THE LIFE OF PAISLEY: THE YORKSHIRE EPISODES: EPISODE 3: A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND SPACE
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2008. A week after my London Heathrow horrors. My trip since that point had been going quite well. I had small bouts of homesickness, but really, I was so busy doing stuff, that I rarely had time to notice.
Part of the distraction was that Christmas was coming up (which seemed to be a HUGE deal where I was), but also (and maybe more importantly..? LOL) The Mighty Boosh Live. I had managed to get Bronwen instantly hooked on their TV show, and we watched as many episodes as we could before the big night. I have no complaints about that. Except I was slightly shocked that she had never heard of them, since they seem to be on TV all the time (at least while I was there, the show was on almost every night, according to the TV guide). I don't think I watched it on TV at all while I was there, though. I mean, not when I had just bought the DVDs, and could watch whenever we wanted to.
Anyway, the show was in Manchester, which is close to an hour away by train. We went over early to do some shopping nearby (of course), and ended spending the majority of our time in Paperchase, a 3-level store full of journals, cards, stationery, fancy papers, and tons of other stuff. It was like I had gone to paper heaven. During our time, we also met up with one of Bronwen's cousins briefly, and ate dinner. Boring stuff. Moving on.
So, we headed back towards the arena about half an hour before the doors were supposed to open, to give us time to walk over and such. Conveniently, the MEN Arena (where the show was) and the train station were physically connected, so we weren't likely to get lost. The unfortunate thing was that the train station had no lockers, so we had to take our big shopping bags in with us. I hoped it wouldn't be a problem, but the paranoia in me feared it would be.
As we were walking by the arena, we were uncertain of which door to go in. Neither of us understood the setup of the place, whether there was going to be more than one performance going on in different areas of the building, or if certain entrances were off-limits. We had no idea. Luckily, as we approached the nearest door, I knew that it certainly was the right place, because there was a crowd of 15-year-old girls in neon. Definitely the right place.
The line-up was actually not huge at that point, so we didn't have to wait long before we got in. I was still afraid about the bags though. Not only that, but the tickets said no cameras and no food was allowed to be brought in, and I could see them checking people's bags up ahead of us. I had been carrying my camera around for the whole trip (even though I didn't end up taking any pictures. I suck.) and I had packed a granola bar for the train back, because I'm a small child. I didn't want to get arrested in a foreign country! Or at the very least, have my camera and snacks taken away.
Turned out not to be an issue, we just had to hold our bags open and the guy at the door glanced inside and let us through, no problem. Phew. The only issue was, at this point, where were our seats? The building is an arena (duh), so it is essentially a big circle in the middle (where the arena is...I'm clever), and a hallway that goes all the way around the outside of it. We had to go around the hallway to find the entrance to our seating area.
I think we went the wrong way. We walked for so very long. I'm sure it would have been shorter to have gone around the other way, but we really didn't understand the building at all. Though we did end up passing the merch table in our hunt. Happy. We still had plenty of time before the show was to begin, so we pushed ourselves into the line-up/blob to get our merchandise before the show, rather than wait afterwards, and risk having things sold out. I was able to get so many Christmas gifts there. It's fortunate that so many people around me have been poisoned into loving the Mighty Boosh: one-stop shopping. We didn't get t-shirts, though, because they were about fifty bucks each, and even I'm not that much of a sucker (and I'm a pretty big sucker, so that's saying something).
So we had our loot, we found our seating block, we got to our seats. We just sat back and waited for the magic. Well, first we waited for people to file into their spots. We had about an hour before the show started. Not a lot of people were there yet. But we entertained ourselves by looking at the stuff we had gotten, and trying to spot people who were dressed up (a group of people came as Santa-version of characters like The Hitcher and stuff. They sat right at the front too). There were so many Old Greggs. It was awesome. Lots of people were also just wearing tutus for the hell of it, not as part of a costume. Many more than I would have ever imagined.
