Bucketmania!

The sun broke through the curtains and the morning that so many people had been waiting for had arrived, the Buckets playing the City Hall, 30 years of Bucketmania all in one place, this was indeed going to get messy!

The original plan had been to go with G and E, fate kicked us all in the balls for that one, but tickets purchased we had to go through with it otherwise a certain lady would have got off her sick bed and kicked our ass big style! As always we had a few tasks to complete, little chores and in-between them I checked in on Farcebook to see who was going and to keep an eye on excitement levels, it added a great feeling seeing so many people happy and excited about some local boys doing so well. Pictures were being posted and old tracks from YouTube, all added to the buzz, I was nearly tempted to dig out my old cassette “Sex Drugs & Sausage Rolls” but time and technology got away from me. The youngest was going to attend with us, bless her, her debut Buckets gig this indeed could get messy!

The daughter headed off to meet up with her friends to enjoy the sunny day, me I was to some degree dreading the night, if you have been reading some of the previous blogs, you will see that I have been undergoing some treatment, and although I’m being told it’s going well at times it seems to be having the opposite effect! Nerves were getting the better of me hells bells it’s not like it was me getting on the stage, so I did my little mind exercises, did all      the tricks I had been taught, onwards was the order of the day.

The wife went off to sort the Kraken who was grumbling that we didn’t care (WTF) Kraken corralled and watered, the wife could then start getting ready, my intention was to play it cool and not wear my Buckets T-shirt and I was going to try and act all nonchalant, yeah you guessed it, I wanted to be loud and proud for my support of all things Buckets! One bright orange Buckets T-shirt later, All ship shape we headed off with lots of time to spare (what just happened there) and we took a pleasant jaunt from Gimpsville to the big city stopping for fuel on the way in with a slight detour to buy some Easter eggs to no avail some greedy bastard had got them all, before anybody starts saying I’m a nugget for leaving it so late, sorry but it was a late curve ball thrown at me, as it’s usually the wife who does the chocolate shopping (me with my reputation, it wouldn’t get home!) detour complete we got our usual parking space close in the heart of Newcastle and connected with the youngest. Heading towards the City Hall I had a rather large grin on my face at the sight of so many Buckets T-shirts!

We were about eighth in the queue and we were quiet happy to be there, the only bug bear was the gig was unreserved seating so I figured it was going to be a mad dash for seats, the wife went walkabout and turned up inside waving at me and the youngest from behind the entrance doors, she got the information required for T-shirts and stuff, then finally arrived back in place as the queue started to grow and grow and grow, it was almost like the Lambton Worm (ok let’s not go there) Charlotte started to take pictures from inside to the masses outside the doors (damn it was like the 70’s & 80’s all over again) doors finally opened we rushed to get our T-shirts (I was so nice I bought one for all of us) and then dashed off to claim the seats we had carefully planned to get, slight curve ball as they had been reserved for crew members, we jumped in the next row and got settled, smiling as we saw so many people that we knew and hadn’t seen for so long, it really was like old days waving to people in the balcony and all around, admittedly my eyesight is shocking these days so if I missed anybody please forgive me I wasn’t being ignorant just blind!

Now for the important part, I wasn’t sure what to expect, was there going to be a support band? We just didn’t know we didn’t have a Scooby doo (but we did get Scooby doo later haha thanks Smog) but when Kev Bucket walked on stage with the biggest shit kicking Grin anyone has ever seen we knew that this indeed was going to be a special night, am I going to review the gig fuck no if you have seen the Buckets, you know what we got nearly three hours of awesomeness, a couple of complaints, firstly where was the high wire entrance from upstairs on to the stage? No pyro? Come on boys it’s the Hall! No giant Bucket as a drum riser! well all I can say it was still fucking awesome, however I promised my daughter some Opera, I feel as though I let her down on that score, and the crowd although they enjoyed it most of the gig was sat on their ass! Even with my dodgy knees, which because of all the standing destroyed my groin, oh, that looks so wrong written down but its true I was crippled, fuck me I even danced, well ok I sort of swayed from side to side from time to time! The magic of music hahahaha, the old farts sat behind us only complained once about us being out of our seats (thankfully) I really didn’t want murder and mayhem to be the headline in the local papers on Sunday morning! As a gig it was pretty damn good and enters my top five gigs of all time with a bullet, not bad when you consider I have been visiting the City Hall since 1976! damn good boys damn fucking good! Actually not bad since I have watched various lines up since about 1988 over about 100 times! Definitely the most watched band ever for me…..go figure!

The three hours were all over way to quick, a cracking end to a cracking gig and a fantastic touch for Malcom (you really had to be there) it was great seeing Trevor sing again for the boys, but was it just me but did his eye brows stand out for anybody else or was it just me that thought they looked like some kind of special effect or maybe it was the lighting, I didn’t mind though because he sang all my faves Caledonia and Red Hot, still no California Man I think I shall stopping hurling abuse…..I mean requesting it. We finally met up with G who was sat at the back with some of the Shields Bunch and it made me feel even better seeing them, but we didn’t hang around for the after show although G asked us, it just didn’t feel right and the wife would have upset one or two people who kept well out of our way (wonder why) the wife was starting to sink with a bad headache not helped by a couple of the white lights aimed at the crowd, we said our goodbyes or should I say au revoir as we did to Charlotte’s mum who was taking in all of the atmosphere as everybody streamed out of the venue, surely there has to be a proposal from a certain lady to a certain bass player I know just the right band to play the wedding hahaha!

A quick call in to work on the way home (I know I’m a sad bastard) brought about the expected mayhem as people went into panic mode as I turned up at around 11.30, so funny to find a body sprawled on the floor as he simply couldn’t get out the way quick enough, really do you not like the mischief that normally follows my presence at work, tee hee, deed done we headed back to Gimpsville and deposited the youngest back at the Kraken’s lair , we got the hell out of dodge before she went into full on twist mode, and got back in time for the wife to just want to crawl into bed and die…..quietly!

This morning the world tilted and any cunning plans were thrown out the window, I got up late and the wife didn’t, but when she did she was like the walking dead, another visit to the Dr’s and hopefully some bloody answers, as I type this up I look back on a great gig with some wonderful people, and even though we were not able to get to the Big Ginger Git’s and Bluebeards Easter Bunny Hop, I’m sure it will be a great day, now just to pick up the pieces do the dishes and veg out, I’m not back to work until late Wednesday all I can say is that the Buckets made me do it! Until next time……………..Toodles!