I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU

Ugly Kid Joe are back in the UK this year, and Steve and I went to 2 shows, in Southampton and Exeter (Claire came along to that one!)
I drove down to Steve's in the afternoon, and we spent hours getting ready, dressing up, make up, the works......Rolled up 2 mins before the gig started (the heavens opened as the car engine turned off, doncha just love England in the autumn??)

Sonny spots us at last!

Steve's hat!

But we still managed to get on the barrier - which is our natural place in life as I may have mentioned before. About 3 mins before they came on, Whit suddenly appeared in front of us to say hallo, and give me a hug! Love him to bits... Sonny spotted us a bit later too and waved. They were bloody awesome as usual, did all my favourites VIP, Neighbour, Tomorrows World, Milkmans Son, and, of course, Cat's In The Cradle, during which Whit wore Steve's red top hat as is becoming tradition for us!Steve's hat get's another go at Whit's head
Was hoping to meet up with them afterwards, but they went back to their hotel and we were stuck with Skid Row. Which isn't really Skid Row without Sebastian Bach,  is it now? So we retired to the bar......where Steve met up with a friend who had snagged the setlist and he gave it to me :)

Claire, I'll have to inform the Marmite Protection Unit

A great night out, and I was looking forward to the next one, in Exeter about a week later. We planned to drive down to Claire's early,  have dinner and a drink, followed by a leisurely train journey into Exeter. But  Steve couldn't leave work on time, and I was faffing majorly, and then we got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams in.........um......... somewhere in Devon, and so we ended up rather later than we planned.. ...But we still had time for dinner (thanks Claire!!) and got to the station in time for the train......gosh, I haven't been on a train for ages! Shame it was dark, we went all along the seafront, woulda been a nice trip in the daytime. Anyway, we met up with her mad friend Dave at the other end, found the venue and a place on the barrier.........was a bit on the side but we were hoping they'd come on that way and see us. Sadly that was not to be at least not to start with..... But about halfway thru the set Whit came down to the barrier and spotted us, and I got my usual hug  *squeeeeeeeeeee*, and then Sonny spotted us and blew me a kiss, bless him. But I could see that my hoped for meet and greet/get things signed etc wasn't gonna happen, so I paid £5, (ouch) for a signed poster. Ah well, mebbe next year....

Claire likes Skid Row, so we hung about and watched them for a bit, but then she decided she'd had enough, so we went off to another funny named pub (what the hell was it called Claire??) where some friends of hers were playing. It was teeny weeny inside, but everybody was dressed up, Halloween stylie and the band played lots of 60's stuff, all of which both Steve and I knew and sang along to! In all honesty we were slighty inebriated by this time, except for Dave who was a STAR. LOVE YOU DAVE TURNER!!!


Things become a little vague after that, but I think we went along to yet another pub, before taxiing it home to Claire's and crashing for the night. And in the morning her kids were up waaaay before anyone else, so when Steve and I surfaced, we were treated to 'breakfast', and a kids eye view of the world - they started off by being nervous (for about 5 mins) and then became very full on - bless 'em!! Ahh, I remember when mine were like that! They were very sweet and entertained us for ages and ages, before Claire surfaced and reined them in :).
Sadly, then it was off home...what a brilliant night out -  now we gotta wait for the next get together, I hope it isn't too long, I miss my Alice buddies when we don't see each other often.