Taketh That

 The Pet Shop was open for business

Double fisted drinkers

I never thought I would ever willingly go to a Take That concert - I envisaged the whole B.A. Baracus conversation, "I ain't going to no Take That concert fool", before my milk would be drugged and then I would be transported there there against my will.

However, and I should be very careful as to what I admit to here, I, Stephen Brown,  being of sound mental health, went to the Take That concert at Hampden Park on Thursday night of my own free will and I actually enjoyed the show. But i drew the line at wearing a pink hat and dancing.

Our friends Ewen and Andrea had bought 4 tickets when they went on sale and asked if we wanted to go with them. We said yeah and then kind of forgot all about it with everything else we had going on and it kind of snuck up on us.

The Pet Shop Boys opened the show and even though I don't like them much it was certainly a trip down memory lane hearing some of their jaunty pop.

 I feign excitement a bit too convincingly

 Robbie goes fishing for women.

Take That try to drown their dancers.

We had a great night and I will admit to the following things/make the following observations:

1) Gary Barlow is actually a very talented singer songwriter.
2) The quiet ones from the group - Jason and Howard - are actually good dancers
3) Robbie is now officially a waste of space.
4) Some Take that songs are quite catchy.
5) Some aren't.
6) They do put on a good show.
7) They are worshipped to a level that i feel quite unsettled by - they are just singers for goodness sake.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos.

Newton Faulkner

Last week we went along to a gig by an English fella called Newton Faulkner. He's pretty well known back home and he had a multi platinum selling album called Handbuilt by Robots. If you'll know any of his songs it will be this one........and he's playing this in Glasgow at STV!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKww_Avjkzo

Anyway, in typical Wellington fashion, I bought the tickets the day before. We turned up during the support act, walked straight to the bar, had a seat and a drink (we also met some people we knew) and then walked straight down the front to join the other locals who were sitting on the floor.

Newton Faulkner came on and everyone just stayed sitting on the floor for the first few songs. It wasn't until some drunk girl tried to get everyone to stand up that a girl who was with us shouted "Newton, do you want us to stand up?" and he said, "Yeah, if you don't mind." So we all did.

There must have been only about 150 people at the gig and we were at the very front and everyone had glasses in their hands, drinking (can you imagine in Glasgow?) We were this close.....

His style is pretty unique, he does a lot of percussion on the body of the guitar and lots of creative noises from the strings. Very impressive. He also had a keyboard at his feet and he played along to some of his own songs and used different effects/video screens etc. Here is an example from a gig in Sydney of how he used the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8gnCAgErn8

And here is how he gets creative with his guitar...

Teardrop - Newton Faulkner

We hung around at the end of the gig for another drink and before we left we walked over and had a quick chat with him, we got a photo with him and he signed our ticket. Only in Wellington!!!