It's like the nineties all over again...

Twas' a Saturday at the end of July 2000, when Ned's Atomic Dustbin returned.. Events commenced sometime nearing lunch at the Station Hotel in Dudley. Despite taking orders for multitudes of pints, about a dozen of us were uncermoniously ejected from the bar at 2.15 precisely.

Whilst some of us went to the Fellows Inn at the top of the hill, a handful of us remained in the foyer drinking our pints, and trying not to listen to Shutty from Terrorvision moaning about his mobile phone bill. As the afternoon commenced, we met a fan woh had taken a coach from Glasgow last night, drank his way through the night, and arrived in Dudley at 5.30 am. And so to the Fellows, where we convened with someone from America,  and two insane young girls who'd flown from Japan. Food and more pints later, the pub filled up slowly but surely with more Neds shirts than I could be bothered to count. Drunkeness approached. 

By about 5-30, quite drunk, and vocal, the assembled masses left the by now jampacked pub. There were more Idiots and Neddies in the pub than I've ever seen in one place since 1994. Three deep at the bar, occupying tables, grass, spaces in the carpark, windowsills, ledges...

And so to the castle - set deep at the top of a hill within the ruins of Dudley's castle, the first familiar face I see is the remarkably cheerful neds singer Jonn Penny, who tells me quite clearly "don't buy any Neds shirts, they're crap" whilst parting with his own hardearned cash to buy some. The bar was soon run dry.Uncle Bulgaria, were interesting, but massively derivative - throwing in covers of "Faith" and "Bombtrack" between some fairly ordinary original material.

Balaam and The Angel were next. Can't remember much of them between my six pint haze, but they seemed quite good to me. And then to Miles Hunt, who was in excellent form and fine mood. The set was a bizarre mix of old and new : Miles was all smiles, and played with a priceless passion, as well as throwing in some welltried and tested banter - familiar stories for Someone Like The Kingbird, and Immortalising Chase, and tingling versions of On The Ropes, the Truth At Last, and Maybe - dedicated to his sister in law. He made some astute comments about band reformations - about how they can be terrible, but also at the same time speaking of the tears in his eyes whilst watching Balaam and being brought back to some of the first records he ever bought and treasured. Whilst it appeared obvious that most of the audience wanted a familiar rerun of acoustic versions of the old hits, Miles was undaunted, and gave us a fierce, passionate and wity set of his finer moments.

And so to the Neds. Long awaited, the crush became immense as soon as the bands intro tape began. Much like the Happy Mondays last year, the Neds seem to have reformed in style - and done it better than the shambling mess of reformed junkies. The intro tape, an ambient piece hinging on samples from Suave And Suffocated, runs into the frantic Until You Find Out. Whilst the sound mix is awful, luckily I was able to hear the spot-on monitor mix the band were hearing. Jonn seemed genuinely touched by the massive turnout the Neds recieved - far in excess of the pitiful Terrorvision t-shirt turnout. The crowd went crazy. Haven't seen anything like it ever in fact. Crowdsurfing agogo and a rude amount of beercans being thrown at the stage - soaking monitors, mixing desks, almost knocking unconscious Alex. Dan Dan pounds out the rhythm like he's never been away, and the two new boys are as integral to the Neds as they were to Groundswell. Jonn meanwhile tries to supress a big smile, jumps up and down stupidly, and thanks us all for our presence and good taste.

In the meantime, whilst many think the Neds are a one joke band, (and what a joke), they produce a solid, heavy set that shows just how good they were and how much they have been missed. Individual songs blur into a mass - Less Than Useful, Selfish, Intact, Stuck, Happy, Trust, Tantrum, Cut Up, Song Eleven, and then a boistrous encore of Grey Cell Green and Kill Your Terrorvision later, Jonn says kindly "well see you --- Never!" and that is that. They will be missed.

The field empties after the Neds. All back down to the Station, where we narrowly miss a fight between the bride and grooms respective fathers in the wedding reception next door, before consuming more pints, talking more bollocks, and then to JB's where yet more pints were consumed, more dancing occured, and the heat of the height of summer in a very very overcrowded club became dangerous. And then, being barely able to stand, and quite rightly so, it was bedtime for Bozo, and we went home.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 1.0 beta 2!