The Other Stuff including new concerts

Mrs H3 and I haven’t just been going to the pantomime for the last 6 weeks. Oh no. We’ve also found time to go to the cinema and to a concert.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity ‘Twilight’ was released over here on 19th December and Mrs H3 and I went on the opening night. Now as you know I’ve been waiting for this film for ages, so I was extremely excited – enough to forego the alcohol (yes really) at my works Christmas party, which took place in the afternoon.

We had decided to see the film at the O2 Vue – although it turned out that it wasn’t in the huge cinema, but one of the smaller ones. We had elected to eat there too, which turned out to be a mistake as there was a Madness concert taking place in the arena so it was packed and we had to queue for almost an hour to get into Zizzi’s.

The evening didn’t get any better when we went to collect our tickets from the machine. The booking had been lost. After a long argument with the useless staff we had no choice but to buy the tickets again.

So to the film. Almost as soon as it started I knew I was going to love it. Robert Pattinson, looking gorgeous as ever filled the screen and soon I was drawn into the Twilight world. It would be fair to say that 95% of the audience was under eighteen and I had forgotten, having rarely been to a film showing with so many young people, how much they like to talk through films. The whole cinema was filled with people discussing the film, whether it was about the actors, the plot or how it compared to the book.

The girls behind us were no different in that respect except that the one behind me must have been the only person in the cinema who hadn’t read the books and spent the whole film asking her friends who characters were and what was going on.

Distracting as this was it didn’t stop the enjoyment of the film which was a decent enough adaptation of the book. I was already on Team Edward, and thought Robert perfect for the role – although I’ve never been able to convince Mrs H3 of either – she is firmly Team Jacob (poor deluded woman) and couldn’t understand my swooning over Mr Pattinson at all. However, whilst the film didn’t sway her from the Team Jacob camp she did admit that Robert was completely gorgeous.

For me there were a few disappointments, although they were mainly superficial – the overuse of the pale makeup on the vampires (I’m sure that could have been more naturally done) and especially the ‘dazzling’ scene. With the wealth of special effects available these days I was expecting Edward to be truly stunning but instead he was rather lacklustre – a pot full of glitter would have worked better then the final film version.

Notwithstanding my few gripes, I thought the film was excellent, although I would definitely be interested to see it with a more mature audience and without the talking.


The following night we were back at the O2 to see the Bootleg Beatles at Indigo. Once again we were in the Kings Row, but a few rows back from where we had been for Gary Numan. To be honest it was a bit high for us and fortunately there were enough empty spaces for us to move during the interval to a less dizzy height.

The last time I saw the Bootleg Beatles was at Glastonbury in 1995 and I had such a good evening I’ve recounted the story of it many times over the years. I can say that they are just as good today as they were then, and yes they sound – and look – just like the Beatles. Working through the whole catalogue from “From Me to You” right through to “Hey Jude”, they incorporated the fashions and the news of the times. At the end ‘John’ came on and sang “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” after which the encore consisted of “Let It Be”, followed by “Twist and Shout” which they performed as it was the last night of the tour (they said).

I thought it was a fantastic evening, although I was aware that Mrs H3 was not quite as enthusiastic as I to begin with as Chas & Dave (with Pete Doherty in support) were playing the Tap n’ Tin that night and normally we would have gone there instead. However, as the evening went on she was soon joining in as happily as I. It turned out that Pete didn’t turn up at the Tap n Tin (even though all his family did) so we didn’t miss anything interesting , and we’ve already got tickets to go and see Chas & Dave at Fairfield Halls, Croydon in May so all’s good.

Actually the concert season is already looking quite bright. We have the two Elbow concerts in February and as mentioned above Chas & Dave in May. Gary Numan is playing the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 25th July and I Am Kloot are currently recording a new album, being produced by Guy and Craig from Elbow (lots of happy fangirl squeeing from me) which surely means a new tour shortly, to which I’ll obviously be going to as many shows as possible (alas unable to make either of the dates in Manchester as it’s just outside my finances to go – I suspect it would be cheaper to get to the Paris show than Manchester). However, I was very excited to find that Blue October, whose new album “Approaching Normal” is released on 24 March 2009, are FINALLY coming to the UK. Short notice as its next Tuesday, 27th January at Camden Underworld – but of course we’ve got tickets and I’m completely twitchy with excitement. They are being supported by People in Planes whose album “Beyond the Horizon” I’ve just listened to (and very good it is too). It should be an excellent evening. Also keeping fingers crossed for an e-mail saying that I’ve won the Duran Duran competition tomorrow night, which would see us at a concert with them in London next Wednesday evening.

Anyway, kicking it all off, tonight is a return visit to see Bill Bailey in Tinselworm and of course tomorrow is the final pantomime and then I’ll be celebrating my birthday. Have a feeling it could all get a bit messy, but there might be some decent photos at the end of it all.