Young For Eternity

Friday and as Daisy and my mum left to collect the boys from school, I skipped off in the late afternoon sunshine to catch the train to Birmingham. There's something about train travel: the feeling of anticipation, the scenery (picturesque or otherwise) rolling past the window, the chance to unashamedly people watch and eavesdrop on the conversations of strangers... Our local train station is a convenient five minute walk from home and I often catch the train to Leicester but only rarely get the chance to take a longer journey. Unfortunately, I appear to have the knack of sabotaging the smooth running of the railway network. The mere fact of me planning to catch a train will inevitably ensure that the said train is subject to a lengthy delay, if not cancelled entirely. However, Friday must have been my lucky day; the train rolled into Birmingham New Street station a whole minute ahead of schedule...

I love Birmingham - both in its current tarted up for the new millenium guise and the down at heel appearance I remember from the late eighties and my days as a student at Aston University. It was the city to which I made my escape from the confines of small-town life; the place where I met some of my best friends, had my first taste of independence and met my husband. Birmingham has a lot to answer for!

The purpose of Friday's visit was a Subways gig at the Birmingham Academy. Cam had bought the tickets and, it has to be said, The Subways are perhaps more to his taste than mine. Although we've had the album for a while, I've never really managed to get into it. Anyway, Cam had driven into Birmingham (he works on the outskirts, not far from The NEC) and I'd arranged to meet him in the queue for the gig. One look at the average person in the queue (under 20, skinny, dyed black hair...) and I began to feel slightly conspicuous. There was another guy of around our age in the queue behind us but he was quickly joined by his daughter and some of her mates. I think we were definitely the oldest people there not accompanying minors!

The gig itself was pretty good. Our conscientious queuing had secured us a place front centre of the balcony (too old for the mosh pit!) so we had a fab view. Cam took loads of pics, I'll try to post some later. Two support acts: The Milk Teeth (well worth a listen) and The Dodgems (great stage presence) and then on to the main event. The Subways have an incredible energy and what they may lack in musical accomplishment they definitely make up for in enthusiasm. Billy really knows how to work the crowd and Charlotte is absolutely awesome to watch: dancing around like a maniac for the entire gig - that girl must be astonishingly fit! Plenty of crowd surfing throughout and a couple of spectacular stage dives from Billy (it looked for a moment like security weren't going to let him back on stage after the first one, having mistaken him for an over zealous crowd surfer!). I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a Friday night. We're back to the same venue on Thursday to see Corinne Bailey Rae. Compare and contrast!


Young For Eternity - The Subways (Young For Eternity, 2005)