All’s Fair In Love And Cycling

The promised freeze and potential snowfall (!) doesn’t materialise and the ride in to work is actually rather pleasant, helped by the fact that there’s not much traffic. As ever winter cycling is a constant battle between being too hot and too cold. If anything today, I’ve too much on and I’m too warm. Some people go too far the other way and I see one guy in just a t-shirt, albeit a long sleeved one. He was very lucky the weather wasn’t as cold as they promised or else he may have lost a nipple or two in the wind chill.

I often get slightly annoyed by a particular cyclist whom I see most days. He’s older than me, well I think he is because he’s got a solid head of grey hair, but he always has to overtake me and then try to disappear into the distance. It’s not too bad getting passed by youngsters but it’s a bit rich when they’re a lot older but all’s fair in love and cycling as they say. What really annoys me is that when he’s ahead of me and doesn’t know I’m there, I catch him up with ease. So it’s obviously just an act for my benefit and presumably other cyclists too. He just doesn’t like being behind someone. Doesn’t apply to me of course.

After work, L takes MD for his final check up at the vets. He’s passed fit and when I get home he's already out running with L. She’s been out with them in shifts; Doggo's already done a fifteen minute stint. MD's stint is much shorter and L returns complaining of all four paws being off the ground all the time. He's yet to get the hang of running on the lead but to be fair we haven't done that much of it with him. We have until the Boxing Day run, which both dogs will compete in, to lick him into shape.

The family is all out together tonight en mass, a rare treat, must be something festive in the air. We meet up with some friends and go for one of those all you can stuff down you face for a tenner Chinese meals and it actually isn’t too bad either.

The Skinny Folk

I swap my days this week. I cycle today and will take the car tomorrow. I have no dog training tonight, in fact Monday training is taking a break for a while but in any case we have a gig tonight.

Tonight’s we're at the Bodega Social, which we like because nothing really happens there until quite late. So we get time to eat, catch up with each other and L gets her back massaged, well scratched. If you do the same to Doggo it makes him roll over on his back and become ultra pliant. It’s always worth a go with L and was working well, until Daughter caught us and put a stop to it. Until she disappeared upstairs that is.

There’s a rare queue outside the Bodega although most of them are checking into the gig and then going into the bar for a drink. This seems to be the younger element, which allows us oldies, of which there are quite a few tonight, all obviously watching their units and drying out after the weekend, to grab the best spots stage front.

I’d spent the afternoon checking out the Grammatics’ odd-ball sound as reviews have suggested that the Grammatics along with headliners the Red Light Company have produced the two most impressive debut albums of the year so far. The few downloads that I can get hold of though, leave me a little underwhelmed. So it’s somewhat of a surprise to discover how phenomenal the four-piece from Leeds are live and that’s before you take into account that they come equipped with a Swedish lass in black tights with a cello between her thighs. Apparently Emilia, fresh from the Stockholm Youth Symphony Orchestra, answered an advert they posted up at Leeds University. Tried that, never worked.



Emilia is actually a bit underused, I know, because I kept an eye on her and got accused of taking a lot of photographs of her. This simply isn’t true because she was hiding in the shadows at the back of the stage and good photography just wasn’t possible. When she does get involved though it’s to impressive effect, with her playing her cello just like she would a guitar.

The star of the show isn’t Emilia though, sorry love, but lead singer, guitarist and all round skinny bloke Owen Brinley with his clever lyrics, intense vocals and his guitar which dominates most of their sound.



The band seems genuinely grateful to people for turning outing to see them. I’m glad we took the trouble. A very pleasant surprise.

Talking of skinny folk, there’s not much meat on any of the bands tonight, as an equally undernourished Red Light Company take the stage and open with ‘Words Of Spectacular’.

Red Light Company are a cosmopolitan bunch, vocalist Richard Frenneaux is English but grew up down under. Bass player, Shawn Day was born in Osaka. Whilst James Griffiths (drums) is Welsh and Paul Mellon (guitar) Scottish. Chris Edmonds (keyboards) spoils it a touch by coming from Maidenhead.



The wonderful and criminally overlooked single ‘Scheme Eugene’ is next, with its sing-along chorus to which a fair number of the crowd oblige. You can imagine that had someone like the Killers recorded it, it would have topped the charts for eons. In fact, Brandon is probably spitting feathers that he didn’t pen it. Unfortunately the sound isn’t quite right for it and it doesn't quite hit the mark tonight but the dodgy mix is just right for the brooding ‘With Lights Out’ and so too for ‘Bahnhof Zoo’. A favourite of mine, which has a touch of the Editors about it.

Aside from ‘Bahnhof Zoo’ which was a b-side, they stick to stuff from the ‘Fine Fascination’ album, so L doesn’t get her favourite ‘Dirty Water’, perhaps somebody had pre-warned the band that she was in the audience tonight.

Red Light Company have been accused of being a bit emotionless but tonight Frenneaux is the perfect front man, eyes on the crowd, a bit of banter, plenty of gratitude and even a smile. Plus by the time ‘The Architect’ appears the sound is spot on and they've really into their stride.



The band have some ‘huge’ records, pulsating drums and meaty riffs. ‘Meccano’ is simply terrific, full of hooks, although the attempt to let the crowd do the vocal work doesn't quite work out. No matter how appropriate “crying out loud, the weekend is over” is for a Monday, the songs are not quite that well known, yet.

‘Arts & Crafts’ follows and is equally excellent. Then it’s all over far too soon with the grunge of ‘When Everyone Is Everybody Else’ and the band depart amid a fuzz of feedback.



They have planned an encore and hope to be shouted back for it but again they're not quite that big yet and the Bodega isn't really big enough to create that sort of atmosphere but they come back anyway to finish us off with 'The Alamo'.

A very easy band to enjoy and enjoy we did.