A while ago, I got a text on my phone from Cat saying, "Nutella Boy is doing Boro Music Live". The ND have quite a few names for Paolo Nutini, Posh Young Farmer Boy being the most used one, but the Nutella thing amused us for about a week after Dave said it on the Breakfast Show. Anyway, in keeping with the theme of free music, I booked a place at Cat Towers (***) and on Saturday, after Kirst, Ali and I danced barefoot in the street to wave off Lucy, I headed up to Middlesbrough. And in possibly starting a theme for the weekend, a drunken man made friends with me at Darlington, sang football songs on the train and when I arrived at Boro, he spent ages telling Cat to take me for a beer.

Sunday morning and the weather looked crap. I mean proper grey clouds and this was after Middlesbrough Music Live had sent out a MySpace bulletin telling everyone to wear sunscreen and then quoting the Baz Lurman lyrics. Well, no one needed sunscreen, we left the house and were greeted by rain. And rain it did, off and on all day.


We wandered down into town, bought mini doughnuts and wandered down to the Empire to see what was going on there. After a brief wait we saw Mr Hudson and the Library and they were good. I quite liked them, plus they have a cool name. They had a steel drum, which was really unusual and sounded really good. We decided to hang about and see who the next band was and then spent five minutes trying to work out what they were called as they stuck up their banner to the back wall. Eventually we figured out they were called The Rumblestrips. And they got bonus marks for their use of trumpet and sax. However, after a while, Cat got bored of the brass and we had to make our way though the crowd that had gathered -probably because it was raining- to leave. And because of the trumpet, we had Bang Bang You're Dead stuck in our heads. We went to the posh kebab place* for lunch and caught about an hour of the Croatia - Japan match. Happy days.

We decided to go for a drink down the pub and when we got there, Cat spotted someone she knew from work. So we bought our drinks and then were about to go over and say hi, when he was promptly arrested by the police, thus started a long running joke that Cat knew everyone who got arrested. We made our way to the Main stage and discovered quite a crowd and we caught the end of Little Man Tate's set, who were quite good. And then during the gap for moving instruments and stuff, a lot of people left so we found ourselves about three rows back from the barrier. In the rain.

We watched them set up, I got excited by the fact that the drums had Posh Young Farmer Boy's name on them and complained to Cat that I couldn't see. Bizarrely the mike wasn't in the center of the stage so that there was no introduction and Cat and I only knew he was on stage when we heard him announce himself. I swear I don't remember him being that small, which obviously helped the fact that I am 5'3 and therefore complained at regular intervals to Cat that I couldn't see, so that she had to move and try and find a place where I could see! But, he was absolutely fantastic. The rain continued to pour down but I didn't care, I got so lost in the music. It was quite amusing though because he wasn't really anunciating when he spoke, and he has a strong Scottish accent so it was left for me and Cat to guess what songs he was singing, which wasn't that hard since we know his music, but seriously we didn't have a clue what he was saying! Oh but the music. I fell in love with it all over again and I know I'm always going to remember the rain and the fact that the music meant it could rain all it wanted and I didn't care one little bit. I am loving seeing him on these big stages, as much as I love the Bedford and Bush Hall.




Earlier we had discovered that they had pulled Larrikin Love from the Empire and put them on the Main Stage and put Jiggly Leg Man on in the Empire instead. Now Jiggly Leg Man is Foy Vance who, for reasons unknown to Corinne and me, Cat quite likes. He was at the Bedford the same day as Posh Young Farmer Boy and it was the first time we saw both of them**, and Corinne and I noticed how much he moved his leg and have been calling him a variation of Jiggly Leg Man ever since. So Cat was going to run off to see him but promptly returned five minutes later with the information that the queue into the Empire was ridiculously long so we could rule out seeing Hope of the States there later. Now the reason for this reshuffling? Apparently The Fratellis are too big now and were doing Top of the Pops instead. Bit gutted about that, to be honest, since I missed them in Fundee because they clashed with PYFB so this time, I thought it was ok because they didn't clash at all. I wasn't counting on them being pulled.

"It says they have an extremely lyrical frontman"
"No, they have an extremely crazy frontman!"

As it worked out, Cat quite wanted to see Larrikin Love anyway so it was fine. I quite liked them, their frontman really was insane, but they were good and seemed to get the crowd going. It was still raining, and I do quite like Morning Runner but the pub was looking so much more inviting, plus we were going to have to go get Corinne soon anyway. We found a relatively empty pub, with a big screen so we could watch the Brazil match and settled down to wait for Corinne. It was really cold because our clothes were all wet from the rain and the hand dryers in the toilets were inept. A few cokes and hot chocolates later, we had to leave to get back to Main Stage because Corinne and Cat wanted to see Ocean Colour Scene. When we got back there, Cat grabbed my hand and ran and somehow managed to get me and Corinne through the crowd to roughly where we had been earlier for Little Man Tate. I confess to actually know none of Ocean Colour Scene's songs, but they put on a good show, really got the crowd going and the time flew by. Plus I made friends with more drunkards, which was better than the drunk bloke who had hugged Cat earlier or the other drunk bloke who could hardly stand up but was going round threatening people anyway. Cat and I kept out of his way and just laughed. Ocean Colour Scene were definitely good but I don't think I'll be getting any albums.

Though, speaking of which, Cat and I have discovered that when Posh Young Farmer Boy mumbled something about the 17th on stage, he meant his album is out then. It's confusing, I can understand him in interviews, and when he sings, but not when he speaks on stage. Clearly he mumbles. Like some other people I know.


*Not to be confused with the posh burger place, which is in London.
**It was the first time Corinne and I got a picture with PYFB too.