Reading Too Much Into Things Like Everything - The School

Ahhh so the curse is alive and well in 2012. You would've thought that at the age of forty *cough - ahem* that I would now know better. I had a plan. And it went wrong.

It all started so well - getting tickets to see The Primitives but not before checking the train times. Last train 22:45. No problem. Meeting up with a mate for some drinks and arriving at the venue for the doors opening at 8pm. Planned with precision and executed with precision.

Unfortunately what I didn't plan on, and what my years of gig going still didn't prepare me for, was that the support band weren't due to start until 9pm, and that The Primitives and their pristine pop until 10pm. Blast! It was like The Sundays in 1989 all over again; having to do a runner halfway through the set to catch a train....

So at the allotted time The School took to the stage. I'm still impressed that they managed to fit their seven person line-up onto the tiny stage, let alone find room to play. Any smaller and they'd have been sitting on each others knees. Before they'd even played a note, however, I was becoming incredibly frustrated. Calmly seething - on the inside.

"I hope they don't play for too long", I thought to myself, "the shorter the better".

"For pity's sake - start already", I thought as they tuned up.

Support bands have it tough enough without one element of the crowd seeing them as an obstacle. But it only took a few bars of their first song to make those thoughts disappear. Well mostly! The School delivered their songs such energy and fun that it took the edge off the fact that I was going to have to miss nearly half of The Primitives' set. And bearing in mind that I've been waiting for nearly ten years to see them, there is no higher accolade.

So having got home at the 'reasonable' time of 12:15, slept and then woken at 05:45, I did the only decent thing.... downloaded this album from iTunes. I should've been dog tired but a quick blast of 'I Never Thought I'd See The Day' I was up and ready to face the day. It's good to know that pop is alive and well.

In some ways it's comforting to know that after twenty six years of gig going I still can't get myself to the venues and back. Or maybe I'm too sensible now? I'll come clean. You see there was another train. One final throw of the dice if you like, but getting that would've meant that I wouldn't have got home until 2am. Which, when I needed to get up before 6am for work, was not really a consideration. Not so much rock and roll but rock and then roll over and go to sleep.