Reef Live in Manchester

I've been busy working at the Cottage Studio for the last few days, but managed to squeeze in a late night, eight hour round trip to Manchester to see one of my favorite bands - Reef. I called in first for a catch up with Pete, in Stockport, on the way before racing over to the gig. The traffic was terrible (how do people sit in traffic jams every day!?) and I made a good comedy error with the Sat Nav, which might give you a giggle. In my haste, I'd typed in the destination and followed directions, which seemed vaguely familiar. The car park outside was full, but a friendly attendant showed me a free spot to park on the street. It was getting quite late, so I was rushing a little. After a short queue, I found the barcode ticket on my phone wouldn't register at the door, so I was sent to the box office to sort it out. The lovely lady at the kiosk, quickly spotted my problem - I was at the wrong theatre! 

Ha ha! It was getting late, but I had to laugh. She was very nice and said it happened to a lot of people (she was probably just being kind). I was at the Manchester Apollo not the Manchester Academy. Opps! Back in the car, I made the two-minute drive to where I was supposed to be and made it into the venue (after sprinting the wrong way in the pouring rain for five minutes!) just before the band took to the stage. 

I felt like I'd already had quite an evening, but tiredness soon faded away when the lights came up and the band came on, blasting through my favorite tunes. The venue was quite small and the band chatted with the crowd between tracks. At one point the singer came into the crowd, high-fiving me on the way past.

As the singer was stuck in the crowd, the band had to play on without him, so we got to enjoy an impromptu live jam session too. And as I was right at the front, we could talk to the guys while they waited for the singer to return!

All in all, it was a totally brilliant night and the whole theatre was buzzing and singing along.

It was a shame that Mike and Michelle couldn't make it, so if either of you were wondering what you missed - here is the set list! 

The traffic was much better on the way home, but it was still nearly 2am when I got to bed. Matt sent me this pic taken from the stage in the morning that he'd seen on twitter with the message, Spotted! Red Tee? Ha ha! A great night out in the city...