The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

I used squishy foam ones from Boots and they were fine, but don't think of going without any. It was quite fun removing them for a few seconds during You Made Me Realise and suddenly hearing the violent higher registers - like being shot in the ear with broken glass. When you pop them back in it sounds weirdly comforting again.

Yeah I wore plugs throughout, and my ears are still ringing. Pretty amazing show though.

I'm going to see them in Paris, july 9th, I'm psyched! I wrote down earplugs at the top of my to-do list, thanks for that.

Do they sell merchandise at the concerts?

Very overpriced t-shirts, £23 for a standard one IIRC.

Earplugs were handed out at the entrance. I opted not to take them, but they're there for those that want.

Gah! So no nice (tour-)poster or anything? I can keep the money in my pocket then.

Not that I saw, must admit I examined the merch in passing only though...

Didn't see earplugs at the entrance to the Roundhouse, and when we went upstairs they'd ran out at the merch desk (I didn't examine the offerings myself). loads of crap tshirts outside, if that's what you want.

I forgot my plugs, but I didn't have any ringing. My ability to listen to conversations over any sort of background noise seems to be worse than usual though. I'll take my plugs to the other gigs, I reckon.

Very overpriced t-shirts, £23 for a standard one IIRC.

The Mary Chain stung (admittedly drunk and malleable) me with similar pricing at the Brixton shows last year.

I'm taking plugs tomorrow for defs - I'm worried anought about encroaching tinnitus/random daytime distortion as it is.

No takers for my two 3 Jul Barrowlands spares then?

anought = enough

sorry, charlie: nobody's bitten yet. or for the (single) ticket for the 2nd, either. i asked a couple of people but they'd either decided not to go at all (bah) or got sorted elsewhere.

i'm back at work (in my NEW, IMPROVED PART-TIME ROLE, woo) on wednesday so will ask about there too.

Are any of the Glasgow Ilxors going on July 2nd?

The Loveless and Isn't anything CDs have been put back to 14th July now.

Tom E's review for PF:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/51442-live-my-bloody-valentine

I'm hearing September now; someone on the MBV.net forums who claims to have been backstage on Friday got the same prediction from Shields.

Did he specify which September?

The earth wind and fire one.

Well, the discs exist at least. Quite what's going to delay their release further isn't clear.

For those that care, "Only Shallow" is around 2-2.5dB louder, but no squashing of peaks (it never peaked higher than -4dB on the 1991 CD anyway). The Disc 2 remaster (from analogue tape, apparently) is a smidgen louder than the Disc 1 remaster and sounds richer, better separated.

Does that count as a spoiler? It's only a reissue.

Going tonight, but I've just found out someone can't come, so I have a spare ticket.

Anyone?

yeah,they were LOUD. We didn't use the earplugs cos we were kinda at the back, 6 metres in though.. woah! Loved it, loved the visuals too.

xpost to MJones:

I wonder how it compares to the original minidisc version.

Went last night, same as mmmm above I was standing fairly nearly the back so I didn't use the earplugs, I'm not too deaf today though. I guess cos the venue's pretty massive, I usually get more ringing in my ears than this after gigs in smaller venues.

Spectrum only played 4 songs, and were a bit under-rehearsed. At least there wasn't any Speak'n'Spell noodling though.

Tried to sell my wife's ticket as she's sick and couldn't make it, tout offered me 2 quid for it, I said c'mon I can't even buy a beer for that and walked off, he called me a cunt and a wanker, then got his cock out and started pissing in the middle of the street right in front of the venue. GG Allin's not dead! He's a Camden ticket tout!

Yeah, I had read somewhere the touts have taken a total rinsing on this. Apparently tickets can be had at any of the local boozers for about a tenner on the night.

True, but because of the way they announced the gigs (pretty much one day at a time for London), a lot of people I know have tickets for Manchester and Glasgow when they could easily have gone to 2 or 3 nights at the Roundhouse, and just can't give away tickets to the other cities, or they've made travel arrangements and such.

Yeah I have a friend in Brighton who's going to the Manchester gig because of that. Stupid promoters.

I went last Friday ('cos a friend managed to get a pair of tickets for me on the day they went on sale), but my girlfriend and I had already bought tickets for saturday in Manchester (not a massive problem, I used to live there and haven't seen a lot of friends in a while), and the Wednesday in Glasgow, which is going to be a mini-holiday of sorts, albeit I don't really know anyone up there. Barrowlands is a sweet venue though, and I'm getting very excited (and probably building myself up for a big disappointment) by the support rumours (Teenage Fanclub or Mogwai maybe?), and I have leave to use up, and I got fairly cheap train tickets, so it's not a total disaster.

albeit I don't really know anyone up there

we're all great and friendly ... i'm out and about elsewhere on wednesday night (am going to MBV on thursday because i was slow off the mark getting tickets) but if you're in town early evening and fancy a pint, let us know. (or post on try glasgow more and see if anyone else is up for it.)

how worthwhile is a purchase of the 'remaster' then?

Pastels confirmed (well, it's on their myspace anyway) as wednesday night support.

oh, be still my beating heart :(

the 'holocaust' bit at the show on the 20th was like an avalanche fucking an earthquake.

like an avalanche fucking an earthquake.

oh my god that is the best description ever.

