Day 8 - Here We Go Again

Instead of taking my planned self-guided walking tour around Cambridge, I treated myself to a lie-in.

Panmoto rang me and told me that they had identified the problem with my bike and it was the rectifier and another related part that needed replacing. These are the things that keep the battery charged when the engine is running.

This was exactly the same problem that I suffered in Germany when my bike broke down there. I informed him of this, but he was adamant that this was the problem. My knowledge of motorcycle mechanics is not sufficient to disagree and I do trust them. The bad news is that is that the cost to replace the parts would be £514. Brilliant!

Before agreeing for them to commence the repairs, I asked them to examine my bike and make an assessment of any potential mechanical issues they could foresee occurring in the near future so I could assess whether it was worth getting it fixed. An hour later, Panmoto rang me back and the only thing they could see was that an exhaust manifold costing £10 was missing.

Reluctantly, I agreed for them to complete the work for £525. Thank goodness Jackie is still working!

At 1.30pm, I set off for Northampton in relative luxury in our car. I was in no rush, so I made the conscious effort to keep the revs within the Eco zone. I needed to do my bit to try and save some money to pay for my bike repairs.

I arrived at my cheap and cheerful accommodation, The Langham Hotel. I thought I had made a mistake when I parked on the road and walked up the path to be met by an old bloke in a wheelchair smoking a cigarette in front of the entrance door.

Luckily that initial bad impression wasn’t a sign of things to come. The receptionist directed me to park my car in a free secure car park behind the hotel. I checked in and was allocated a large double room. I was also reminded that breakfast was included all for the very reasonable cost of £38.

At 6pm, I headed out to The Bear, the designated pub for pre-gig drinks. A large gathering had already congregated when I arrived. When I mentioned to people that I had broken down on the way to Norwich several people independently told me that it had been a strange night at the Norwich gig. Apparently the NMA set was excellent, but the venue felt only about a third full and everyone just stood around and watched. There was no dancing! It made me feel slightly better that I hadn’t missed an outstanding night.

I met up with JP as pre-arranged and we shared a few beers reminiscing on our European trip last year. JP also introduced me to several other regular fans who I hadn’t previously spoken to.

At 8pm, we all headed to The Roadmender, the venue for tonight’s gig. The Roadmender was heaving and I saw a lot of people I knew who I hadn’t previously seen on this tour. These included Michael and Tracy Stanners as well as a little bald man who I always bump into at the London Roundhouse shows.

At the merchandise desk, I spoke with Louise Strickland, the wife of The Autumn Saints lead singer who was selling t-shirts and I told her I was disappointed that their set list was not updated on setlist.fm. She said that she would rectify that.

Still at the merch desk, I bumped into Jack Cheung, who knowing my history introduced me to a punky looking girl, I’ve already forgotten her name, who was a serving police officer. It transpires that she was a full time comedienne, before joining the Met Police five years ago. She now combines the two.

Apparently she had performed in Sheffield on Friday night and then rushed to the NMA gig in time to catch the encore. She was also at the Brighton gig, because she had previously lived there.

The NMA gig was excellent starting with my favourite again and the third song in was another favourite, Die Trying, played for the first time on this tour.

I ventured into the mosh pit for the entirety of the show and got roped into helping Jack climb and stay up on someone’s shoulder for ‘If I Am Still Me’ and I helped a hefty German girl climb up and sit on Marco Schroder’s shoulders for ‘Green and Grey’.

After the photo, I bought myself a tour t-shirt, then a kebab and then walked in completely the wrong direction to my hotel. The half mile stroll became a 2 mile hike.

NMA Song of the Day - Die Trying by New Model Army.

Non NMA Song of the Day - Drive by REM.Читать далее