So thanks first for everyone who came to see us in the blisteringly hot West London sunshine last Saturday. I personally had no idea what to expect until I drove up to Portabello Road and had to inch the car through a teeming mass of bodies to find a parking space. Stupidly I’d brought most of my drum kit with me but quickly realised that I’d only have room for the kick drum, snare and one maybe two cymbals. Chairman Che the manager was trying to talk me into doing it standing up to save on stool space – but that just had disaster written all over it. Over the next hour everyone began to arrive and I built the reduced kit up the road, and we then all carried it down to outside the shop.
I’m never normally a fan of bands in shades (i’m looking at you Bono) but Rough Trade was boiling a sun trap so we all – with the exception of the Edmund – kept the brown bins on. The front of the crowd were standing on Abbo’s toes and before the power was cut we launched into a quickfire 25-minute set, built around five songs from the new album and two from the vaults. We played Shake em Up. Heavy Metal Jews, UK Decay, Killer, City is a Cage, For My Country and I Feel Good. We probably played over the 25-minute slot too – and Rough Trade told us later that its power was cut soon afterwards!