Face Of Cheam

My last blog of 2007. It’s been fairly hectic socially as one would expect this time of year. The Wednesday before Christmas, my last gig of the year was attended at Nottingham’s Rock City for Thunder’s Christmas show. As the lead singer said at the beginning it’s their chance for them to play a lot of stuff we don’t know! Actually this means a few covers and stuff they haven’t played for a while. The first half of the set, which was mainly acoustic, included Luke Morley (the guitarist) on vocals for The Who’s Substitute, and covers of 10cc’s Things We Do For Love and Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way. In the electric second half we got Thunder’s own Everybody Wants Her and Don’t Wait For Me with covers of Addicted To Love, Delilah before ending with the seasonal Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Afterwards we headed to the Cookie Club where decent music was played and it was £1.80 a pint of Fosters. Thursday lunchtime we headed to England’s only Hooters before taking the train home!
Friday I was off to Alexandra Palace for the PDF world darts championship. Saw four games, including ex World Champion John Part and one of the favourites James Wade. Although easier to get to than Purfleet, it’s still an awkward part of North London to get to. However, the atmosphere is great and it was very well organised with a voucher system allowing hardly any queuing at the bars.
Christmas Eve was a bit of a let down as our traditional place The Harrow was for the first time in at least ten years ticket only, which we were not aware of. However, we had a good time in Clarets where the barman said he saw me in the Royal Oak in Southampton the previous Saturday before the football. We also had a quick one in the Railway which is now under new ownership by an Italian family. It seemed slightly different to usual (brighter) and perfectly pleasant. Be interesting to see what they do with it. Actually the Saturday before Christmas we had an excellent turn out of people have a few drinks in Wimbledon. As some friends have kids, it isn’t always easy to get people out but with the season of goodwill in force, it’s pleasing to see people making an effort. After the Alexandra, we did Berties Bar which is below the Prince of Wales pub and Bar Sia which is fairly different from the other venues around.
Ok a quick time to reflect on 2007 with a few best ofs.
Gig – The Twang at Brixton, The Scorpians at Hammersmith and Paramore at the Astoria
Song – I Hate The Summer by Six Nation State, About You Now by Sugababes, When The World Was Round by Ian Hunter
Film – Fantastic Four Silver Surfer, Atonement, Spider-man 3 (think these are the only three films I’ve seen at the cinema this year!)
Album – Princess Alice by Magnum, Man On The Roof by Stephen Fretwell, Dying To Say This To You by The Sounds
Non Local Pub – Rutland & Derby Arms in Leicester, Coach & Horses in Norwich, Royal Oak in Southampton
London Pub – Nell Gwynne off The Strand, London Stone in Cannon Street, Bradleys off Tottenham Court Road
Local Pub – O’Neills in Sutton, Clarets in Cheam and Star in Ewell.
Music Venue – Hammersmith Odeon, Shepherds Bush Empire, The Borderline

Happy New Year to everyone and see you in 2008!