No 15: Fibbers, York, 28th June 2004

Jim is a student in York but he had to be out of his room in Hall on Saturday 26th June, so Keith and I had made the trip there and back from Nottingham then. However Love were due to appear in York the following Monday, so after depositing Jim in Matlock for the afternoon while I saw a client there, we both travelled back up to York again to meet up with Lizzy.

This was to be a short tour of the UK to fit around the Glastonbury festival. No 14 ended with the news that Arthur had not replied to my email about filming more gigs in the UK. However I'd also thought to email Glenn, who did reply, and who had arranged that we hook up with the new tour manager, Ross, to film the gigs we were planning to go to.

We'd booked two rooms in a very nice hotel in York City Centre, the Ramada Encore. Once Lizzy arrived, we set off through the streets of York to find Fibbers, which is a very small club forming part of a concrete monstrosity once called a carbuncle by Prince Charles. There was quite a gathering for this gig with a particularly large Scottish contingent - Lizzy's diary has the details. Kose and Troels were on stage setting up and greeted us like long lost friends - a hug from Troels is something you don't forget in a hurry.

Mike came out from backstage to say hello and said "Arthur is totally asking about you guys" to Lizzy and myself - yes he did want us to film. We sorted out a likely spot - not far from the stage, but then nowhere in Fibbers is far from the stage. Chris Helmes did a great turn as support, with Mike playing with him for a while. Then Arthur and the band were on - and it was great, the hairs on the back of my next were standing up. It seemed like quite a long gap since we'd seen them, almost 3 months, which wasn't long really in the overall scheme of things. I'd waited about 35 years to see the band from first hearing their music.

Afterwards, we had a brief chat with Arthur before he was taxied back to his hotel - said we'd see him the following evening in Wolverhampton. We hung round in the club for a while and Lizzy and I had the stalking conversation again, i.e. when are you stalking people and when are you simply hanging about waiting to see what's going to happen. Anyway stuff did happen - Mike's pal Ringo who lives in York had arranged an after party at the Evil Eye bar, so we set off there, Jim leading the way. It was cracking - Lizzy's diary has both words and pictures.

Obligatory kebab stop, back to the hotel, up early the next morning to get back to Nottingham for work - and then its all over again for Wolverhampton the following evening.