Saturday night. After dinner at the neighbour's house it's a quick ride into town to catch the Sultans of Ping at Debaser. And YES - just for once - my name is on the guest list. Hurrah! As much as I hate it when I'm the one in the queue (which is almost always), I have to say that there is real pleasure to be had from gliding effortlessly past a long sorry shower of cold and miserable people queueing outside a club. And pleasure, as ever, is always better when it's spiced with a little schadenfreude, eller hur?
The free tickets were in part due to the skills of my friend from Going Underground and the work we did together on the festival Access All Areas (now defunct?). AAA is where I also met Morty McCarthy - general dynamo, best-selling author and former drummer with The Sultans of Ping.
The gig itself was easily worth the hassle of picking myself up from a warm dinner-table and a fresh glass of wine to head off into the wintry wasteland that is Stockholm in February. The Sultans were energetic, loaded (that was a big bottle of vodka doing the rounds on the stage), and loads of fun. Due to the age of the band, there was a considerable number of middle-aged ex-pat Paddies and Brits in the crowd (me included), as well as a good number of ridiculously young looking Swedes (do 18-year olds really look that young these days?). The singer Niall had a lot of fun with this setup - at one point he turned to the audience who he thought weren't putting enough into the proceedings and said, "I know, you're worried about the kids". He was clearly on top form, and the band rocked their way through a big set, as well was picking up a few extra numbers the crowd asked for (someone should tell Niall that the residents of Sweden are not best hailed as "Swiss Kids" though). The new stuff wasn't bad either - I recommend "Girl Watchin" if you can find it. Of course the best number of the night was the Jumper Song. Did I jump up and down? Nah, but I did stamp my foot in time. My stage-diving days are over. I have got the kids to think about you know.
The free tickets were in part due to the skills of my friend from Going Underground and the work we did together on the festival Access All Areas (now defunct?). AAA is where I also met Morty McCarthy - general dynamo, best-selling author and former drummer with The Sultans of Ping.
The gig itself was easily worth the hassle of picking myself up from a warm dinner-table and a fresh glass of wine to head off into the wintry wasteland that is Stockholm in February. The Sultans were energetic, loaded (that was a big bottle of vodka doing the rounds on the stage), and loads of fun. Due to the age of the band, there was a considerable number of middle-aged ex-pat Paddies and Brits in the crowd (me included), as well as a good number of ridiculously young looking Swedes (do 18-year olds really look that young these days?). The singer Niall had a lot of fun with this setup - at one point he turned to the audience who he thought weren't putting enough into the proceedings and said, "I know, you're worried about the kids". He was clearly on top form, and the band rocked their way through a big set, as well was picking up a few extra numbers the crowd asked for (someone should tell Niall that the residents of Sweden are not best hailed as "Swiss Kids" though). The new stuff wasn't bad either - I recommend "Girl Watchin" if you can find it. Of course the best number of the night was the Jumper Song. Did I jump up and down? Nah, but I did stamp my foot in time. My stage-diving days are over. I have got the kids to think about you know.
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