Having rather frantically rushed back home to London and then back into town again, I found myself at Sister Ray Records at four o'clock. I walked in and looked around. It was small, I mean rather small compared to your average HMV. I don't tend to go to little independent record stores but this one was nice. I took a quick reccy and decided that as they were setting up and everyone within the shop looking like they were actually buying cd's, I was probably ok. After spending a while browsing cd's, I decided that Lucy's cd ban didn't stretch to old Snow Patrol albums and took one to the till deciding that this could be a way of checking what was a good time to come back. After deciding that I had about an hour to spare, I went off to wander down Oxford Street where I found myself in HMV. Not a good idea, I know, especially as Lucy and I self-ban ourselves from going in their normally. I found myself in front of a rather large display for Walk the Line, complete with cd, dvd and books. After a five minute deliberation I picked up a book emblazoned with the fact that it was Johnny Cash's autobiography, and it was only three quid, and wandered off to look at more cd's I wasn't allowed to buy. Eventually I wandered to the till where some bloke who served me was boasting about the fact that he'd just managed to get two weeks off for the World Cup to his co-worker. Jammy git.

After managing to successfully waste an hour on Oxford Street, I walked back to Sister Ray Records to check out what was happening. I found a group of three girls clearly waiting so I stood with them. Within two minutes I had been asked if I posted on the board. Until then I had completely forgot that all bands and artists have messageboards and non-stalkers. Clearly they had me labelled as the type... Another five minutes after that and we had successfully tested the boundaries and now found ourselves less than a metre from the microphones that had been set up. In the half hour wait, the people I was with managed to spot Sophie Ellis Bextor because she is going out with one of The Feeling; I don't know which one because I don't read Heat and I couldn't see what she was wearing but can only assume it wasn't Tash's Sony Awards dress.

And then they emerged. With no introduction, which was rather amusing.

"There's a strange crackling noise. We like it."

The strange crackling noise was coming from the right speaker and had been a source of conversation amongst us in the minutes leading up to their set before Dan commented on it when setting up his guitar. It became apparent that they hadn't discussed any kind of set list and Dan decided to start with Sewn. I have seen The Feeling at the Academy in a small-ish venue and on a huge stage at Radio 1's Big Weekend, but this was completely different. For a start at accoustic gigs in record stores you can't sing loudly or jump about. And you most definitely cannot do this with the band less than a metre away. But the result is a really intimate gig. Even more intimate than the Bedford.


Sewn sounded absolutely fantastic. The speakers were almost either side of where I was standing so it resulted in a kind of stereo sound eminating from all around. "Give me a song and I'll sing it like I mean it", and they really did. The emotion, throughout the set, was all over Dan's face; he was feeling it, as the ND have been known to say. It was just refreshing to hear an accoustic set, and I loved it.

They sang Never Be Lonely, can't quite remember if it was their second or third song but I do already really like this song after their performance at Fundee. And anyone who can get "well they can bloody well just fight it" into a song and not have me realise, despite listening to it for the last three days, until they are stood in front of me singing it, has to be good. I absolutely loved them singing this and was trying very hard not to go into full Nik at a festival dance mode.

"We're going to do four songs. *Tries to hold up four fingers which is physically impossible since the hand is already holding the top to the water bottle* They wanted us to do four but we were only going to do three. Now we're going to do four, which could be a problem because we only know how to do three. Like this."

They did a song called Rose next, which after a while I recognised from their set at the Academy. Apparently it was a "bit ropey", but it sounded fine to me. Actually it sounded really good done accoustically.

They finished on Fill My Little World and I was trying very hard not to dance a lot, but it was fantastic. It sounded absolutely amazing eminating from the speakers and Dan banging his foot down, James stylee, in front of me.

When they finished, I found myself in a signing queue. Originally I was going to leave before they did the signing but the shop was small and I was about tenth in the shambles that was the queue so I felt I should stay and at least tell them how much they rocked Fundee. I fumbled in my bag for something to hand them so I didn't look like a complete idiot and my hand emerged with the map I'd used to find the record store so I handed that over, because I thought it was amusing, and they clearly did too. And I told Dan they were fantastic at Fundee, he told me how much they enjoyed it, I realised I didn't have a clue what the other members of the band's names were and then left.