"Life is good and the sun is shining"

"Who thinks this is better than Jack Daniels? [pause] I DO!"

This weekend Posh Young Farmer Boy's album went into the charts at NUMBER THREE! PYFB/Nutella Boy, that's be Paolo Nutini to anyone who has been living in space and doesn't know I've been calling him that for over two years - that'll be the person who googled "flip flops + farmer boys" the other day. Hello. Do farmer boys wear flip flops then?

But I digress. On Sunday Corinne and I waited four hours for PYFB's video to come on the music channels. We discovered that the internet had decided not to tell us that instead of trains, bus replacement services were running between Birmingham and Coventry. We found ourselves in Coventry for about the second time ever in the knowledge that the first time wasn't exactly a thrilling experience. And we were at the first gig that PYFB did after he learnt his album had charted at number three.

Eventually we left my house and soon we were on a bus replacement service with PYFB's album blasting out of my iPod in the hope that it would at least get Razorlight out of our heads since it had been stuck there for about a day. Arriving in Coventry we decided to wander over to the venue and on the way discovered that the square we'd been squashed, almost to death, three years ago doesn't exist anymore because there is a Transport Museum in the middle of it. We also discovered a Wetherspoons, albeit a Wetherspoons with no Archers and thus a distinct lack of woo woo.

Upon finding the venue we discovered that we'd clearly walked through the nice part of Coventry, if there is one it's that bit, and somehow ended up in the bit that looked decidedly not nice. And there was a queue. And a photographer man who tried to get us to pose like we'd been stabbed. Mostly we figured if we'd waited around outside for long enough, we probably would have been and wouldn't even have to pretend.

Eventually we were let in and discovered PYFB t-shirts, which can only be a good thing since we are indeed all about the band/artist t-shirts and then spent about ten minutes deciding which ones we wanted. And they had to match, obviously.

We found our places amongst the crowd that was starting to gather and figured out pretty quickly that it was bloody hot. And that it would take all of five minutes before the group of people near us started annoying us, for a start because they were tall and right at the front. Then they found another reason to annoy us. The support act came on. She was Claire Sproule and I thought she was really good. The annoying group talked the whole way through her set. It is one of the things that really annoys me at gigs; when people talk throughout, even more so when they are right at the front and turn their back on the artist at regular intervals. The next band came on and tried to rock it up. They did well in the sense that they left me and Corinne somewhat deaf and with no idea what they were called other than that they were from Hull and were playing Leeds festival. They weren't too bad I guess but by this point I was getting more and more hot and wishing there was at least some air in the place. And the group were still being annoying, despite us shuffling to one side in an attempt to escape them.

And then the clock hit ten to ten. And his band came on. And then he came on. With alcohol. Corinne and I looked at each other. This could only end badly. The gig was part of Jim Beam Music Tour 2006 and they make whiskey, which is apparently better than JD. I wouldn't know because despite them giving us a beer mat each and telling us to take it to the bar for a free drink, Corinne and I preferred to use it as a fan.




PYFB sounded absolutely fantastic with the band. He opened with Alloway Grove, whilst Corinne and I predicted that he would end on either Last Request or Jenny Don't Be Hasty. He announced his album reached number three and we screamed a lot. At one point he started singing Million Faces and he got to the chorus and his voice cracked, he laughed as he moved away from the mike and just didn't sing the line. Everyone was laughing to the point that when he managed to sing it alright on the next chorus, there was a big cheer and that is the reason that I will always laugh, from now on, everytime I hear Million Faces. And when it finished he apologised and said "you deserve better". And I wanted to hug him there and then because I hate it when people say that. Well hug him after he'd had a good shower, he was very sweaty after all. He completely threw mine and Corinne's last song theory out the window by singing Last Request somewhere in the middle. It was amazing though, a far cry from Fundee when it seemed like only Corinne and I knew the words. This time PYFB stopped singing, the band stopped and everyone in the venue was singing the chorus back to him at the top of their voice. It was a pretty cool moment and a far cry from the Bedford when he was support for Jiggly Leg Man* and Griffin and sang Justin Timberlake [and I still don't know why; the investigation failed miserably]. A few songs later and then the opening bars of Jenny Don't Be Hasty kicked in. PYFB started to talk, I looked at Corinne, "it's about when he fell in love with a girl and he told her he was twenty three", Corinne chimed in to finish my sentence "and he was only eighteen!" We looked back to the stage in time to hear PYFB finish off the song blurb:

"...so don't lie in the first place, but if you do, don't then tell the truth - it's a waste of time"

Corinne turned to me again, "he's drunk". Yep. But he rocked the stage. I wanted to jump up and down and have a rock party, but within the confined space it was impossible. And then he disappeared and came back for an encore with his last song being Autumn. Odd choice but it worked and was the end to a truly awesome gig.


*Foy Vance.