Last night was awesome. I went to see Ben Marwood, Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay at a tiny little arts centre in town. So tiny! There were like 30 of us in the room, and it was full. For a start, tickets sold out a couple of weeks ago and I was all miserable about it because I didn’t even know they were on sale. Then Ben Marwood done me a twitter saying that he’d left some tickets for me on the door, which was lovely of him. Also this badboy gig only cost us £6 each. Good live music is a flipping bargain sometimes.

Anyway so we got there and Chris T-T was playing, and I’ve listened to him before but I don’t have any albums but he has a really nice voice and a very Brighton-y accent (probably because he lives there) and he just seems really cool and he was good. Also, he’s done an album of A A Milne poems, which is ace. What an original idea.

Then Ben Marwood played, and he was awesome. I’ve only seen him once before when he was supporting Frank Turner but I really love his voice, it’s the good end of gravelly, but not rough. And witty - I love a nice witticism in the evening.

Then Franz Nicolay played and I was all YAAAY because he’s wonderful. Boyfriend liked him a lot as well, which given that boyfriend doesn’t really go in for acoustic stuff is astounding. He did a load of stuff that I don’t remember hearing when he supported Frank last time and during the penultimate song his mic or something gave out so he did the last song just in the middle of the audience. He has a seriously good voice, it has that amazing catch to it that I love. Makes it sound like he’s been drinking whisky and smoking cigarettes until 2 in the morning.

Afterwards I bought a bit of merch (obviously, it’s me) and because Ben had been so nice as to make sure I got in when he didn’t know me at all, I took him some fudge that I made. I would’ve felt bad just taking him fudge so I brought fudge for all three. I hope they liked it, Ben did because he tore into it straight away haha. Awesome.

It was cool, but kind of weird. I was so excited, I think that’s how regular people would feel if they met Brad Pitt or some other ridiculous celebrity.

Oh, I also talked about how I’m used to queueing for toilets at gigs with Franz Nicolay and some other guy. Super.

I went to see Frank Turner on Sunday. Took Mike along for funsies, he’s not as into fthc as me, but I’m pretty sure he enjoyed himself, even if he was a bit jealous. Had Jay from Beans on Toast behind us as well, wasn’t sure until Frank started and Jay started singing along - that is one voice you won’t mistake.

The set was awesome, some new stuff, loads of old stuff, really good. I bought the new EP because it was cheaper at the show than online, and while I am very poor, I am never too poor for Frank. Also bought myself a new Frank Turner t-shirt, because I wanted one basically. I may be impoverished but I am also greedy and materialistic.

So yeah, it was beautiful. I’m seeing him again in February with my brother. Frank’s playing at the Borderline in London, which is a 275 capacity venue, which makes it only slightly bigger than Newbury’s very own Waterside. Insane. I am so freaking excited, I actually nearly wet myself when Matt told me about it (and he bought the tickets! What an awesome brother I have).

On another gig kind of note last night I saw The Wurzels. You might think that’s an odd choice of band, but Mike’s band were supporting and I got in for free, so y’know. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in a while, but so funny. Certain people getting well into it, unexpectedly. Smokey Bastard were super ace as per, new set revealed including brand spanky new song that Mike wrote. It’s actually really good, really fucking long, too.

Tomorrow night they’re playing a birthday show at the pub, so that should be good because I know a few people there now so I’ll have someone to have lolz with again, not sure if the other band WAGs are attending. Then on Friday I think they’re playing a Hell’s Angels party which should be most hilarious, and on Saturday we’re going to see The Skints, Dirty Revolution and Random Hand so it’s a very gig-filled week for us! Busy busy, let’s get drunk and fall over.

Gaslight last night. Obviously I didn’t take that picture, and that’s not even Oxford but so it goes. They were incredible, so fantastic - they just kept playing and playing and playing. At one point someone had obviously told Brian that the Academy has a curfew and he was like “So what? We’ll just blast right through it!” They played loads of stuff off the old albums during the encore, and finished with an incredible version of The Backseat which is just one of my favourite songs ever.

Ahhhh!! So good.