The Past 5 Days

Freaking Hell!!! I don't think some of my body will ever be the same again after the past 5 days I have put myself through, but I would never have had it the same way. I will try to remember some of what happened over those days as much as I possibly can thanks to my old friend Mr Alkamahol poisoning my insides and deteriorating my liver. Well here goes

TUESDAY: SUFFRAJETS (CAMDEN BARFLY)

After a boring day at work as those long Easter days usually are, I was looking forward to an immensely enjoying night of the 'Jets. Of course with so much time on my hands I was able to go to Cal's a do a quick song and then nipped out again to see the girls do their stuff.

After watching The Musketts perform in front of around 10 people and another band that I can't remember the name of the 'Jets did their set downstairs. Very different to say the least. this meant less people being able to crowdsurf/invade the stage/have any fun whatsoever. Regardless of the stage and the people watching, we were not disappointed.

WEDNESDAY: THE BOXER REBELLION / PURE REASON REVOLUTION

After Cal told me that there was a fgree spare ticket on offer for this I would have been stupid to turn it down. And so I went. Met Laura, Marie & Cal at Angel station to which we went to Burger King and along came Carl (I didn't expect him to pop up neither, but what a nice suprise :D).

Now, I'm all for mgiving new bands a step forward anf giving them a stage to perform, but bejesus! Lights. Turn off! Now! I had more joy hearing the noises my beer was making. Anyways, Boxer Rebellion... Great. Pure Reason Revolution.... ok. Not much else to say apart from the major T-shirt theft thus having Marie & Laura chucked out along with Adam (pissed as a newt).

Day two was over after Carl gave me great company back home on the tube back home. Never have been used to going all the way back to Morden with someone to speak to.

THURSDAY: CAMDEN CRAWL

Today was THE DAY! CCCCC was going to be in full swing, the beer was going to be flowing, the bands were going to be rocking and my booty was going to be making a heck of a lot of shaking. We were either going to witness something amazing, or amazingly sh*t.

First thing, went to Cal's where the party of Cal himself, Marie, Chunk, Gill, and the legendary Conic were congregating in his bedroom. No signs of Ollie yet though.

On to Subway for lunch where JJ made his appearance. The local Ealing Gangsta was in person.... still no sign of Ollie though. No worries, we'll see him at G Lounge. However en-route to G Lounge we passed a side road, while crossing past Conic burst into laughter to whcih we were puzzled as to why, then Aids hit us.... Literately!! Someone had graffitied AIDS in white capital letters on a brick wall. If there was ever an opportunity to take advtange of this while our band name is still Be Our Own AIDS Victim then that was that opportunity right there!

Moving swiftly on still Ollie-less we collected our armbands and free goody bags. Met up with Matt & Andrew. Awesome seeing Matt again, he was completely mental during BYOP at the Bowling Lanes gig, but Andrew was multiplied by infinity. I'll explain why later.

Anyway, back to these goody bags, I took these back as everyone else queued up for the 'secret' Wolfmother gig. I came back with everyone just going through the door and had to queue up with everyone else. Got in to witness the 'amazing' Louie. They were OK, but with their actively aggressive set it was a bit much for half a bottle of stella. Needed more beer.

CCCCC was also underway as Chunk got the ball rolling whilst hovering over a geezer's shoulder. Cal then got off his duck with me still with a solitary zero hanging over my head. But that was to change!!

Wolfmother! My God! They f*cking rock! They rock so much that I can say my first crowdsurf of the day was during their set and during their rendition of 'Apple Tree'. WOlfmother were so impressed they even gave me recognition for the crowdsurf. Take that!!!! :D After their 4 songs, we were all craving more. So our new plan was to see Wolfmother instead of The Rifles. That would come later. by the way, anyone seen Ollie?

Next up was the brisk walk up to Fopp to discover that the Fratellis would be playing there, but instead we hovered outside and drank some beer. This was where we were given a shit load of Fields badges., Now these things were like leeches in the rainforest. There was tons of the things and you couldn;t get rid of them and even if youthought there was no more left on you, then you would still find one or two in a back pocket or in your wallet or behind your ear or something silly like that.

As !Forward Russia! walked past us into starbucks, Cal came back saying that Andrew had pissed up the corner of the toilet door. Andrew protested his case and his innocence with the 'when you gotta go, you gotta go' excuse. After much mass debating, we moved on to our next venue The Electric Ballroom for The Young Knives. I thought they were ok. Not amazingly great or even good. Just ok. We left their set early though as The Automatic had to be seen!!

Although this was subsequently stalled as MTV2 obliged to film me and Cal as conjoined twins at the rear-end & crotch. This could mean embarrassingly myself on MTV with a ginger Bradley off Eastenders look-a-like. Mum would be so proud of me!! Marie even had the chance to pretty up the ugly that was hovering round the camera crew. Remember to record us people!

So back to G Lounge and more crowdsurfing. More manic mosh pits. More chances of getting broken bones and cuts & bruises. An awesome little venue with sweat dripping from the ceilings. It was frantic and intimate all in one ball of Welsh Energy.

Now, Camden Underworld and WOLFMOTHER! These guys were owning the Crawl for us and their performance owed to the noise they were making. Two crowdsurfs and I was even with Cal. I was chuffed to still be keeping up with me owing to the amount of boasting of how I was going to get 'owned' at this challenge. This set though was the most insane one of the night. I was literately throwing myself all over the shop and probably got the most bruises from this one too.

