When Nick's tour was originally announced, I planned that I would see him 3 nights running in Sheffield, Huddersfield and Hebdon Bridge. However, due to various reasons, I'll only see him the once last night at bar1twenty in Huddersfield.
What is with me getting into Nick gigs? After initially not having a clue where this place was, my daughter Katie then told me it was a place a lot of her friends went to. I rang for tickets about 2 weeks ago, got an ansaphone, and left a message which they never answered. My wife Joy tried to get tickets on her days in Huddersfield, but always found it closed. I rang the afternoon before the gig to be told it wasn't sold out and the doors opened at 8.
We arrived just after 8 and there was a queue of about 20 people, "no problem getting in tonight," I said to Joy. After standing there a couple of minutes, Mr. Security Man comes to the door and asks if we have tickets. No one in the queue did, we were told we would have to wait until all the ticket holders were in!
Joy and someone else went to ask, "how many tickets were sold?" "100." "How many does it hold?" "130." "So you can let us 25 or so in then?" "No, not yet." So we waited outside in the cold for about an hour and people were allowed in a few at a time. I have to admit it was quite crowded inside, but could have been alleviated by removing the bulky settees at the front.
The support was playing 2 lads on acoustic guitars - dic & dom, Ant & Dec - something like that, they were quite good we thought.
I think it was about 10 before Nick hit the stage. The sound left a little to be desired for the first few songs, but after a few suggestions to the sound lady from Nick it greatly improved. The setlist was the same posted from other shows like Grimsby. I agree the new songs sounded good and Treasure Island is quite catchy - could this be Nick's first single?
2 broken strings together during the electric riff bit in Guitar Man. Nick continued sort of to the end, and said something along the lines of, "f*****g hell what a nightmare!" While he changed both strings we were treated to the Wiltshire poem - which is only the 2nd time I've heard it - is it longer than last time? Another string break near the end of the first encore song, which he didn't change and played Titties And Beer with 5 strings. 'Graham' joined Nick on stage during this to dance - "the new Bez" as Nick described him.
A good night had by all. Looking forward to Nick's next visit to my home town area. But somewhere larger next time...
