Stay Awake

Let me begin my telling you about what is probably the oddest dream I have ever had. In said dream I had two older brothers who were lived together and were both heroin addicts. One of them was called Craig. This is weird as I only have one brother, who is three years younger than me and is not called Craig. Myself and someone else (either my Dad or a social worker or something) went round to visit them. We had our own key and so just wandered in. It was horrible. The house was filthy and barely furnished. Everything, the floor, the walls, was grimy and it smelt of sick. That might have been because there was a washing up bowl full of vomit on the letter stand in the hallway. Seriously, my imagination is disgusting! We wandered into the disgusting living room to find both my addict brothers doubled up in pain, having clearly recently injected. Whoever it was that accompanied me rushed to their aid but I didn’t for some reason. I looked round at the disgusting living room and noticed there was a leak and water was dripping from the ceiling. Suddenly it got heavier and a huge downpour of water rushed in and I woke up to discover it was raining pretty heavily outside.

So the water bit could be explained but the rest of it is very confusing. I now wonder what bizarre adventures I have in the dreams I don’t remember. And it’s disconcerting what my imagination can create!

Something exciting has actually happened in my life, for once, as last night I saw one of my favourite musical acts, Example, do a gig at the local venue.

^{Tour Poster. I went to the Bournemouth BIC date}

I went with my best mate Chris and a load of old school friends who I haven't seen in some considerable time. I found this a little awkward at first but it was fine after a while and I used my usual charisma to good effect (like I have any charisma usually!). I managed to go through the whole evening without saying and/or doing something I later regretted, which is a better result than usual.

The first act on was a rapper called P.Money. The name suggests he’s a bit rubbish, and he was. The audience were mostly quite young, many of them probably attending their first gig and some getting drunk for the first time. Hilariously that Mr. Money got a pretty good reaction from the crowd. To be honest if I went up there and started rapping I think I would have got just as good a reaction. It was a bit weird as our little group stood there trying to enjoy it but struggling whilst most of the people around us went mental. That was until they got bored and started a mosh pit. For those not in the know, this is where a circle opens up in the middle of the crowd and people are pushed into it and push each other around. Essentially it’s a fight but as the people doing it were no older than 16 it was a pretty lame mosh pit.

^P.Money…

Next on was Wretch 132. Actually there’s no “1” in his name but ages ago I was convinced there was, so I still call him that. Wretch is more well known and has done a couple of songs I quite like. One of these is with Example, though they never performed it together, and another is with a female singer who couldn’t be there so it was just his rapping. The rest of his set was mostly covers. Well I say covers he took over rap songs and made up his own raps and just left the chorus alone. Essentially he destroyed several songs I quite like. All in all he was a bit of a disappointment. I’ve never exactly been a huge fan of his but I thought at least his set would be enjoyable.

Some DJ bloke wasted time whilst we went for a bit of a break and then after what had now been an age of waiting Example finally came on stage amidst massive cheers and lots of flashy lights. He demanded we all get really active and involved which was all very well but we had been standing around for hours already at this point. It would have been better if it had just been Example and then I would have had loads of energy for it. Still, it was awesome. He started with one of my fave songs of his, “Stay Awake” and went on to perform a huge setlist of 28 songs. These contained the odd song I didn’t know but they were mostly awesome tracks I love and some I’d forgotten I love. I always think it must be a wonderful moment as an artist when a huge number of people know all the lyrics to your songs and they all sing it along with you. As well as all the great songs we know and love there were a few tracks that are brand new and yet to be released. There were two I particularly loved, one of which was a great tune made with the coolest man alive, Calvin Harris.

^{There’s the man himself. (Though this is from another gig because I can’t find a photo of last night anywhere!)}

Example was awesome and really good at getting the crowd going. I haven’t been to a gig in several years now so it was great to be at one again, like the cool kid I am. It was let down a little by the support acts and the dreadful audience. I don’t mind younger people being there but many just weren’t mature enough. And apparently some people were smoking weed in the middle of everyone which is really inappropriate when there are people as young as 12 around. I must have been the only one in our group not to have in any way noticed this though! I also disliked the point when I have a fair bit of beer ending up all over me. I don’t even like beer! But anyway, the hour and a half when Example was on was properly immense and made it the best night of April and probably the best night of 2012 so far (though there’s next to no competition for that accolade!).

It was also pretty good company considering it was a bunch of people I’d mostly not seen in years. I felt some genuine respect towards me when I said I’m training to be a teacher and also couldn’t help but smile when I witnessed how happy two people were in a relationship together. I’m an old softy really. I really needed a night like this to liven up my life a little bit and make things feel better. It was an amazing night and I just hope I can have another one as good very soon!