New Years Eve 1996

London Hackney Empire: New Years Eve 1996
My Life Story Sunshine Tours (a bit of a misleading name given the current climate!) started off our New Years Eve at 3.30 on Liverpool Street station where we were all supposed to meet. At 3.45 Nic finally turned up, and to add insult to injury she'd even been given a watch for Christmas, so her usual excuse of not knowing what the time was fell flat. We'd decided to go to Hackney Empire for 4 o'clock to see the band whilst they did the sound check. When we got there we found Jack and the Beanstalk was on instead and didn't finish until 6.30. So we all went back to mine to get some food, get changed and have a few drinks. On the way back we stopped of at a chinese takeaway to get some food, except for Tony who went to an off license and bought 2 bottles of champagne!

Back at mine we were just finishing off our meal and having a drink when the phone rang. Who could it be? My flat mate answered, looked rather puzzled and asked me if I'd phoned anyone yesterday. I had, as it happened, so said yes and picked up the phone. On the other end was Ruth, who plays the trumpet when Mark is unavailable. Rather fortunately Tony and Nic were witness to this otherwise no-one would ever believe me. Anyway we had a nice talk for 10 minutes or so, about the band and music and life in general.

After I'd come back down to earth we started our epic trek to Hackney. When we got there we headed straight for the stage door and bumped into Jake, who said they were all rather busy as they'd only just arrived and had to set everything up and soundcheck, etc in just over an hour.

An hour later, we were in the pub, and Ian arrived, looking rather ill. Almost time to go in, but there was just enough time for Polly and Nic to steal every single My Life Story poster in the pub.

On the door, they refused to let Tony in due to the 2 bottles of champagne he had in his bag. So I got one of the roadies to meet him backstage where Tony gave him the bottles, but didn't get in himself. That was the last we were to see of them, or was it. Tony did however get a photo-pass for his trouble (more of that later)

The band played 2 sets. The first was an acoustic set with just Jake, Danny and the strings. They came on without warning, and I missed most of the first song as I was in the middle of buying a round of drinks at what seemed like the only bar in the building. They played Silently Screaming, Claret, Megaphone Theology and the absolutely amazing November 5th, which Jake said was his favourite song of the new album.

After the first set the Bikini Beach Band came on, I can't remember too much about them, but they did all cover songs, including a few My Life Story ones and then they did some karaoke in which I believe Mark Horne absolutely massacred, Motorcade and 12 Reasons Why.

Although we had front row seats, it didn't do any good as everybody else who didn't decided to come and stand in front of us. I was of course standing right at the front, although Tony had very kindly given me his photo pass. Now correct me if i'm wrong, but normally photo passes entitle you to go and stand between the crowd and the stage in the pit. Not at the Hackney Empire.
Basically it entitled me to nothing more than my ticket had. Photos weren't allowed, but everybody was taking them anyway, except me as I didn't have a camera (it's ironic isn't it).

The My Life Story set was basically the same as for the last tour, but with 17 Reasons Why instead of 12, although it didn't have the flute part in it. They also did The Lady is a Tramp.

The set was ruined, for my part anyway, by some of the bouncers who were trying to stop everybody pusing against the barrier at the front of the stage, as it looked as though it was made out of matchsticks and would fall down any minute. Unfortunately theres not much you can do about it when you have a few hundred people behind you jumping and pushing you, but the bouncers didn't seem to grasp this seemingly simple concept.

I can't say too mach bad stuff about the bouncers though, as they did get me backstage in a very bizarre incident that happened after the band had finished. They all went of stage, and the some bouncer in the pit at the front ripped my photo pass muttering some obscenities to himself. Not much of a loss I thought, and went to get my stuff from off my seat. A minute or two later, another bouncer came up to me and asked me if someone had taken my pass. He then took me to the entrance to backstage where I of course said it had been a backstage pass and they let me in, just like that. I found out later that Nic had almost beat the bouncer up, to achieve this for me. Once backstage I met the infamous Mr Gammon, who wasn't like I had expected him to be at all. Mark Horne was also back there along with Michaela (Jake's girlfriend) and the rest of the band, although Paul disappeared quite quickly.

We then set about drinking all of Tony's champagne, although he was still front of stage. But he and Nic and Polly managed to get back stage in time for the second bottle. The two "spare" string players were there, although they weren't playing. Apparently one of them shares a house with Lucy, which is part of the reason why she got the job, she said. In case you're wondering, they play mostly on the singles and they played at Bedford when Becky and Ollie were somewhere else.

Overall it was a wonderfu night with not one but two brilliant sets, only the choice of venue (which I gather the band didn't have much say in) spoiled what could have been their best gig ever
blue bar

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