Anyway, besides getting totally snubbed by the cotton candy and ice cream people, the show was amazing! I won't go into too much detail about it, but let's just say it was quite different from the last live show (otherwise, why bother, right?). I don't know if I've laughed so much, with so many people, ever. The hecklers were a bit annoying, mostly, especially this kid a few rows behind me. This rowdy ten-year-old shouting "Get on with it!" got a little tedious, but whatevs. The greats bits of the show completely made up for it. And there were some particularly good bits. If you know what I mean. Haha. I also found it quite amusing how many times they messed up (I say "they", I mean Noel mostly), considering it was near the end of the tour. But they do go out and get drunk every night, and probably wake up at 5pm, so it's to be expected. It was funny, so that's all that matters.
I had to go back and get an extra thing from the merch table, because there was one thing I had forgotten (FAIL), but it wasn't TOO bad - I kind of weaseled my way up to the front quickly. And we were able to get out of there rather quickly as well. The timing was great, because the train arrived about five minutes after we got to the platform, which was lucky, because it was the last train, and if we had missed it, we would have been quite screwed.
Unfortunately, as it was the last train, we got several drunks. A few of which were sitting at a table directly across the aisle from us. They didn't harass us too much, though they did really bother the girl they sat with. Had really loud arguments with her, calling her a chav and such. She didn't help the matter much, as she was provoking them too. They also realized after a few stops that they were on the wrong train (oh, great!), so they ended up getting off a bit before us. At least we didn't have to spend the ENTIRE trip with them.
Marge picked us up from the train station when we got back to Halifax and brought us home. Except for the unpleasantness of the drunks on the train, it was quite a terrific evening. The funny part was that when I was reading the TV guide the next day, I noticed that there had been a Boosh marathon of about six episodes around the time we were at the show the night before. It was a shame I had missed it. :P
So that marked the first half of my visit: all that was left to tackle was Christmas and Boxing Day (MOAR SHOPPING). Then, of course, the plane ride back. But that's another story.
Paisley's Yorkshire Episodes will return in
EPISODE FOUR: A DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS (AKA EMO CHRISTMAS)
Part of the distraction was that Christmas was coming up (which seemed to be a HUGE deal where I was), but also (and maybe more importantly..? LOL) The Mighty Boosh Live. I had managed to get Bronwen instantly hooked on their TV show, and we watched as many episodes as we could before the big night. I have no complaints about that. Except I was slightly shocked that she had never heard of them, since they seem to be on TV all the time (at least while I was there, the show was on almost every night, according to the TV guide). I don't think I watched it on TV at all while I was there, though. I mean, not when I had just bought the DVDs, and could watch whenever we wanted to.
Anyway, the show was in Manchester, which is close to an hour away by train. We went over early to do some shopping nearby (of course), and ended spending the majority of our time in Paperchase, a 3-level store full of journals, cards, stationery, fancy papers, and tons of other stuff. It was like I had gone to paper heaven. During our time, we also met up with one of Bronwen's cousins briefly, and ate dinner. Boring stuff. Moving on.
So, we headed back towards the arena about half an hour before the doors were supposed to open, to give us time to walk over and such. Conveniently, the MEN Arena (where the show was) and the train station were physically connected, so we weren't likely to get lost. The unfortunate thing was that the train station had no lockers, so we had to take our big shopping bags in with us. I hoped it wouldn't be a problem, but the paranoia in me feared it would be.
As we were walking by the arena, we were uncertain of which door to go in. Neither of us understood the setup of the place, whether there was going to be more than one performance going on in different areas of the building, or if certain entrances were off-limits. We had no idea. Luckily, as we approached the nearest door, I knew that it certainly was the right place, because there was a crowd of 15-year-old girls in neon. Definitely the right place.
