Week 42 - Part 2

Sŵn – Friday

“Her eyes are about to pop out of her head!”

Friday was a much shorter and simpler day. I was still exceedingly ill. Surprisingly, the hangover I’d added hadn’t cured me. Once again I dragged myself out of bed, stepped out of the crumbling rubble of my home in my dressing gown and slippers, and headed to Solus, the venue at the end of the university. 

That was where I met Sandro, Flapjack and Gavlova, who I was joining to see a special gig from The Joy Formidable which cost £11.50 for those sans wristband. Not only was it their last gig in the UK before they head abroad to support Foo Fighters, it also capped a narrow defeat to Gruff Rhys in the contest for the inaugural Welsh Music Prize. 

Ok, it wasn’t really that special, but it did give them an almost unassailable lead in the race for the most Gigaweek appearances (a stalkerish five).

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Unsurprisingly, their set-list was familiar, beginning with Sandro’s favourite, ‘A Heavy Abacus’ (written about the Milliard Gargantubrain), ending with ‘Whirring’ and featuring the usual suspects in between. 

On stage, behind the band was a large model lighthouse (I thought it was a traffic cone) which took up quite a bit of stage room, and might explain why their drummer faced sideways. 

“What a prick,” Gavlova said sympathetically. 

Their bassist Rhydian, who was wearing a hat in the vein of Dave from U2, didn’t escape his irritation either.

“Look at him. What kind of twat wears a hat like that?” he said.

“P. Mushy?” I suggested.

“Exactly,” said a vindicated Gavlova.

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Flapjack made clear his own concern for the mental well-being of lead singer Ritzy Bryan, who has a habit of beaming at the audience with her eyes wide open, almost protruding from their sockets.

“She’s just happy,” I assured him.

“Happy!? She must be on coke, or acid or something,” Flapjack replied.

“Acid? No, don’t be daft. Coffee I’d say,”

“Coffee!? She looks like one of the children from The Village of the Damned!” Flapjack said. “Mark my words, she’ll have us attacking ourselves with our own pitchforks in no time.”

“You’re thinking of The Bloodening. In The Village of the Damned the worst bit is when the Doctor guts herself with a scalpel,” I replied reassuringly. “Funnily enough, I’ve brought a scalpel with me tonight.”

For some reason, Flapjack started to edge away slowly at this point.

He wasn’t foolish enough to run away yet though. ‘Whirring’ proved not to be the closer after all, as Ritzy returned with her eyes glowing ominously. Fortunately, she was just enthusiastic about playing an encore of ‘I Don’t Want to See You Like This’ and ‘The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie’.

 

It would have been nice to head into town and go on to see the likes of Racehorses, Gallops and The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, but sometimes you have to know when to throw in the towel. Metaphorically speaking of course, it would have been silly of us to actually throw away our towels as they were the most massively useful things we had and there were still two days of Sŵn left.

Sandro and Gavlova headed for a drink instead, while Flapjack scampered away particularly hastily.

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October

1-7 – Pete & The Pirates + Gruff Rhys - ✓
8-14 – Emmy The Great - ✓
15-21 – Sŵn - ✓
22-28 – Sŵn + John Mayall - ✓