terms of distance, would have resulted in quite healthy crowds, rather than appearing on consecutive nights just 20 miles up the road. 

If I may make one slight but important correction. Although "everyone" may hold different views, well maybe just two actually, for or against, there is only one person, who is "sniping". This is important to mention, because it implies we as 'fans' are falling out with each other. This is most certainly not the case. But it could! (I hope this is now not used as an excuse to hijack this thread!) 

  

[Jules]

Michael, Jules, Tim lets have your unbiased, objective views now please:

Far too entertaining reading yours Gav.

[Nick Nation]

Thanks for the review, Helen. Looking forward to reading more.

So DL didn't do 14 songs as predicted....and no new ones? Any mention of the box set?

[Akeno-Pool]

No mention of Box Set or Book.
Definately over 120 people paid for tickets.

[Jules]

The "Live Adventures Of Man" box set is endorsed by the band. Phil's allegedly writing some liner notes... My fears about it being unsanctioned were unfounded.

Deke's latest book is delayed as Michael has mentioned elsewhere. There was a short information slip on most seats yesterday advising interested punters to send an e-mail to northdown01@gmail.com with a blank message and Twang in the subject line. 

[Akeno-Pool]

The "Live Adventures Of Man" box set is endorsed by the band. Phil's allegedly writing some liner notes... My fears about it being unsanctioned were unfounded.

Deke's latest book is delayed as Michael has mentioned elsewhere. There was a short information slip on most seats yesterday advising interested punters to send an e-mail to northdown01@gmail.com with a blank message and Twang in the subject line.

Many thanks for the updates.