Arrived home, dropped off the family, put the batteries on charge, showered and set off back down the road to Nottingham. It was busy on the M1, some hold up and I was a bit late, but Tina was cool, we had more of the pasta and set off for Northampton clutching a quickly downloaded street map.

We must have been about 100 yds from the venue when we decided to make a bit of a detour to spice things up, but we still got to Ladies Lane in plenty of time. The Roadmender looked unpromising from the outside: all curved concrete and violet lights. Inside we found Gill who had started out on the balcony but decided the railings got in the way, so she was right in front, on Arthur’s side. Tina had been busy buying a tripod that morning so we reckoned we’d try to point the cameras between the rails. The balcony was small, with folding chairs for those who didn’t want to mix with the wild throng below. We were told we’d be fine as long as no-one in a wheelchair arrived. One did later, but kindly let us stay.

We went to look for Arthur’s camcorder and found out that it arrives with Arthur, not long before Love go onstage. Short learning curve for the technically challenged, but we get better all the time. We also met Glen Povey and had some fun with the door buttons. We took turns to buy T shirts and mugs. Then Bent arrived with The Camera. He had some advice from Arthur – ‘Label the tapes’. Yeah we thought of that…. at least we had a pen.

Not wanting to block the view of others we were on our knees (as the song goes, well probably not, in fact I may never have a ‘Revelation’ moment again). I had to keep moving to fend off Pins and Needles and to avoid interfering with people’s stuff.. The stage was quite wide, so I had to pan to get both Mike and Rusty in. Later I was told that as long as Arthur’s in shot it’s OK, hmmm.

Arthur hit the stage in a pale satin shirt which he promised would be wet with sweat by the end of the night. He changed for the encore, so he must’ve been right. Another great show really, though I was a bit disturbed by ‘if you think I’m happy, Paint me WHITE’. Mr Lee can certainly work a crowd. Good thing I could see the crowd below, it was a bit polite where we were. I don’t have a setlist, but nothing was missing except perhaps J Echols (don’t think there’s much hope there). After the show, a guy was getting a T shirt signed as a surprise for an absent friend. So that’s why there are white Tees. I had a lot of jacket admirers, but was very tired. We didn’t stay long – I had to drive to work next morning, and Tina had to drive us to Nottingham first.

She made a last minute decision not to drive straight across a roundabout, but that was the only bit of excitement on the way home. Another night in Nottingham, thanks Tina. Up early and off up the motorway. It took 3 hrs, and I was only 9 minutes late for work. Next day Scottish Keith nearly missed the Leeds show because of traffic.

Mike Randle