Brilliantine Mortality II Well well. What a weekend, and I’m feeling quite worse the wear for it too thankyouverymuch. (Seem to have developed some kind of cold thing, I feel all achey and my kidneys have mild pain. Ouch. )

After meeting lots of lovely people from OUT and Thingbox (thanks to Ian for organising it all, as I said before, an encore is needed!) I shot down to Brighton, ever so slightly soused, picking up Richard on the way. He got hold of free tickets (or whatever one does with electronic tickets) to the Smirnoff Experience in Brighton, where, amongst other acts, British Sea Power were playing.

After a strenuous walk up the hill to the racecourse (ye gods, I so need to do exercise, but I say that every week) we arrived and got free drinks and sauntered in to see what it was all about.

First band up were Morton Valence, who were very good indeed. A blend of guitars and keyboards. Good stuff.

Following them were The Paddingtons who were rather bland, to be honest. I mean, they played well enough, but all the songs blended together and just sounded like a Tesco Value Libertines. Ne pas bien.

The escape from the Paddingtons led us to another room, where some rather funky acid jazz funk soul stuff was playing (Jelly Jazz kinda stuff, still not found a club to match that for pure danceability) which led to energy being expended dancing along with a cup of tapwater in hand.

Nipping back downstairs again, before British Sea Power came on, there was an odd mix of hardcore being played by Eddie Temple Morris, who was DJing between acts. Wasted a bit of energy on “dancing” to that. It was more spasmodic arm movements than dancing, due to cramped conditions- it seemed like there was a bit of a good crowd swelling for the Sea Power.

When they arrived on, my, what a set they played. Bar one or two B-sides played, it seemed they played whatever they could to empty our bodies of water via sweat. The cramp I got afterwards was badness, but I can positively say that this was one of their best performances I’ve seen. Or at least most energetic.

After getting a breath of fresh air, walking back into the place both Richard and I (who headed in different directions to refuel on beer and powder noses) caught an auditory glimpse of Joy Division’s Transmission being played as the Sea Power boys took to the decks as Club Sea Power. Doing an about turn from our respective directions of travel, we ended up on the dancefloor (no-one else was on it yet) and unashamedly performed the Ian Curtis epilepsy-induced dancing technique. Now, this has gained us reputation and a mention on the website after a previous Sea Power gig, so this could be the beginning of a cult phenomenon for fans. Ben and Richard dancing like mobility-challenged maniacs.

So, the decks span and the music poured from the speakers, including a request by me for the Go! Team’s Huddle Formation, and the Arcade Fire’s Neighbourhood #1: Tunnels and many a great track that you haven’t heard in a while. I don’t apologise for my dancing, I had a fantastic time. One slight oddity was the drugged-up middle-aged man rubbing his paunch.

Arriving home at gone 7am the next morning, I was absolutely shattered, so I took to my bed til lunchtime, waking up to the reception of presents and cards. Birthdays are gooooood. A barbeque and family ribaldry a-plenty provided the entertainment for the day, and rather jolly it all was too. I shan’t post the photo of my brother eating with particular grace and delicacy. It may somewhat shock those with a less-robust constitution. Posted: 25-07-05 19:24 :: Permalink: http://ben.corale.co.uk/archive/v1/186.html

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Nick writes Cumpleaños feliz! Commented: 26-07-05 10:01

The blog author writes ¡Hablas español, mi amigo! Commented: 26-07-05 17:21

Nick writes Well all I can say is 'cumpleaños feliz' and 'soy el presidente' :-s Commented: 29-07-05 09:28