"I want to see everyone clapping...even the people who think they're too fucking cool to clap."

The Feeling released their album on the 5th and to coincide with this, they did a couple of instore gigs, one of them being London. And once again I was impressed that their timing meant I was at home so once again I could say hello to free music. Upon arrival at Virgin Megastores, I realised it was a wristband only event, but to get a wristband you had to buy the album and there were lots of wristbands left. I figured this was fine, since I was going to get the album eventually anyway.

Early this week I watched a report on Sky News, I think, about Sandi Thom and the whole marketing campaign behind her. There were some quibbles with it and the fact that some things might not be quite as they seem. In my mind, who cares how she was marketed? I automatically like her since she knocked that damn Gnarls Barclay off the top spot, and to be quite honest, marketing is about getting the music out there, if people can't hear it, they won't buy it. If they didn't like her music, no amount of marketing can make people buy it. So with this in mind, I was perfectly fine with buying The Feeling's album if it meant I got to see them play live again. Plus I do love wristbands; I think am developed a rather classist attitude towards wristbands now though since the Virgin ones were nowhere as good as the Radio 1 ones...

After a while, I wandered down to the basement and found the girls I'd met at the last instore signing so stood with them behind the barrier that had been set up. A bit later, we all spotted Sophie Ellis Bextor, again. So clearly, if you want to up your 'spotted tally', just go to lots of The Feeling gigs...

A while later, the set lists were taped to the stage, with the usual black gaffa tape and we spent five minutes working out what they said. If you are not familiar with set lists, well artists have a tendency to not write all the words of a title of a song, so I was quite impressed that with a bunch of hardcore non-stalker fans, it was me that managed to figure out that 'hell' meant 'helicopter'. And I'd not even listened to the album yet. Bonus points to Nik.

This gig was entirely different to the accoustic gig at Sister Ray Records. For one, the barriers meant there was a pit, which meant lots of tall photographers who were there to take photos and generally get in the way and not listen to the music. And the place was rather packed, which is always good. Except the people stood next to me wouldn't shut up for most of the set; This is fast becoming one of the things that annoys me most, that and slow walkers on Oxford Street. Their set was rocking. They chose their set list really well and it was a good showcase for the album.

Afterwards, they were signing albums, so I thought I might as well join the queue. The girls I was with were discussing the fact that Dan was at the far end of the signing table but they wanted him to write their names on their albums so I figured it was a good idea and I'd do that too. Plus I got them to tell me all the band's names, thankfully they didn't test me after.

I'm glad I went, they really did rock, and well, I'm all about the boys with guitars - especially when they jump and spin around like a helicpoter.