Hardly a quiet one.
Last week, in a moment of wince-inducing exposition, Getintothis delved into the innately sad side of the male music geek with our filing process ‘revelation’.
A revelation which were we aged nine would induce the ‘aww bless,’ response reserved for mothers mopping chocolate off wee Johnny’s grubby cheeks. Instead readers of these pages probably cocked an eyebrow or curled a knowing smile reserved for the ‘what a sad twat,’ response aimed at a 29-year-old wasting three hours alphabetizing his record collection.
That is unless, you were nodding in agreement, like all eight commenters – of which all were male, it’s worth noting.
Indeed, while there are numerous tragic habits of the average male music geek – something females wisely rarely involve themselves in – there are upsides.
One of which is the Boys Night In. Or as the Liverpool Daily Post’s news editor, Andy Kelly, calls it in his Northern Irish toot, ‘Tchooons neet.‘
And Saturday saw the inaugural gathering at Guy Towers.
Dig!
The tunes were firmly on pause due to a mini false start as DP business reporter Alistair Houghton managed to burst his best bitter all over the streets of Liverpool prior to arrival. While Echo reporter Luke Traynor did his best Lewis Hamilton impersonation as he completed 74 circuits of the Ormskirk ringroad. He finally found Guy HQ thanks in no small part to Post political reporter Dave Bartlett‘s uncanny knack of aptly guiding him via local constituency offices.
‘Take the first right at Rosie Cooper’s MP office,’ came the cry from the kitchen as Traynor navigated another Ormskirk chicane.
With the guests in place, choice excerpts of the directors cut of Pink Floyd‘s seminal Live at Pompeii – and quite possibly the finest music doc committed to tape – Dig! were trotted off in the background.
See, where girls nights in are stereotypically dull affairs as they gorge on Thorntons in their pyjamas while laughing along to the 49th showing of Pretty Woman, we marvelled over Roger ‘face like a pensioner on skag’ Waters bashing his over-sized gong and Anton Newcombe‘s tremendous facial hair.
Pizzas, garlic bread and doritos consumed, the boy Kelly set up Trivial Pursuit while the rest of the guests took in the sounds of Barlett’s African dub, wired ambient drones from Leaf Label dude Susumu Yokota and a particularly rousing Cinematic Orchestra.
Cinematic Orchestra: All Things to All Men (feat. Roots Manuva)
Clearly not to be outdone, Kelly, produced two sackloads of 12″‘s comprising everything from uber-hip 80s Sub Pop-ers Codeine (think slowcore grooves via Low and Red House Painters), bonza vocal mixes of the Pumpkins‘ classic 1979, MBV‘s You Made Me Realise, seminal post-rockers Labradford, Zappa‘s Joe’s Garage, Roses‘ contemporaries The High and mega rareity Bang Bang Machine‘s split Geek Love/Flower Horse Fuck Machine.
Codeine: Loss Leader
Andy’s bags of delights were sufficient listening for two months, so it was just as well the remaining guests were sans music. But it would have been rude to have not offered a few sounds myself, with Funkadelic‘s fantastical debut, The Mars Volta‘s Deloused in the Comatorium and Can‘s Future Days also given a whirl.
Pop magik from Friendly Fires, Shack‘s strident I Know You Well and Grails‘ mesmerising instrumental Silk Rd proving biggest hitters of the night.
Kicking out time called (or should we say Phil’s missus called wondering where he was) around 4.30ish and with Kelly suitably smug after his gaming triumphs, all considered it a job well done. Here’s to the next one.
Mars Volta: Roulette Dares (live at Big Day Out)
