Nick at Aylesbury Civic Centre
(opening for the Levellers),
Friday 7 March 2003 - by "Big" Chris Moxon


Well I can some up Nick's gig in Aylesbury last Friday as... not the best! Nick looked a bit knackered and peeved when he got on stage, and it ended with him looking even worse.

He was going to do the "usual" set of Building Our Own Temple, Titties And Beer, Song Of Madness and Love Is Music, which was going to be interesting as there were a lot of kids at the gig, and most of them standing at the front of the stage cheering away. Temple was a bit rough, as he messed up his words a few times and missed some lines out as they were giving him a bit of trouble! Titties was pretty good, with the light man trying his hardest to keep up - switching to the red light when the devil was singing.

But then it all went a bit too pear shaped! He broke two strings at the same time and didn't attempt to fix them, so the rest of the song sounded a bit naff. After Titties he spent too long re-stringing his guitar and tuning it... too long resulting in him starting Madness but then apologising and missing it out and going straight on to Love Is Music. This was rather bizarre as my mate Mik had just commented on the fact that it was his first time seeing Nick sing Madness while Mik was sober, but alas it was not to be!

At this stage Nick did seem rather peeved off, but he did put everything into Love Is Music - the Grace part was probably the best I'd seen him play (now without his crib sheet), and the whole song was pretty damn good. He then went off to a pretty big cheer from the crowd regardless.

We tried to say hello to Nick after the gig but no one could find him! They all said that he was feeling a bit down and that he was probably on the coach and wanting to be alone [poor guy - P.].

As for the Levellers, well I was in the bar and didn't see their show... not that I was that bothered, as the bar area was busy with my mates and a lot of other folk just sitting around and not bothering to go and see the main act. I used to be REALLY into the Levs, but I must just be getting old or something, because although they sounded pretty good, it wasn't enough for me to leave my seat. Anyway I'll be seeing them again on Saturday. I hope that Nick has cheered up a bit by then!



Created 27 May 2003
© CM/PLC 2003