It's not all work and no play

Last night Henry came in from work early and we headed off down that long cul-de-sac to Ulverston. We had tickets for a Saw Doctors concert at Ulverston and we wanted to get there in good time, as though we had tickets, they were for "unreserved (balcony) seating" and we wanted to get the best possible seats. In the end we were there far too early as the doors didn't open till seven o'clock, but by then we were in a queue waiting behind the closed door so we got to sit in the middle of the front row of the balcony. Downstairs was standing only, and when we (or rather I) were younger and fitter is where we would have been. There's definitely more atmosphere in with an interactive crowd.  Maybe it's another sign of getting old, but the seats were not the comfiest in the world and the legroom severely restricted (even for those of us with shorter legs). But the most telling sign of incipient old age was that  - it was very loud! Maybe it was the acoustics, or maybe the sound equipment was not set up just right (there was quite a bit of fiddling about during the set), or maybe it was just us. We've seen the Saw Doctors many times since the 90's in venues as different as Leicester De Monfort Hall, Buxton Opera House (very grand), The Dome at Morecambe (not so grand), Preston Guild Hall (dodgy car park - our car was broken into and the stereo stolen)  and many more in between.  Being very nit-picker this was not the best we've been to. To me there were too many newer songs and the atmosphere certainly changed during them, and came alive again when the old favourites were played. Would we go to see them again? Yes definitely (but I would play the newest album more before hand to become more familiar with the songs.)

The Saw Doctors used to have a good website; but while looking the same, the speed is now appallingly slow, and I suspect it is being ignore in favour of the Facebook page. I'm not subscribed to Facebook, but anyone can look (but not comment). And you can catch them on their YouTube channel.

And next week, we're off to something completely different - a Bellowhead concert - more to follow, but for a taster look at their website or YouTube Channel.