Okay, so it’s been a while and, as usual, I have absolutely no idea what I’ve done since…
ROCK!
Oh yes, of course. There was ROCK TRIAL!
Pete’s blog has all you need to know about the show, here and here, so I won’t go into it all that much.
Suffice to say that it was the first MUGSS show since 1998 that saw me in the audience rather than skulking around in the chorus.
As such, I knew I’d enjoy it (esp. with the Old Soaks audience - more about them later), but I’d be sitting there insanely jealous of the people on stage. It was bound to be a fun show, and there was a lot of personal interest - Justin, who’d spent over 9 years rewriting the music for the show (it’s based on Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury), has been a friend of mine for…about 9 years.
So, the Old Soaks audience. Basically, take a 100 seat auditorium. Add 70 or 80 people with strong MUGSS connections, many of whom know Justin and much of the rest of the cast rather well. Add a copious amount of alcohol to these people. Fill in with 20 or 30 other people, and simmer.
It was loud, it was raucous, it was completely unlike anything else you’re likely to see at a G&S show. There was crowd chanting. There were Mexican waves.
It was great. I’m glad I was part of it.
The show was fantastic. I felt more as though I’d gone to a gig than to a show. I sat through the whole thing wearing a great big cheesy grin.
After the show, some drinking, and then a curry, and then the after-aftershow party at James’s flat…which turned out to be The Best Party Flat in the World. Seriously. The living room’s one big dancefloor, complete with upstairs viewing gallery!
Unfortunately, I was too curried-up and knackered to enjoy it as much as I should - I’d been dragged out for a 4am curry two nights previously, and I was out drinking ’til 2am the night before as well. So I left at a fairly lightweight 5am with Sam, Sarah, Leila, Mia, Jen and Gesine (I think), with the idea being to flag down a cab or two.
We ended up getting a single cab, with Sam and I leaving it to the girls - who says chivalry is dead?! The pair of us then walked back to Rusholme (the flat was round the back of the BBC Centre), where Sam left me. Rusholme was…odd. It was FULL of taxis and minicabs. On the kerbs and on the pavements, every parkable inch seemed to be occupied. Obviously, this is where cabbies go come 5.30am!
I waited at a bus stop for about 15 minutes, around about 6am, but no bus came, so I walked home. It was a dry night, albeit a bit cold, and the stars were out. What you can see of them through Manchester’s haze of light pollution, anyway.
Got home just after 6am.
Sunday Mahinda
Woke up at 10am, as I had to be at Sale Hockey Club for 10.30am - I’d rather foolishly promised to play a mixed friendly in Warrington. Great.
I’d played a really gruelling match on the Saturday, where I had my first properly poor game for the seconds. Probably a direct result of sleep deprivation.
This was bound to be worse - I was still drunk, and it was bloody freezing. I was also shoved up in midfield, playing right mid / right wing…which is certainly not what I’m used to.
Still, didn’t do too badly, despite coming very close indeed to throwing up halfway through the first half.
We were 3-2 up at half time, and should really have won. Instead, we ended up losing 5-3. Oh well. They gave us some nice sandwiches afterwards, and the clubhouse did a lovely pint of Greenall’s Mild. They did the rare Tetley’s Dark Mild too…but I couldn’t face a second!
Got back, slept a little, then went round to Pete and Rosy’s place to join them and Alison for a roast pork dinner (she had a veggie nutty thing instead). It was GREAT - Pete certainly does his Yorkshire roots proud in the “good, solid roast dinner” stakes. Mind you, he did use Aunt Bessie’s for his Yorkies.
I was very tired, and feeling a bit ill - bad throat, and a bit of a headache. Alison commented on how I wasn’t my usual self at first, but then picked up for a while, before going all rubbish and knackered again. Her theory was that I was being “Sunday Mahinda”…and that Sunday Mahinda was needed so that Normal Mahinda could exist. I couldn’t agree more.
Linden and Ed joined us after dinner, on their way back up from wherever they’d been. I staggered home at a vaguely respectable hour, so as to get some sleep in preparation for a hard week’s work as Working Mahinda.
