Everywhere Forever

71. Nottingham, Ice Arena, 29 November 2003

I spend another day in London. I make a deal with Ken to get a lift up to Nottingham. I’d half planned to go to my parents’ for the night but it feels like a bad idea to break the tour again. Ken drives me in his BMW – Rh fans come in all shapes, do all kinds of jobs, are from all kinds of backgrounds. He’s someone I would never have met but for these shows, and someone I would never imagine would collect set lists and befriend roadies, but here we are speeding up the M1, both equally excited about the show. That’s the thing, I keep hoping each one will be better than the last. They’re not bad but the actual performances on this tour are all but erased. Was I getting what I wanted?

In Nottingham we park up and I rendezvous with my brother who is also going to the gig. I do a bit of shopping before the show. In a skate shop in Hockley I buy a pair of black wristbands with white dice on them.

My brother has a friend who is also on the guest list through some tenuous friend of friends connection and I end up sitting next to her. The seat feels even nearer the stage, The Ice Arena is massive, soulless. I find it very odd to be back in Nottingham at the other end of the venue size scale. In return for the lift I give Ken my other pass and he brings a bunch of the boardies to the afters, they have a polite conversation with Phil (Phil only ever has polite conversations). I see Thom for long enough to give him a dice wristband but it’s all over soon enough, the show already a blur.

(Later Yasuko sends me a photo she took in Dublin, he’s wearing his wristband).