Oh, What Happened To You?

And so the weekend begins and it's only Wednesday - how good is that?

It starts with the 7:30am train to Newcastle from King's Cross - not a busy service - and I'm left to read until I reach Darlo when Tony jumps on-board.

By the time we reach Newcastle Central, Steve is waiting for us having flown up from Cardiff. It is too early to book into our hotel so I store my bags in Left Luggage.

(left) The Central

We make our way to the Tyne Bridge and walk over to Gateshead - certainly fog on the Tyne today, in fact it is foggy everywhere and it all looks a bit gloomy.

Over on the Gateshead side we pop along to the Sage - not a lot to see inside on the whole other than the cafe where Steve manages to grab some breakfast.

Once the clock hits 11:30am though we wander back towards the bridge and head to the Central. This is a pub I popped into about a year ago and at that time it was covered in scaffolding whilst undergoing a major renovation.

That is now finished and it looks lovely, both inside and out. It still has a good range of beers: Consett Red Dust, Titanic Iceberg, York First Light, Itchen Valley's Fagin's, Northumberland Farne Island, High House Farm Nel's Best, Big Lamp Prince Bishop Ale plus one from Ireland, Colleg Brewey's Headless Dog, which is really nice.

We have a few beers here before we walk back to Newcastle - this time via the Swing Bridge - and head to the Crown Posada (which was closed on our last visit).

By now the beer was working it's way into our system and the level of conversation was at the "Miranda - funny or a waste of oxygen" level. Steve and I can't stand her, Tony just likes the first series (one series too much I fear).

The beer was good - Durham Apollo and Big Lamp Sunny Daze were lovely drops - and there were some vintage tunes being played on the old Dansette - including one of those old Top of the Pops albums. We could have stayed there all afternoon but opted instead to check into our hotel, have a quick wash and then try some other pubs.

Steve wanted to wander to the Bigg Market to see if much had changed since his days on the Evening Chronicle back in the late 80s. It had.

We were going to drop into the Bacchus but that was closed for renovation so we headed for a quick one at the Newcastle Arms.

From here we take a short walk to the Bodega which was strating to fill up with what looked like Primal Screa fans. Some decent beers again - Big Lamp's Prince Bisop Ale and the more-ish Avalanche from the excellent Fyne Ale's.

After a few pints we decided it would be prudent to get some food into us and so we headed to Chinatown where we had a great chinese buffet at the appropriately naed No 1 Chinese Buffet.

And then into the gig - a photo pass for me so I managed to shoot the first three numbers from the small pit in front of the stage. Just me and one other guy down there - quite different from the London gigs I've covered where there are usually a dozen or more and you have to jostle for a good position.

After the alloted three songs, I was thrown out into the merry throng who were re-visiting their youth as they danced badly to Screamadelica - Primal Scream's seminal album from their hedonistic youth.

(right) Andrew Innes and Bobby Gillepsie

These days the band are a lot more restrained - an expresso before going on-stage and no sherbets until after the gig. How very rock'n'roll!!

After the gig we meet up with Martin - we popped upstairs to the aftershow party but the music was just too loud that you couldn't hear yourself talk.

We wandered downstairs to their cosy little dressing room instead. Mani joined us after a while - "what happened to that dodgy old chairman, man?" he asked when we were outed as Darlo fans.

I sometimes think George would have made a great frontman for a band though he would probably be more like Screaming Lord Sutch than Mick Jagger.

After a while the band's rider is taken away by the cleaning ladies - the alcohol barely touched - and it is time for the band to return to their hotel bar while we three opt to finally call it a night...