{"id":269,"date":"2014-04-01T15:02:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T15:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/?p=269"},"modified":"2014-11-24T16:18:29","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T16:18:29","slug":"gig-review-the-stranglers-manchester-academy-29th-march-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/gig-review-the-stranglers-manchester-academy-29th-march-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Gig Review \u2013 The Stranglers \u2013 Manchester Academy \u2013 29th March 2014."},"content":{"rendered":"

Gig Review \u2013 The Stranglers \u2013 Manchester Academy \u2013 29th March 2014.
\n\"strang\"<\/a>
\nAll Roads Lead to Manchester\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026the night before\u2026 Bag\u00a0 packed \u2013 check. Tickets \u2013 check.
\nSleeptime\u2026 It all becomes Black and white\u2026
\nLe Reve…\u00a0 We\u2019re at the Lyceum Theatre, we get in early and get to the front but I need to go for a Pee… It’s all very surreal!!!
\n4 AM two hours before the alarm clock, tinkle! Whoosh!\u2026
\n6 AM Beep beep etc\u2026 F*ck! I’m tired! Snooze\u2026
\n6:40 AM better get up, have to leave by eight at the latest!…<\/p>\n

8:35 AM Finally! Here we go out the front door\u2026
\n8:42 AM Train station\u2026
\n8:46 AM Board to London Victoria… Clickety clack clickety clack the sun is shining on Battersea…
\n08:56 AM Victoria going underground…
\n09:01 AM Victoria Line to Oxford Circus…
\n09:07 AM After a maze of tunnels take The Central Line to Perivale…
\n… Through the dark underbelly of the Metropolis; the beautiful world of Bond Street… 12 stops…
\n..the distorted reflection in the carriage window takes me back to dreamland…
\n09:25 AM A slight delay at White City and clickety clack\u2026 back on track…
\n09:35 AM Harry Bell station (actually it was Perivale but that\u2019s speech recognition for you!) only five minutes late that’s bang on time in EiTC land\u2026
\nMeet up with Antro and Sibling in Black \u2026<\/p>\n

10:00 AM Set sail on the old Black River\u2026
\nAntro at the Tiller and SiB\/EiTC sharing Crows Nest and FiB comms duties including planning a rendezvous with the top chap that is boshkins!\u00a0 (Forgot to warn him about EiTC time!) \u2026
\n12 midday Toll road services pee break and packed lunch
\n1:20 PM Pappa Antro has a photo call with Ravenette and Bag Lady at Stafford services\u2026
\n1:35 PM M6\u2026Sat Nav Vs Elv Nav…
\nAfter a long protracted battle Elv Nav wins out – we\u2019re not doing a f**in\u2019 U turn!…
\n\"satnav\"<\/a>
\nProximity to a temporal Anomaly in the vicinity of Ravenette\u2019s Sugar Tongs caused time to melt down and from there on we were winging it\u2026<\/p>\n

Arrived at Hyde and booked into our hotel where the lovely receptionist informed us that Golden Brown was indeed a Cliff Richard song!\u2026\u00a0 After a nice cup of tea, a freshen up and a bout of Gladiators we\u2019re gig ready and set out for the city centre\u2026<\/p>\n

SiB at the Tiller, Antro on Lens duties\u2026 Elv Nav vs Sat Nav, Sat Nav wins! Hands down!…<\/p>\n

We arrive and head for The Jemmy to meet up with boshkins, sparta7, big al and quite a few others\u2026 Nice place, good grub\/drinks, Great company\u2026 Then it\u2019s off to the Oxford for a packed in Black catch up with lots more lovely people\u2026 Straighten Out, TBC, APOLLO79, Burn e77, Kathinboots and Pigeon to name a few\u2026 In the blink of an eye it\u2019s time to get over to the venue for the main event\u2026<\/p>\n

We arrive as Nine Below Zero are Cranking out Woolly Bully and the whole place seems to be having a boogie\u2026 We weave our way closer to the front and before too long the lights dim\u2026 And they\u2019re off!
\nIt\u2019s a great entrance combining the effect of the screens with the Punch of London Lady\u2026 JJ is sporting a fake moustache I wonder if it\u2019s some kind of Gallic reference but SiB (more sensibly) thinks it was a tribute to Birthday Boy Dave and his classic 70\u2019s fuzz!<\/p>\n

Once the crowd start moving I find myself propelled forward where I stay for a while singing Karaoke style with a delightful lady named Samantha, who eventually\u00a0has to exit toward the back as her fella Paul seems to be worse for wear with the heat. I stay for a while but get fed up with all the squabbling for squatting rights and to move forward (at one point a group of girls break into fisticuffs but it soon dies down), so I make my way back to the centre of the mosh pit where I find Antro busy papping the nights proceedings and the attitude and camaraderie far more civilised!<\/p>\n

The crush is getting more intense \u2013 it\u2019s hot and jam-packed in here tonight\u2026 The crowd are up for it and generally having a ball\u2026 Very briefly I see Alexinblack before we\u2019re swept away with it all. Ditto Freddie Laker! The sound is great tonight and the band are clearly enjoying themselves\u2026 Dave dons a birthday hat and we all sing happy birthday. Jet joins in for a few numbers and is looking in far better shape than at Birmingham the week before. Baz is on form with his musical duties and attitude. JJ looks very happy and sounds great. While drummer Jim goes from strength to strength.
\n\"baz<\/a>
\nThe slower part of the set is most welcome tonight giving the crowd a chance to cool off!
\nAs much as the set does contain some more obscure numbers, it\u2019s heartening to hear a fair number sing along for the whole two hours. Blimey two hours in a sweat box!<\/p>\n

Before we know it we\u2019re at Tank and tonight we get the double drum assault!<\/p>\n

Highlights for me tonight are Peasant, Genetix and Dave\u2019s Keys which sound great. Top gig. Easily the best of the three I managed this time around.
\n\"raven\"<\/a>
\nThe crowd is very slow to move out and there\u2019s a real party atmosphere as everyone gathers together for group photos and chinwags\u2026 Antro even manages to convince some of the house staff to get into the frame\u2026<\/p>\n

The party atmosphere continued, we rambled eventually to the delightful Big Hands Pub where the cool young crowd made the FiB most welcome even spinning some MiB for us and getting us all pogoing again\u2026 Time slipped into the future then it was the wee small hours and time for bed after a curry of course!<\/p>\n

Finally it was EiTC at the Tiller (what were they thinking? Are they mad!) back to the hotel\u2026
\nAnd all too briefly back to dreamland\u2026
\nBefore the return leg to Harry Bell!<\/p>\n

Filmed in Antro-vision. Based on real life events….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gig Review \u2013 The Stranglers \u2013 Manchester Academy \u2013 29th March 2014. All Roads Lead to Manchester\u2026 \u2026the night before\u2026 Bag\u00a0 packed \u2013 check. Tickets \u2013 check. Sleeptime\u2026 It all becomes Black and white\u2026 Le Reve…\u00a0 We\u2019re at the Lyceum Theatre, we get in early and get to the front but I need to go … Continue reading Gig Review \u2013 The Stranglers \u2013 Manchester Academy \u2013 29th March 2014.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-archive","category-eitcs-views-and-reviews-on-music-and-maybe-life-in-general-from-time-to-time","category-fansinblack","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eitc.elvisintheclouds.co.uk\/eitc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}