GIGS IN APRIL 2007

THE ST.AGNES HOTEL, ST.AGNES (14TH APRIL)

THE GAY HORSES AND GLASS SHARK

(A personal review by Adam Puckey)

The Gay Horses 'DO' Glass Shark at the St. Agnes Hotel

'Can you not do that mate?'

I felt a tapping on the bottom of my shoe. For the second time that night, I was on the slate floor of the anteroom section in L2 in Truro, attempting to stand on my head. I only got as far as a semi upside-down crocuhed position both times. I was there with Dillon and my friend Tamzin, with the addition of Dillon's mate Gav who had silently disappeared...

Adam here.

Dillon and Tamzin were on the couches chatting to some strangers, tearing apart a yellow rose and tossing the petals all about them like a pair of may maidens.

How did I get to this point you ask?

Well. Rewind to 18.00pm. Sat at the train station waiting for Tamzin to arrive from Penzance. I had spent the day compiling items of card and cardboard from which I intend to construct a ROBOT SHARK costume. I had promised Tamzin a damn good night of fun, frolics and debauchery, and in light of the recent 'PonyGirl TAM Down' mix given to us by Mr Boss Man of glass shark, I thought what better way to spend the evening than drunkenly frolicising on the dancefloor to their beautiful high beat superpop mega mixery?

One problem. They were playing in St. Agnes.

Being unable to drive, I decided to suggest (browbeat) Dillon until he agreed to supply the transport. He refused. Gutted.

So Tamzin and I went to Bunters. We drank and talked. We drank. Timmie turned up and we realised quite cleverly that his face is so interesting (not in a bad way Tim) that you never know what he is wearing. At this particular time he was sporting what I like to call a 'Randall' Moustache. To give this some context consult the Jack Nicholas film 'About Schmidt'. There is a character called Randall in it...

Anyway.

Dillon changes his mind. Tells me to be ready for 20.30 and he'll come and pick us up. 20.30 rolls around. Tamzin and I both still have full pints. We down them and wobble to the car.

We arrive at a lovely locals pub. I go and shout at Tam (from glass shark) to say thankyou for the remix. It takes a while for Dillon and I to get his attention. If you haven't seen glass shark yet, you must. They shan't be stuck in cornwall much longer, what with being my favourite local band, they naturally are extremely talented, put on a full and zippy show, and have songs that you can sing along to and dance to without ever having heard them before. They are a 3 piece, with drums, guitar and bass. All three lads sing. They wear matching black pin-stripe shirts and pink ties and support their playing with an intricate sampler set up that provides a thumping backbeat, some pre-recorded backing vocals (and if you find that a turn off then just wait until you hear the high intoned 'Gucci, Prada, Versace, Gabbana' and cannot get it out of your head all the next day) and various other zips, boffs and thistles. The whole feel of their show for me is very similar to a showy dj set (Yoji Bio anyone?) with the mood and feel of a super eighties power disco.

They even have lights on their mic stands...

We said our thankyou's, drank our drinks. I offered to buy Jimmy a drink but it turns out they got them for free anyway. The first half of the set was joyful and fun, with mainly songs I didn't know (Though I still danced and sang along). We talked to the lads in the interval and I was told that my vocals (the words 'no offence' were slotted into the sentence) sounded like either a drunk/tired/lazy Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand. Anyone who has ever heard us live will testify to the fact that my voice is patently horrific to listen to. Despite the cunningly dressed up insult I took it as a vast compliment.

More drinks were drunk. I was drinking 'Burglars' or 'Rattlers' or fucking 'Twatters' cyder, what was cloudy and rich with the lager i'd been adding to it. I got a bit fucked.

They started their second half. I started to heckle. Fuck knows what I was shouting but as they thundered through 'I love My Disco Robot' (Yes there was mucho robot dancing) I heard a voice behind me (Was it my little demon hindbrain? Was it Dillon?). The voice said 'Adam Play the Drum!'

Great idea.

I proceeded to grab Jimmy's drumstick and play the drum at the front of the stage. I can't drum. I was throwing drinks all over the place (There were a pile of empty glasses at my feet, I think sambuca entered my system at some point). Jimmy grabbed another drumstick in order to actually USE his drum and I thought it would be clever to 'tap tap' his stick with mine...

'Adam Jimmy needs that!' or something similar was shouted across the microphone. I panicked and laughed and sort of chucked the stick back into the band (Alot of the sequence of events here may not quite be accurate but I kind of can't remember EXACTLY what happened.)

I am still waiting for them to tell me off...

The night closed. The Gay Horses were thanked (I was quite disco sweaty), drinks were downed and we fucked off. I think there were a few cartwheels done. Dillon, Gav and I discussed Parkour and we SOMEHOW ended up in L2. Can't remember much about the rest. But it was good fun, if you know what I mean ; )

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(Photo by Nik Budden)

www.myspace.com/thegayhorses

www.myspace.com/glassshark