Last night was no different. Loads of familiar faces in the crowd, a human pyramid or two forming throughout the night, lots of dancing and being flung around the mosh pit like a bottle thrown into a rough sea. Actually the sea was less rough than last year - which was a very good thing. Last year I was almost wiped out during the first song I threw myself into my a guy who must have been related to Hagrid. I was on the wrong end of one of his punches which almost floored me and after that one song - and two more encounters with his flailing arms - I retreated to the safety of the crowd.
This year people seemed to be in friendlier spirits and there weren't so many half-ogres not pulling their punches. People were still pretty active but it was nowhere near as painful as some of the previous years.
New Model Army themselves played a very good set - mixing in some of their great classics as well as material from their latest release 'High'. They are one of the very few bands - if not the only band - that I have consistantly seen over the last 17 years that I've not seen a bad gig from. Their music has always inspired me ever since I first heard them back in 1986/7 and their classics haven't lost a thing over the intervening years.
I spent most of the night with
Anyway, I loved the gig - not the best NMA gig, but even the 'not the best' are still cracking affairs and better than many other bands by a longshot. I feel slightly battered today and it's taken a few hours for my arm to start feeling fully operational as I think I had a slight collision or two which damaged it last night :p
Roll on the next one and long may they continue.
Tonight is Blood & Velvet, which I've never been to before but