Wedgewood


Yesterday I went down south to see Idlewild at the Wedgewood Rooms. When I lived down that way, we used to see quite a few bands at that venue, and, according to my Setlist stats, the last band I saw there was Idlewild themselves back in 2009. 


Roddy himself alluded to this - he said that he reckoned it was their 9th time in Portsmouth as a band, which, as he said, is pretty impressive for a band from Scotland. I reckon they've only been to Northampton 2 or 3 times so Portsmouth has been really lucky. 

They were great of course - they mixed up their set with a few tracks from their most recent album, but it was mostly the big songs that you'd expect, and the band, now set as a 6 piece, with Rod Jones and Allan Stewart anchoring the stage with a guitar at each side, muscles through a raucous and energetic set. 

It won't come as a great revelation that, as you get older, time seems to be speeding up. I only spent 4 years living down there, and moved back to Northampton in 2003, but it still feels like a significant part of my life.

I stayed at my mates house - we worked out that we've known each other now for about 37 years, and I said to him that I might go out for a run around the Coast. Even though it was only at "conversational pace" I figured it was a quicker way to get to see some of the town before I headed back. We did that, and naturally I'm asking myself why I ever moved away in the first place. 

Time lends distance - Back in 2003, I was working a particularly thankless job with a long commute, and was 150 miles away from my family. It's lovely to go back and visit and I had a great time but for my sanity, I absolutely had to leave when I did. 

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