It was also at Camden Underworld that Channel 4 decided to interview me and talk more about Camden Crawl. Another TV spot. I'll be getting a contract for my own show from channel 5 very soon!

Now this was where we were stuck as after seeing Wolfmother, there was a ma-huuuuuu-ssive queue for Dirty Pretty Things. Thanks to Cal's blagging and the 'can't be arsed to argue' attitude of some of the people in the queue, we got into the Electric Ballroom to witness Carl Barat and 3 other geezers perform to tuuuuuuunes!!

Crowdsurf during 'You Fucking Love It' was one of the most satisfying even if I nearly lost my shoe! I met some random Luton town supporter who was going as nuts as I was during Gin & Milk. But DPT left the best until last to end the night with 'I Get Along'. Cue PANDEMONIUM!! Another crowdsurf just before the end and my total was at 6! Not bad for an 'amateur'.

Got outside and Luke from Rifles pops out of nowhere. We all bundle him and I reminded him of the brithday cake I gave him. Holy shit, he actually remembered!!! Glad he liked it...... oh wait.... Where the hell is Ollie?!!!

Anyway, forget him, we all got back to Cal's after buying 10 cans of Stella and nicking yesterday's news and watched Family Guy to round off the night. Excellent!! Truly Excellent! Camden Crawl was awesome with lots of funny moments and great memories spent with great people young and not so young. Tomorrow had a lot to live up to.

FRIDAY: BE YOUR OWN PET (ULU)

Went back home to have a wash believe it or not and headed back into London. Bit of a nightmare getting home with the tube backed up thanks to suicidal dumbasses in Oval. getting back into London wasn't as bad, had a Subway (I am eating too many of these things now!) and met the huge number of forum geeks at The Pint Pot Pub (what a name! Good shout James :D)

Ahh, Ollie showed! Hoo-rah!

Then Shagga showed and the brithday boy got his caterpillar cake! Truly a man amongst young princes, princesses and the occassional peasant and jester. A true ledge! Thank you also James for getting me Mustard. It was wholegrain, but it's the thought that counts, although it doesn't go with chocolate cake very well. Just ask Ollie.

I even had the pleasure of meeting Connor, Marie's brother. Very nice kid and was a pleasure to scare him with my drunken presence and also meet him and speak to him. Such a down to earth chap.

Anyway, after boozing it up and drinking far too much I was up for some carnage. Right into Bunk Trunk Skunk and I was up. This crowdsurfing stuff was getting addictive. I wound up on stage and jumped back into the crowd. I was then back up on stage again. What do I do? Dance like a twat. Great. I was then pulled off stage and given a ticking off by a little miss hitler and threatened with a lifetime ban from ULU if I attempt to crowdsurf again that night. I jogged round back inside and more carnage ensued (minus crowdsurfing). Completely mental. I was drenched and as I always knew it would be, it was another crowd that was filled with absolute maniacs (me included). Gommy then leaped on me thus causing me to fall on my back and nearly complete my drunken embarrassment.

But that was only to come when I asked Nathan to sign my belly. He got as far as N...A....T.... then attempted to gash my belly open with the permanent marker which had stopped working due to my body sweat.

Then a couple of random girls showed and we found that they were Be Your Own AIDS Victim 'fans'. I think Ollie scared them. :D

I then made the idea of staying round Cal's trying to write music when drunk and eating the stinkiest Beef Chow Mein I have ever had. After much screwing around by Cal & Ollie on MSN teasing poor Chunk. Last moments of the night were at 3am or soemthing silly o'clock watching a Portuguese lady cry over the phone on how she'd won £2000. That was the end of my day.

SATURDAY: SUFFRAJETS VIDEO SHOOT

First time in a long time I ditched Millwall for something a bit different. The chance to be in a band's music video. As our favourite new band The Suffrajets offered the chance for fans to be a part of the video (consisted of walking & running into Rooz Studios and going mental). It was all a bit weird too. Trying to act with no music and knowing that the majority of the shoot was mimed, but it was still very entertaining and even better speaking to other people and the band. Also did loads of takes of 'Worthy' (that's their next single. Shamless plug... GO GET IT WHEN IT COMES OUT!!) and the band. All 4 girls, Alex, Vics, Gemma & Claire. You are all so fucking cool!!! Graham their manager is also a true hero and we think he secretly fancies Cal. Well, that's what Cal tells us anyway.

My bag is now covered in their signatures and phrases and even got the chance to get involved in some of their photos which was real awesome. Oh and the free beer!! :D Although I think we may have to repair a bit of the rehearsal studio ceiling after seeing others crowdsurf, Alex fancied a bit of this too while playing. This meant that her foot went right through the ceiling.

Much crowdsurfing and much mentalistic tendancies and television stardom is destined for me, Cal, Chunk & Ollie. Well, for 3 of us at least anyway. ;-) But I now carry another injury of a sprained left thumb,. This was caused by tons of the suffrajet army. But that only added to the enjoyment and this day topped off a manic week and my first ever video shoot.

Well, I'm gladded I finally got round to finishing that off. Hope I didn't send any of you insomniacs to sleep and see you all very soon. To everyone that I enjoyed and went mental during those 5 days you all added to the day and I thank you more than anything. If it wasn't you I wouldn't have as much fun as I would have had and I certainly wouldn;t have anything to write home about neither.

I must also apologise to Conic for breaking the present he brought back from Hong Kong for Cal. I didn't mean to break it. Honest. It was a complete accident.

Right, that's all folks. If something interesting happens before I go to bed, I'll let you all know, but until then..... GO TO BED! :D