Ghost of the Robot
Live @ Carling Academy Islington
5th of May 2004
The Ghost of the Robot Gig happened at the Carling Academy Islington, which was suprisingly small compared to what I expected. The nearest Tube station was, appropriately, Angel - and was only a short walk away from the venue. On route, a gaggle of teenage girls debated loudly about whether or not to take Chris's photo (who had come as dressed down as possible, to avoid any resemblance to Spike) and that was just the first of many longing lustful looks he received that night!
Inside was plenty of GOTR merchandise and, thankfully, a couple of bars that served more than just the obligatory Carling beer - a lovely barmaid introduced me to something sweet, purple and alcoholic, which I'd love to try again, but can't remember the name of!
Quite a few people from Fusion were apparently at the gig, although the only one we recognised was Psycho Spike, who apparently attends all James Marsters events (lucky him!) He was last seen headed for the bar, before disappearing in the throng of fourteen year olds.
The support band were Lazy Eye, a great group from Warwickshire, who were fab! I accosted one of the guitarists at the end of the night and told him they rocked, but since then I've been unable to find out anything about their group. The only thing I know for sure is that their lead singer Dayle writes for an online gig-review site - so I've sent emails to the people who run it to try and find out where and when they're singing next... if anyone knows anything about them, please email me (addy on the index page, under "Complaints Dept.") One slight qualm I did have with the group was that, at the end of their set, Dayle lit up - not the kind of thing to do infront of a group of very impressionable, very young teenage girls... especially as he did look kinda cool doing it (GOTR have a notably young fan-base, which I had been warned about... I'm 24 and felt a little old being there!!!)
Then there was the looooooooooooong pause, which went on a little too long as we'd all been suitably warmed up by the support band and weren't too keen on the hour and a half silence that followed. Probably would have been a good time to go stock up on alcohol, but suddenly all these teen-girls had shot up to 6 feet tall and I could barely keep my place at the centre, back where I could just see the stage - didn't fancy wading to the bar and being stuck there the rest of the night.
When GOTR finally came on stage, they were fab - mixing released hits with new stuff and basically playing along to the crowd. James had shaved his head recently for charity, but still looked sweet (if a lot older) and the other members of the band were suddenly very young looking. I've browsed the Official GOTR sites (both America and Europe) and there seems to be very little about any of the other band members - oooh for some short autobiography and a couple of good profile piccies so that we could know a bit more about the others who aren't famous TV actors...
All in all, I'd love to go again, as it was great, teeny-bop style music that sounds better the more drunk you get (especially as you can then happily sing-a-long to the words) - but I'd rather not face trying to get around all the youngsters... it's really rather off-putting, but was what I expected I suppose.
And the funniest thing that happened that night? Chris getting congratulated on his "Hot-ness" by a couple of ladies, who then told me it was a great compliment that I could pull such a hot guy! Made me giggle so much and made poor Chris blush (bless 'im!)
Blurry Photos from the night
(well - the camera kept focusing on the crowd, cos they were closer, obviously!)
GOTR1 / GOTR2 / GOTR3 / GOTR4 / GOTR5
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