The line-up was actually not huge at that point, so we didn't have to wait long before we got in. I was still afraid about the bags though. Not only that, but the tickets said no cameras and no food was allowed to be brought in, and I could see them checking people's bags up ahead of us. I had been carrying my camera around for the whole trip (even though I didn't end up taking any pictures. I suck.) and I had packed a granola bar for the train back, because I'm a small child. I didn't want to get arrested in a foreign country! Or at the very least, have my camera and snacks taken away.
Turned out not to be an issue, we just had to hold our bags open and the guy at the door glanced inside and let us through, no problem. Phew. The only issue was, at this point, where were our seats? The building is an arena (duh), so it is essentially a big circle in the middle (where the arena is...I'm clever), and a hallway that goes all the way around the outside of it. We had to go around the hallway to find the entrance to our seating area.
I think we went the wrong way. We walked for so very long. I'm sure it would have been shorter to have gone around the other way, but we really didn't understand the building at all. Though we did end up passing the merch table in our hunt. Happy. We still had plenty of time before the show was to begin, so we pushed ourselves into the line-up/blob to get our merchandise before the show, rather than wait afterwards, and risk having things sold out. I was able to get so many Christmas gifts there. It's fortunate that so many people around me have been poisoned into loving the Mighty Boosh: one-stop shopping. We didn't get t-shirts, though, because they were about fifty bucks each, and even I'm not that much of a sucker (and I'm a pretty big sucker, so that's saying something).
So we had our loot, we found our seating block, we got to our seats. We just sat back and waited for the magic. Well, first we waited for people to file into their spots. We had about an hour before the show started. Not a lot of people were there yet. But we entertained ourselves by looking at the stuff we had gotten, and trying to spot people who were dressed up (a group of people came as Santa-version of characters like The Hitcher and stuff. They sat right at the front too). There were so many Old Greggs. It was awesome. Lots of people were also just wearing tutus for the hell of it, not as part of a costume. Many more than I would have ever imagined.
Anyway, besides getting totally snubbed by the cotton candy and ice cream people, the show was amazing! I won't go into too much detail about it, but let's just say it was quite different from the last live show (otherwise, why bother, right?). I don't know if I've laughed so much, with so many people, ever. The hecklers were a bit annoying, mostly, especially this kid a few rows behind me. This rowdy ten-year-old shouting "Get on with it!" got a little tedious, but whatevs. The greats bits of the show completely made up for it. And there were some particularly good bits. If you know what I mean. Haha. I also found it quite amusing how many times they messed up (I say "they", I mean Noel mostly), considering it was near the end of the tour. But they do go out and get drunk every night, and probably wake up at 5pm, so it's to be expected. It was funny, so that's all that matters.
I had to go back and get an extra thing from the merch table, because there was one thing I had forgotten (FAIL), but it wasn't TOO bad - I kind of weaseled my way up to the front quickly. And we were able to get out of there rather quickly as well. The timing was great, because the train arrived about five minutes after we got to the platform, which was lucky, because it was the last train, and if we had missed it, we would have been quite screwed.
Unfortunately, as it was the last train, we got several drunks. A few of which were sitting at a table directly across the aisle from us. They didn't harass us too much, though they did really bother the girl they sat with. Had really loud arguments with her, calling her a chav and such. She didn't help the matter much, as she was provoking them too. They also realized after a few stops that they were on the wrong train (oh, great!), so they ended up getting off a bit before us. At least we didn't have to spend the ENTIRE trip with them.
Marge picked us up from the train station when we got back to Halifax and brought us home. Except for the unpleasantness of the drunks on the train, it was quite a terrific evening. The funny part was that when I was reading the TV guide the next day, I noticed that there had been a Boosh marathon of about six episodes around the time we were at the show the night before. It was a shame I had missed it. :P
So that marked the first half of my visit: all that was left to tackle was Christmas and Boxing Day (MOAR SHOPPING). Then, of course, the plane ride back. But that's another story.
Paisley's Yorkshire Episodes will return in
EPISODE FOUR: A DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS (AKA EMO CHRISTMAS)