adidas Consortium Micropacer Hamper

Ooooooo. Look at them. I must admit when I heard they were coming out I did get a little over excited. Micropacers are legendary anyway but you should see all the stuff you get with them. (Take a deep breath)You get loads of promo items like tape, stickers, keyrings and a balloon (I know) a stainless steel money clip, karabiner, lanyard, miniature micropacers in their own tin, a Raymond Choy designed Qee character with trefoil head and micropacer chest, a Batman style adidas torch that shines out the trefoil logo, a hefty belt buckle, a tennis racket bottle opener and a flash drive with leather casing and 1GB of memory. It’s insane and I had to buy a pair. Not sure if I’m keeping them yet though, so if you fancy a pair of limited edition (500 pairs worldwide) unworn BNIH (Brand New in Hamper) adidas Micropacers in a size nine then add a comment, and tender your offer in GBP please. Don’t know if I can part with them though.

This is encore

OK (and this is just for you Ben) apologies for the shocking tardiness of this blog. My New Year resolution is to put up at least one comment a week but as I’m starting this in February I think I’ve already broken this. But anyway, onwards and blogwards.

As you may know, I go to a fair amount of gigs and I was just wondering where/when the fake encore started? The days of clapping, stomping, chanting for more have been overtaken by a smattering of applause and a general expectancy of the band coming back on anyway to play their most recent record/crowd favourite.

Is it the bands that are causing the problem? Is it the apathy of the crowd? Is it a mixture of both? Is it Simon Weston’s fault?

The last band I saw that didn’t play an encore were Explosions in the Sky in January and I must admit it was rather refreshing, the last genuine encore I remember was Radiohead at Meadowbank Stadium in 2006 (where they played, count ’em, FOUR) but all this is just to get a link to tell you about the Morrissey gig I saw at the weekend.

Hell, who needs a tenuous link? He was simply awesome. A cantankerous old bugger and a poetic moaner of biblical proportions, you’ve just got to love him. Now before any of you write in to say “but he’s racist” the NME article that he was “quoted” in is now subject to a libel case in the High Court, the actual interviewer himself has said that the NME rewrote the whole transcript and has also insisted his name be removed from the article. So there.

The gig itself was a very bizarre mixture of ages, styles and outfits. But not a bunch of gladioli in sight. Urging the crowd not to buy any more Smiths’ records as the “all the royalties go to that wretched drummer” was quote of the night and seemed to rule out the endless “reunion” rumours.  Which is all good I say. Too many bands are getting back together anyway. Mr Morrissey was just genius and as usual, he went through a fair few shirts. Mozza, we salute you. (but not in a rigid right arm sort of way.)