Rockstars and Writers and Friends (Oh My)!

Originally, back when the tickets for EvelynEvelyn first went on sale, and long before I knew Cheryl would be staying with me, the idea was to travel up to London on Saturday morning, see the gig, sleep, and head home early(ish) on Sunday, and I had prebooked cheap rail tickets with that in mind.
However, on Friday afternoon, my friend Cheryl mentioned that there might be an extra ninja gig on Sunday afternoon, that she was thinking of travelling up to London for the day to go, and would my train tickets let me stay too. . . Well, they wouldn't, but after checking out prices for new and more flexible tickets I decided it was doable, so we bought tickets for the gig, and arranged to meet up in Camden on Sunday once Cheryl's train arrived.

This meant that I had Sunday morning in London and I occupied myself with a soothing hour or so in the British Library.

Sadly, the new Maps exhibition doesn't open until 30th April, so I wasn't able to see that, but I did spend some time in the 'Treasures of the British Library' gallery, inspecting Magna Carta, Shakespear's handwriting, various illuminated manuscripts and the original, handwritten 'Alice in Wonderland' with Lewis Carroll's own illustrations.

This made me happy.

I then headed over to Camden, where I was able to grab some lunch, and enjoy the atmosphere of Camden Market, before meeting up with Cheryl and heading to the home of her friends the Clutes, who are lovely, warm and welcoming people, who live in a gorgeous flat filled with art and books and, as it turned out, rockstars and writers...

As we arrived, Amanda Fucking Palmer was just on her way out, to check out the venue - we were quickly introduced, and also met Amber & (a different) Jason, who I *think* are friends of Neil's..

Cheryl then took the opportunity to grab a quick interview with Neil, (Which has possibly the best opening question of any interview EVER), and which explained the chickens from last night.

Incidently, Neil did comment that he isn't really Neil Fucking Gaiman yet, as he isn't taking Amanda's name until they are actually married!

Then, when Amanda got back, Cheryl interviewed Amanda, about twitter, and gigs in space, after which Amanda & Neil left to do important pre-gig stuff.

Shortly afterwards, Cheryl & I went out to join Roz and @Cillygrrl14 in the queue, which was getting long, and quite full of ukuleles by that time.

The venue, Underworld is in the celler of the World's End pub, and so is dark, and there are various places where you get good acoustics, but not a very good view of the stage, so for much of the gig I could not see much, although could hear perfectly! Unforunately it did mean that I failed in my attempt to meet up with another TwitterFriend, @MotleyHippie.

The gig itself?

Bitter Ruin, who opened for EvelynEvelyn on Saturday played, as did Robots in Disguise, who I think opened for them at the KoKo show - both had quite short sets,as of course time was limited, with another EvelynEvelyn show due to start, over in Shepherds Bush, at 7, but both were very good - well worth keeping an eye out for!

Jason & Amanda then both played - Amada started with 'Fake Plastic Trees', then they moved on to some covers of EvelynEvelyn songs, and some of their individual works - Icarus, Ways to Love, ElephantElephant, the Electric Blanket song,(including a bonus 'punk version) Also Jacksons 'BillieJean' and NWA's 'Fuck tha Police'..
We also got to hear 'Do You Swear To Tell The Truth The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth So Help Your Black Ass'

Evelyn & Evelyn wereresting, but their little cloth avatars were on stage (except for when they went crowdsurfing...) and a little later, Amanda follwed their example, crowdsurfing as Jason played 'Anarchy in the UK' - Amanda managed to surf across to Neil for a kiss mid-surf (met with huge cheers from the crowd!)

I think this one is my favourite picture from the show - incidently, I am 99% sure that that is the back of Neil's head obscuring the bottom of the photo...

Amanda was also persauded to to sing 'Gaga, Palmer, Madonna'

(This video isn't mine - it's mjdanby's . I don't know who he is, but he shoots good youtube!))

The atmosphere was amazing, and Amanda & Jason both gave the impression that they were really enjoying being there!

After the gig, we spent a little more time with the Clutes before heading home.

All in all, a wonderful weekend.

in which There Are Twins, Elephants And Chickens

So, Saturday morning involved a fairly stress-free journey to London (after seriously confusing the bloke in the ticket office in Trowbridge, by trying to buy single ticket to go from London to Trowbridge on Sunday...)

Shepherd's Bush, where the gig was, is unknown territory for me, so I decided to head straight there to find the hall and my hotel, which (somewhat to my surprise, as I have no sense of diection whatsoever, I found them without difficulty, so had time to change, and find food, before heading back to queue!

It was an interesting queue. I met up with Roz Kaveney (having been introduced via twitter by a mutual friend), was given a small elephant by a passing pirate (only an elephant, not an ElephantElephant, as there are fewer of them..) and a twix bar, met a conjoined twin puppet, and all to the sound of ukeleles in the queue... There was even a very brief, fly-by appearance by a certain Crazy-Haired writer en route to the stage door...

Inside, Bush Hall is interesting - lots of chandeliers & mirrors, and small enough to feel intimate.

Opening for the twins were Bitter Ruin who I belive were originally only due to open for the twins at the 'extra' KoKo show - they were excellent - having spent all my cash on EvelynEvelyn CDs and beer I didn't invest in their CD at the gig, but I think I may have to do so now!

Then the beautiful Miss Holly Gaiman, wearing a wnderful black & red dress which I didn't manage to get a decent picture of, brought "The Lost Airman" (later unmasked as Thomas Dolby) on stage to MC the twins show, in place of Sxip Shirey, followed, after a little encouragement, by the twins themselves.

The right-hand Evelyn (from their point of view) was suffering from a nasty cold, (and even blowing one's nose can be tricky, when it requires the cooperation of one's twin sister...) but carried on like the trouper she is!

We heard of EvelynEvelyns background & birth (with visual aids)

And about the Chicken Man (which involved a brief appearance by a live chicken, which, I was later informed by a Very Reliable Source, was one which actually belongs to, and lives at, the Bush Hall... sadly, the chicken seemed to be a little publicity shy, and I didn't manage to take its picture during its brief appearance. The twins were sustained with Twixes, then, between songs, they answered some questions submitted by the audience, after which there was some singing about Elephants (with enthusiastic audience participation) I have been trying to get my video to upload, but so far, without success - I'll add it later if I can get it to work.

After a lovely rendition of "I just need MySpace" the twins left the stage, although the standing ovation they got was enough to bring them back for an encore (Love Will Tear Us Apart") sung from the balcony at the back of the hall.

If you haven't already got the album , go get it now. What are you waiting for?

After the interval, we heard from Jason Webley, (Who looks most unlike himself, without his beard!) and then by Amanda Palmer - first time I have seen her play 'Coin Operated Boy' live.

Then Jason was back, for the heart-felt duet (born of touring) "Electric Blanket" and not long after thatm the evening ended, with a wonderfully raucous, full participation rendition of Jason Webley's Drinking Song . .

It was a wonderful finale to a fantastic evening, and if I could have gone back and started all over again from the beginning, and done it a second time, I would have.

I headed back to the hotel, tired, but very, very happy.