Do NOT use those squishy plugs pictured upthread. I had to have half of one extracted from damn near my middle ear, and they aren't that effective to start with. Flents Quiet Please! Foam (Latex Free) Plugs are much better for most uses, incl. earripping blockbuster movies, but they wouldn't work for live MBV; see if there isn't still a thread or two at least still to be resurrected on ILE, where they talk about some good, sometimes professional-use earplugs, like for airhammer operators.

I don't get ebay. 19 hours left and someone ups the bid from $52 to $100. Is that secretly the seller or something?

Went to the Manchester show last night and it was pretty much everything that could possibly be hoped for. I saw them on the Isn't Anything and Loveless tours all those years ago and whilst they were (obviously) ace they were pretty ramshackle compared to the, frankly, fucking gorgeous noise machine they are now. I wonder if PA and mixing technology has finally caught up with what they were trying to do back then? 'Cause last night was loud as all hell but still managed to bring out all the beauty and subtlety in the songs (To Here Knows When was a real highpoint). From a fanboy viewpoint it looked like Kevin was playing some of the high melody lines (eg. I Only Said),which they had the flautist for last time out, on his guitar. They managed to play the "middle eight" of YMMR for just over 25 minutes, which given the pained expression on Colm's face by about 20 minutes in must be just about the limit of how long they can *actually* play it for. It's a cliché to call it cathartic, but I certainly went through a range of emotions whilst they were pummeling away from laughter to end-of-days style shit.

I got tickets and went along for nostalgic reasons as much as anything, and really had no idea what to expect but was honestly blown away (as were all my friends), it makes you wonder what they could have done in the intervening years if Kevin had got his act together, and for a band that have not (presumably) rehearsed or played much they were incredibly tight and focused. There's some serious Dorian Gray antics going on too because they do look exactly the same as they did in '92. It might just be proof of the benefits of doing bugger all for 16 years of course.

On a practical note, if you have earplugs wear them. I only put them in for YMMR and my head has been ringing and whooshing today like a fucker. In total agreement about the £23 t-shirts complaint upthread, a massive ripoff. And the drip release of the tickets and dates is pure racketeering, one of my friends ended up selling two spares to a tout for a fiver, who dubbed them "My Bloody Waste of Time".

So that's where Paul Owen ended up!

That's a great review Bill A. Can't wait till the Paris concert!

Here, you can download the entire 13th of June London concert.

charlie, if you're reading: i've failed miserably to find anyone who wants your tix. sorry.

Cheers, LBI! Reading it back it's a bit of a splurge, but they stirred up a weirdly affecting mix of emotions. I can't think of anyone before (or since) MBV who've been able to properly combine the crushingly heavy with such tenderness and seeing them live again really reminded me of this.

Thanks for that live link as well - very acceptable sound quality, although it reveals some *seriously* wonky lead guitar on Honeypower...

charlie, if you're reading: i've failed miserably to find anyone who wants your tix. sorry.

dammit, me neither! i'm next-day-delivering them to a mate in glasgow today anyway, in case she can shift them - i just want them to be used now, otherwise that's £60 i've spent on fuck-all.

if it's any consolation, my mate with a spare ticket for wed can't shift that either :(

that's not much consolation, sadly - all it means is there will be unused tickets, empty spaces and pissed off bank managers :-(

so that's an ilx count of five tickets for tonight and two for tomorrow, all going begging and no fucker wants them? are we all so old? meh.

grimly, Charlie, If I was in Glasgow today or tomorrow then trust me I'd want to see them again. Sorry you're facing wasted cash!

>so that's an ilx count of five tickets for tonight and two for tomorrow, all going begging and no fucker wants them? are we all so old? meh

It does seem like the promoters have slightly overestimated MBV's pulling power and that everybody who wants tickets has got them; there were lots of spares floating about for Manchester (on Saturday at least) and people were offering them outside for nothing rather than sell to touts. Realistically, they would never have been able to play two nights at the Apollo (3500 capacity) even in their heyday. I know the legend has grown over the years, and there were loads of "kids" at the show I went to, but I suppose the opposite is also true in that a fair amount of the more grizzled fans from the old days will not be bothered.

Yeah as I mentioned upthread I couldn't get rid of my wife's ticket when she couldn't make it. I decided to keep it in case I wanted to go out for a fag halfway through (no readmissions) rather than sell it to arsehole touts for 2 quid. In the end there was a smoking terrace anyway so I wouldn't have needed it.

Got my earplugs for tonight at the Barrowlands and I'll be tipping slightly-interested friends that there should be tickets to be had.

It's 20 years since Isn't Anything. Fucking hell.

And I'm still as sprightly as the day it was released! Uh.

I have a mate who bought tickets for tonight but now cannot go due to last minute interview for a job down South that he can't get back from in time. He's away already so no point in asking for a swap, but if anyone has a spare for tomorrow that would otherwise be going in the bin, let me know please? He would pay, but has already paid for a Wednesday ticket he can't get rid of.

Isn't the surfeit of tickets due to only three gigs being announced to start with before tons more got added due to promoter greed following the quick sale of the first lot, meaning that lots of Londoners have tickets for out-of-town gigs they don't need to go to now?

ailsa, mail me offlist (starsandheroes at your friendly favourite search engine's mail service) - i have two spares for tomorrow which i can't shift - you chum's welcome to them if my "fence" in glasgow hasn't managed to get rid of them today already (the tickets are up there already so your mate will have to pick up tomorrow).

also, your theory re surplus tickets is 100% precisely what happened to me, so yes you're probably right!

Like, as if they were going to miss London out!