Post by jabbsy on Sept 5, 2011 13:11:42 GMT
My first memory of the bluetones is in my friends living room. She had sky – that meant she had mtv. Back in the days when mtv was something. mark morriss doing that mad slight return dance in the class room. I remember back then thinking.... i know these people, this music is going to mean something to me. I remember that feeling so strongly – like the feeling you get when you meet someone for the first time but think youve met before, like a de ja vu. Past life experience, something like that, who knows?
Anyway, me and my friend Chipper – we loved the band from that day on. We’d already heard a couple of songs and heard of the bluetones but never quite gelled the band themselves, pictures in nme with the songs – so now we knew “ohhh thats who they are, i love this song.... lets go see them live”. chipper passed her driving test then there was no stopping us. Town after town didn’t seem to make a difference, we’d just jump in the car and go – sometimes deciding an hour before – oh, tones are playing in Wolverhampton – fancy it? Wizzing down to London in her little mini, buzzing on over to derby.... oxford, lets go there... am a bit tired, screw it – let’s eat pro-plus and get going and off we’d go.
A few years later I moved to London, was working with this girl and she caught me listening to the bluetones. Name-dropped and said she knew them and they were doing a gig in shepherd bush this week, did i want to go. OF COURSE i wanted to go, i already had my goddam ticket.... foolish question! Anyway, off we went and met a couple of girls there and just hit it off. To this day I remember them asking sheepishly “which one do you fancy then” and me saying well of course, theyre all fit as ‘ouses, but i just dont feel that way about them... which was the best thing i could possibly have said cos turns out they were other halves of band members and to fawn over any of them would have been bloody embarrassing and probably have cost me the future friendship of two of my best London friends to this day.
Gigs and club nights ensued from that day on.... usually pissed up to the max and always great, great fun. I still had that bug in me that meant I’d go anywhere to see them do a performance, so long as there was a friend at the other end to go have fun with after.... actually, probably sometimes without one too. I can’t even begin to remember the amount of places I’ve been that I’d never have seen without the bluetones at the other end of it. Somewhere beginning with K in the middle of Scotland..... where WAS that?
Favourite gig memories are too many to mention, the amount of singing, drinking, dancing, yelling, drinking, dancing in puddles, new friends, old friends, awe filled moments of celebrity spotting that weren’t actually filled with awe cos they were too drunken.... just.... bluetones gigs have brought so much to my life in terms of the people I’ve met, the people who are to this day, my greatest friends in life and none of it would have happened without the bluetones music – so how couldn’t the bluetones be my band, how couldn’t every tune they utter have meaning to me and my life?
This forum came close to putting an end to that, to mixing up what was meant to be with what I greedily tried to make more of but the fact i had to try so hard with this means it wasn’t meant to be. What comes your way naturally and isn’t forced, means so much more..... the bluetones are naturally a part of my life, i’m so thankful to them as a musical force that I can’t even begin to put into words how grateful I am they decided to make a go of it from garage practices to... “fuckit, lets give this thing a go” - of course they didnt do it for me, or for you, or for anyone, but them doing it certainly did so much for me anyway.
regardless - to mark, adam, scott and eds – thank you for the music and the songs that i will sing along to forever - but thank you even more for bringing zoe, susie, sarah, laura and pos into my life for keeps. Thank you for giving me and chipper a lifetime of memories for us to share. And thank you for bringing me all the people who made their mark and had an impact, it might not necessarily have been a lasting one but certainly gave me some rich(ard boove) life experience. ooo.... another thanks for playing jub jub..... i had to keep my promise and never ask for anything, ever again but still.... totally, TOTALLY worth it!
(i should really add a thanks for letting friends bands support (sorry one of them stole your rider whisky) and thanks for giving my oldest, dearest friend a job (he's still the best keyboard player you ever had) and another thanks for letting ryan come on tour with his favourite band under the pretence of selling tshirts)
with all that the bluetones have enriched my life with, how could i miss them.... all these memories are never going nowhere.
Anyway, me and my friend Chipper – we loved the band from that day on. We’d already heard a couple of songs and heard of the bluetones but never quite gelled the band themselves, pictures in nme with the songs – so now we knew “ohhh thats who they are, i love this song.... lets go see them live”. chipper passed her driving test then there was no stopping us. Town after town didn’t seem to make a difference, we’d just jump in the car and go – sometimes deciding an hour before – oh, tones are playing in Wolverhampton – fancy it? Wizzing down to London in her little mini, buzzing on over to derby.... oxford, lets go there... am a bit tired, screw it – let’s eat pro-plus and get going and off we’d go.
A few years later I moved to London, was working with this girl and she caught me listening to the bluetones. Name-dropped and said she knew them and they were doing a gig in shepherd bush this week, did i want to go. OF COURSE i wanted to go, i already had my goddam ticket.... foolish question! Anyway, off we went and met a couple of girls there and just hit it off. To this day I remember them asking sheepishly “which one do you fancy then” and me saying well of course, theyre all fit as ‘ouses, but i just dont feel that way about them... which was the best thing i could possibly have said cos turns out they were other halves of band members and to fawn over any of them would have been bloody embarrassing and probably have cost me the future friendship of two of my best London friends to this day.
Gigs and club nights ensued from that day on.... usually pissed up to the max and always great, great fun. I still had that bug in me that meant I’d go anywhere to see them do a performance, so long as there was a friend at the other end to go have fun with after.... actually, probably sometimes without one too. I can’t even begin to remember the amount of places I’ve been that I’d never have seen without the bluetones at the other end of it. Somewhere beginning with K in the middle of Scotland..... where WAS that?
Favourite gig memories are too many to mention, the amount of singing, drinking, dancing, yelling, drinking, dancing in puddles, new friends, old friends, awe filled moments of celebrity spotting that weren’t actually filled with awe cos they were too drunken.... just.... bluetones gigs have brought so much to my life in terms of the people I’ve met, the people who are to this day, my greatest friends in life and none of it would have happened without the bluetones music – so how couldn’t the bluetones be my band, how couldn’t every tune they utter have meaning to me and my life?
This forum came close to putting an end to that, to mixing up what was meant to be with what I greedily tried to make more of but the fact i had to try so hard with this means it wasn’t meant to be. What comes your way naturally and isn’t forced, means so much more..... the bluetones are naturally a part of my life, i’m so thankful to them as a musical force that I can’t even begin to put into words how grateful I am they decided to make a go of it from garage practices to... “fuckit, lets give this thing a go” - of course they didnt do it for me, or for you, or for anyone, but them doing it certainly did so much for me anyway.
regardless - to mark, adam, scott and eds – thank you for the music and the songs that i will sing along to forever - but thank you even more for bringing zoe, susie, sarah, laura and pos into my life for keeps. Thank you for giving me and chipper a lifetime of memories for us to share. And thank you for bringing me all the people who made their mark and had an impact, it might not necessarily have been a lasting one but certainly gave me some rich(ard boove) life experience. ooo.... another thanks for playing jub jub..... i had to keep my promise and never ask for anything, ever again but still.... totally, TOTALLY worth it!
(i should really add a thanks for letting friends bands support (sorry one of them stole your rider whisky) and thanks for giving my oldest, dearest friend a job (he's still the best keyboard player you ever had) and another thanks for letting ryan come on tour with his favourite band under the pretence of selling tshirts)
with all that the bluetones have enriched my life with, how could i miss them.... all these memories are never going nowhere.
