Welcome to the last day of the first weekend of the 2008 Gonzo Tour. Am currently wending my way back from Birmingham to London to join the rest of Team Two who are busy setting up for tonight's sold-out show at ULU with Kaiser Chiefs and Late of the Pier. This must be the smallest venue Kaisers have played in years and easily the hottest ticket in town tonight - the guestlist requests/demands/bribes have been flooding in all week!
Short of the total failure to find anywhere in Birmingham with full fat milk to make a decent coffee to relieve my hangover, it's been a fun few days. Friday saw The Automatic and current Top 10 stars Iglu and Hartly in Liverpool's Barfly. The latter whipped the audience up into a proper frenzy, especially the local ladies who were obviously smitten - i think it's frontman Jarvis Anderson's habit of performing stripped pretty much to the groin! Afterwards both bands hung around to watch Zane Lowe pack out the downstairs bar for a very sweaty aftershow and one member of Team Two made herself most unwell shooting Jagermeister on The Automatic's tour bus!
After an afternoon persuading Birmingham's shoppers to trade in various items of clothing for splendid new Gonzo on Tour t-shirts - a special mention has to go to the girl who gave up her denim skirt! - we headed out to the Barfly to receive some bad news: Noah and the Whale had cancelled due to singer Charlie being ill. This was not just a surprise to us but to to the band as well, the rest of whom were already in the venue and had done their MTV TWO interview and a DJ session in the local Topman that afternoon! Very soon, though, a plan was hatched and headliners Mystery Jets retired to their tour bus to learn Noah's hit 5 Years' Time.
When doors opened, there were a few disappointed faces in the queue, but no-one seemed to want a refund and Mystery Jets came out early to a packed room. Dressed in dazzling sequinned outfits (one wisecracking guy in the audience likened William Rees to Pat Butcher!) the band cracked through their hits, inspiring a mass singalong to Two Doors Down and then towards the end of a brilliant set, bringing the rest of Noah and the Whale on to a huge round of applause. You would never have guessed that the two bands' version of 5 Years' Time had been patched together barely two hours previously and i reckon it's going to make proper telly gold.
You can see the results on Friday 14 November on MTV TWO, but meanwhile keep your eyes on the MTV TWO blog and news for more updates from this year's Gonzo Tour... maybe even some pics!