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Tonight I got to celebrate my birthday with Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers who were celebrating their 10th Anniversary. There were party games, balloons, crisps and lots of friends ready to party.

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Support came from the lovely Mestisa who took us on a musical tour of South America. Their bass player Mike was 8 days overdue for being a dad – let’s hope all the dancing they inspired helped facilitate the birth….

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The Biscuits were their usual, gloriously daft selves. All your favourite tunes were on parade with Beige, Tweed Jacket, Land hermit crab and (of course) David Attenborough. Afterwards we de-camped to the Chemic where we met more friends and chatted and sang until chucking out time – what a fab birthday!

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Bob the Chiropodist

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It’s been quite a while since I last saw Teenage Fanclub. I was quite late in coming to them, initially dismissing them as a Britpop band (without ever having heard any of their stuff). It was when I moved in with a friend Martin circa ‘99, where ‘Grand Prix’ was on heavy rotation on the living room stereo, that I realised what I’d been missing. It was a joy to explore their earlier LPs – Great songs and great guitar work with beautiful harmonies. ‘Howdy!’ arrived soon after and I was hooked. We saw them a few times around that time but then they seemed to fall off the music scene for a while.

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Hearing ‘Sparky’s Dream’ ‘Star Sign’ and ‘I Need Direction’ tonight put a huge smile on my face. I’m glad to report that all the new stuff sounds as good as the old stuff with ‘Baby Lee’ striking a chord with me. The only down side was the blinding lights that hit the audience far too often – I was expecting having my ears assaulted, not my eyes.

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Having 3 song writers in the band means they only have to write 3 or 4 songs each and they have an LP – pity they don’t do it a bit more often.

Bob the Chiropodist

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I have to admit to not having heard of Ben Caplan before tonight. I was up in Glasgow for a Podiatry conference and instead of talking feet over dinner, decided to drag a few Pods to King Tuts to see who ever was on – if the band was pants at least we’d’ve been to one of the UK’s best known venues for a beer or 2. As it happens, Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers are not pants…..far from it……far from average……..quite a find in fact!

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The gig was great fun with lots of banter between songs to an appreciative crowd. Ben Caplan reminded me of Tom Waits (angry sounding growling vocals with wild eyes – you wouldn’t want to meet him at the end of a dark alley) and his backing band had shades of Gogol Bordello (raggedy eastern folk-like music), not a bad combination. Most songs seemed melancholy with a haunting undertone, which suited me just fine. For a big guy, he has some sweet guitar licks amongst the full on guitar rage.

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And then back to the conference for another 2 days of foot-talk

Bob the Chiropodist

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Tonight’s theme was ‘The Body’ accompanied by baked Camembert and a variety of other cheese and beer. I’ve become somewhat obsessed of late with the Matt Ward tune that opened things up…… I was so happy that it mentioned a body part and I could squeeze it in……as with the 2nd M Ward entry – well, no body. It didn’t take long until there was a knob round though…….

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Chinese Translation – M Ward (Bob) “What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?”

Pasties & a G-String – Tom Waits (Jez) Pasties are, well, boobs

Quiet Mind – GoGo Penguin (Simon)

Shake Your Hips – The Rolling Stones (Matt)

Perfume Garden – The Chameleons (Bob) “You can shake your hips, you can seal your lips, I can’t make that trip….”

Choke on a Cock – Adam Green (Jez) Do I need to explain this???

Penis Jokes – Austin Powers (Simon)

Sam, The Hot Dog Man – Lil Johnson [Matt]

Detatchable Penis – King Missile (Bob)  “I woke up this morning with a bad hangover and my penis was missing again…”

Chocolate Salty Balls – Chef (from South Park) (Jez)

Basic Hip – John Brent and Del Close (Simon)

In One Ear – Cage The Elephant [Matt]

Uncertain Smile – The The (Bob) “Peeling the skin back from my eyes…”

Kick in the Eye – Bauhaus (Jez)

Dry Lips – Lightspeed Champion (Simon)

Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band [Matt]

Born under punches – Talking Heads (Bob) “Take a look at these hands!”

My Ass is on Fire – Mr Bungle (Jez)

Carolyn’s Fingers – Cocteau Twins (Simon)

Barefootin’ – Robert Parker [Matt]

Half Moon Street – Pete & the Pirates (Bob) “Egyptian eyed lady, you don’t seem like you do what you’ve been told…”

Subbuteo – Admiral Fallow (Jez) “And boots met my face…”

Drawn to the Blood – Sufjan Stevens (Simon)

I Want A Bow Legged Woman – Bullmoose Jackson [Matt]

The reel in the flickering light – Christy Moore (Bob) “Heel to toe”

Laugh, Laugh Clap Your Hands – Bored Housewife (Jez)

Brilliant Sanity – Teleman (Simon)

Hurricane Heart Attack – The Warlocks [Matt]

Tip that waitress – Loudon Wainwright III (Bob) “Her arches are aching, her lower back’s shot, her varicose vein hurts like hell when it’s hot….”

No Legs – Adam Green (Jez)

Gary Gilmore’s Eyes – The Adverts (Simon)

Skin & Bone – The Kinks [Matt]

Get off your arse – Commoners Choir (Bob) “Get off your arse and do something good for the world”

Dimples and Toes – The Residents (Bob)

Mouthful of Shit – Chumbawamba (Jez)

Documentary – ! (Simon)

Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth – The Dead Boys [Matt]

And a bang on the ear – Waterboys (Bob) “Deborah broke my heart, and I the willing fool…”

Stiff Little Fingers – Vibrators (Jez)

Happy Faces – The Maccabees (Simon)

Headspin – Black Honey (Matt)

What’s inside a girl – The Cramps (Bob) “Sugar and spice is just a bluff, you can tell me baby what is that stuff?”

Never had nobody like you – M Ward (Bob)…..and ‘no body’ to finish……

 

Bob the Chiropodist

 

Matt’s choices on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/mattyoung18/playlist/5wNm3vJ2edGzyBIOiehTsf

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Since first happening upon them back in 2008, I try never to miss the Wave Pictures when they’re touring – they’re so good – always the same but different with new stuff in tow. Touring with their 2nd LP of the year, they have one heck of a back catalogue to call upon, with new favourites like ‘Pool Hall‘ mixed in with their Billy Childish inspired ‘Pea Green Coat‘ and my favoutite ‘Like Smoke‘ – during which 3 blokes next to me insisted on talking loudly to each other – I asked them to shush (I mean – talk during the loud ones but during ‘Like Smoke’ – FFS!!!) but that just seemed to make them worse so I moved to where I couldn’t hear them…..I’m with Tony Husband on this one…..

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Brilliant musicianship as we’ve come to expect with Johnny Helm almost stealing the show with his ballad. Plenty of friends in the audience, Sledge, Mike, Andy, Martin, Mike, Mark and new dad Jonny who was looking good on his zero hours sleep contract (aka fatherhood). David Tattersall explained to us afterwards how he was a dad by proxy, but the details are lost to me now. Here’s to another couple of LPs and tour in 2017

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I got the new LP and of course the misses got the obligatory T-Shirt to add to her collection

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Bob the Chiropodist