His Dark Materials

The first part of His Dark Materials, the whole of which we saw over the course of an afternoon and evening just after Christmas. It was an amazing production, and one which I serisously hope they revive. Go and see it if they do - I will again!

Part Two of His Dark Materials. I can't remember now which half was the best (in my opinion) but I can honestly say that I was scared by the Land of the Dead, and thought it was dead cool that they took down the scenery at the end so you could see the sets.

Elton John

Another lucky ticket purchase, for Elton's sold out shows at Hammersmith Apollo. It's probably the smallest venue he's played in years, and he was amazing. Support was from James Blunt - who initially I thought was quite good until his wimpy voice started to piss me off - and a girl who I can't remember but who was considerably better than Girly James.

Doves

This was Doves' pre-album-release mini-tour, and the one in which they stopped playing Space Face as their encore track. Oh! The horror! The set was amazing and worked incredibly well in the Palais. Support came from The Go! Team, who were fantastic and who we're actually favouring over Coldplay at Glastonbury this year. We may be daft for missing Chris Martin's monotone, but it's for a damn good reason...

All the Way From Memphis

Our second trip to see this show being recorded - we love it! Guests were Tony Wilson, creator of the Manchester music scene, and Richard Curtis, comedy writer supreme.

The Thrills

It had been a while since we'd seen The Thrills and bought these tickets AND the Hanson tickets from the profit made from selling a pair to see Maroon 5. This was the first time The Thills had headlined Brixton, and at the end invited audience members to get on stage and jam with the band. I didn't go, but loved it anyway. Aaaah, the sound of summer - in the middle of winter!

All the Way From Memphis

This was our first outing to the Drill Hall (which we've revisted a number of times) and we took my mum and Graham to this first recording of a new music quiz show. Guests were Stewart Lee (him from off the telly) and Martin Freeman (aka The Office and Hitchiker's Guide). I shook Stewart by the hand and said "I thought it was you", while Alice got Freeman to sign her appraisal for work. You can't beat that :)

Hanson

We went to this because of Alice's teenage crush on the band.  Their set was actually quite good for the first 20minutes but, as Hanson were playign acoustically, it all started to sound the same after that. I would also have quite happily thrown the screaming Fins, Dutch and Swedes to their death if they had carried on shouting out their undying love for Tyler or whatever the boys are called. Still, my justification is that we got this show and The Thrills for the price of one having made a bit of profit off sellign a pair of Maroon 5 tickets so it's not _too_ bad...