No this isn't just some exclamation, it's a line from one of the songs by Trans Global Underground from the new CD I bought. Ok, lets explain this a little bit first. A few years back, possibly about 6, me and my parents and little brother were at a festival in Wales called "Festival on the Edge" (the edge of the boarder of Wales and England). Everyone was getting really excited about a band playing that night called Trans Global Underground and were all planning to go to the gig. So was I. Unfortunately, my parents were not on the same wave length. So that night, I stayed in our tent and babysat my little brother while they went off to see this band play live. Even from where I was, about 50 yards away in our tent, I could tell it was a really rocking and amazing gig. They sounded amazing and I was really upset I missed them, especially when we were told the next day that they were one of the biggest bands in Pakistan and were going to be playing the biggest gig in Pakistan ever the next day. But I thought "Oh well, we have their CD and I'm sure I'll see them again at some festival". Yeah, that didn't happen. I've heard head nor tail from them, until this year. I found the advert on the internet "Trans Global Underground present UNITE, playing Manchester's Wall of Sound". So I got really excited and bought the tickets for me and Luke to go see them play 3rd June 2010. Now, the more experienced of you are probably sat there, like some famous opera singer shouting "mistaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!" At the top of your lungs. The more inexperienced of you, heed my warning. The saying "Always read the small print" doesn't always mean contracts.
Okay, so 3rd June comes around. Me and Luke head back home to my parents house and work out train times and everything. We buy our train tickets (£13 return for both of us, which in all honesty is a pretty good do.) We arrive in Manchester and get a taxi to the place for about £5 so we wouldn't get lost. Now, when we arrived there, alarm bells began tinkling slightly in our heads. We were in the middle of the comedy and high-class club area of Manchester, not the nightclubbing rave area we expected a rave band to be playing, but we thought "oh well, lets go in and see". When we got in, the alarm bells rang slightly louder. People were wearing dresses, high heals, the men in baseball caps and polo shirts, not the rastafarian ravers we were expecting. Then we got in the actual place and saw the people sitting down. Everywhere. There wasn't a dance-floor in sight. Now we're thinking "Something's really wrong here. Really wrong." But we say to ourselves "It'll be fine, if they don't dance, we'll MAKE them dance. They'll see." So we go to the bar and get ourselves a pair of drinks (£3 for a VKapple? I'm sorry, what?!) and settle down to stand at the back of the venue. Then a band comes on and start playing and me and Luke were quite impressed saying "These are pretty good for a support band" but we were thinking of time. They hadn't started until almost 9pm and if they had to play and then Trans Global we'd have to leave early to catch the last train home.
So we listened to a few songs and had a bit of a dance, and they're still playing at 9:30pm. So I went to the bar and asked "What time are Trans Global due to start playing" and the guy replies "Oh, they started at 8:30pm I believe".
You can imagine our shock. These were not the Pakistani ravers with powerful voices and sitars galore that I remembered. No, these were some strange electric band with a weak voiced Belgian lead singer and French guy on a keyboard. Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Belgians and French, I personally believe France has some of the nicest cheese known to man and where would we be without Belgian chocolate? But when you turn up to a place and pay £12.50 EACH to see a raving Pakistani bands and a wickedly good night out, the last thing you expect is to meet a Belgian/French/Irish cast off playing a load of Belgian Ballads while you get ripped off for your drink. But you want to know the worst part? The gig finished at 10pm. They played a whole hour and a half. I paid £27 for me and Luke to turn up to a gig we weren't expecting to hear a band who are falsely advertising for 90minutes. I think anyone would be pretty upset in our shoes.
My warning? We got back home and told my mum who immediately asked to see the website. We looked at the small print and right at the bottom paragraph, it explained that this was a new band who would be playing and that only 2 members from Trans Global Underground would be performing with them. The two members performing spent the vast majority of the night off stage and only came on for 2 songs, seemingly to highlight how out of tune the lead singer was. Band on the Wall? I give you a MASSIVE thumbs down. Thanks for ripping me out of almost £50. We had more fun walking back to the train station and finding the right train.
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