Week 23 - Part 1

Week 23 – Saturday 4^th June & Friday 10^th June – The Subways & Gomez – The Globe, Cardiff & O2 Academy, Bristol - £11 & £20

“He likes a stage dive this boy, mark my words. . .”

Part One - The Subways

Sandro and I were set for a busy June, culminating in the joys of Glastonbury, and we began in busy fashion with another eventful double Gigaweek starting in Cardiff at The Globe. The Subways were playing, and I had an idea of what to expect having been to a couple of their gigs a few years ago. On one of those occasions, I’d joined Sandro, Salazar and Buster Douglas at The Point in Cardiff and Sal had decided that they were rubbish live and she never wanted to see them again. Ever. Naturally she accompanied us once more, along with the wonderful Gavlova.

After the fireworks of the previous Tuesday night, Sandro and I were feeling much friendlier, and where better to take such friendliness than The Claude in Roath for our pre-gig pint. As we were leaving we were staggered to see a fight break out between one of the doormen and one of the less rowdy customers, with wild punches thrown and four fists flying within inches of Sandro’s chops. Fortunately Sandro was still armed with a couple of ice cubes and an empty cigarette packet, so we escaped unharmed.

On entering The Globe, I instantly wished Sandro had kept hold of an ice cube or two, as the unbelievable heat struck us. The Globe is a toasty place at the best of times so it’s never wise to wear a coat, but on this evening it was full to the brim with flushed looking fans and was so exceptionally warm that I felt overdressed in jeans and daps, and my scarf and gloves were definitely a step too far. Sandro had sensibly dressed in shorts and flip flops, though he admitted that wearing a thong was regrettable.

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We’d missed the two supporting bands so we grabbed a drink each and took up decent standing positions and stewed in wait. A suspiciously stubbly faced man approached us and asked if we were planning on staying stood where we were at that moment. It was such a confusing question that I wasn’t quite sure how to answer him, so I didn’t.

He elaborated and advised us that the band were planning on walking through our position en route to the stage, and said it would be cool if we prevented anyone else from blocking the path. That didn’t sound particularly cool to me but we agreed and waited for the band in anticipation, while the suspiciously stubbly faced man had similar conversations with others along the route.

Following a few false alarms from the less well informed but excited crowd, whose eyes were fixed on the stage, eventually a camera man lead out lead singer Billy Lunn and headed in our direction. Billy’s eyes were transfixed on the camera lens, and the camera man walked backwards bravely in front of him. Words wouldn’t do justice to exactly how tempted I was to hang my leg out as he walked past, but my good nature was rewarded when he helpfully knocked half my pint over me, cooling me in the process.

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The Subways are an uncomplicated band. I don’t mean that as a criticism, I’m more than happy to be called simple myself. Simplicity is one of their strengths. At their best their songs are fast paced, loud, and they’ve got enough hooks and sing-along choruses to get their fans bashing into each other and screaming at the tops of their voices. That may not be to everyone’s tastes, but what is? Cheese, you say? No, I don’t like cheese. Not even Wensleydale.

They’re due to release their third album later this year, and their set included a few songs that are set to appear on it. None had quite the impact of the tried and tested, such as the opener, one of their most successful, and best singles so far, ‘Oh Yeah’ which went down a storm, particularly in the mosh pit where dozens of half-naked men went wild. Even though we were among the stationary ones, within three minutes we were drenched head to foot in sweat.

Other highlights from their first album included the superb title track ‘Young for Eternity’, ‘I Want to Hear What You Have Got to Say’ and arguably their best known and best song ‘Rock & Roll Queen’ which sent the already crazy crowd crazier still. The rock & roll queen all the bare chested boys were trying to impress was the bassist and singer Charlotte Cooper, who along with Billy and the drummer Josh looked like she was having a whale of a time, which is something Sandro and I always like to see at a gig.

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Billy told the crowd that the song ‘Mary’ was about his mother Dave, which was nice, and it was a rather pleasant, if rare, slower moment. Their second album All or Nothing had its fair share of good songs, with the best of them being ‘Alright’ which was alright, and the song ‘Girls and Boys’ was also a crowd pleaser, but it was back to the first album for a raucous rendition of ‘With You’ to finish the main set.

During an encore of ‘At 1AM’ and new song ‘It’s a Party’ Billy proved his front-man credentials, with a couple of huge stage dives. Firstly he climbed aboard a high speaker to the side of the stage and jumped onto the delighted crowd, before outdoing himself and launching himself from the second floor balcony. We hadn’t seen such triumphant scenes since Tim Harrington took The Globe by storm in February, although if the bearded one himself had jumped from upstairs there would still be a Beardo shaped hole in the ground no matter how many people tried to catch him.

Our fingers were like prunes, but twice as tasty, and we may have shed a couple of pounds in sweat, so it was a relief to get outside in the cool air, where The Subways were taking some time to sign autographs. They also posed for photos and talked to their fans who gathered around their tour bus, which was also good to see. There was still time for us to have a couple of drinks at nearby Milgi, where Salazar educated us in Goldilocks fashion as to the size of our respective ‘egos’. 

The arrogant Sandro’s was declared to be “too big”, the humble Gavlova’s was “too small” and my utterly brilliant own was “just right”. The fact that Sal fell backwards onto a stack of CDs a little later didn't suggest her judgement was alcohol-impaired whatsoever. T'was the vomit that did that.

Part 2