Norwich Weekender.

Remember when I mentioned that November is a bit of a whirlwind of events? Yep, that.

I'm still really into keeping this space up to date and fit for the purpose of sharing memories, but hobbies and full-time jobs don't necessarily always go hand-in-hand, particularly if you have a house to keep and food shopping and laundry to do on top of that. Being an adult is boring and hard.

Every now and then I tend to get a bit like that but I'm still here lurking. Here are the last few photos from mine and Moon's city break to Norwich a couple of weekends ago.



Norwich is a great city, I was pretty impressed at how much we actually managed to take in given we only really had one day to explore. It's a good for shopping, and I don't mean that in that it has what everywhere else has, it has a really nice mixture of chain and independent shops and there are so many different places to explore. Snooper's Paradise in Brighton might just be trumped by the wonderful Loose's as my new favourite thrift shop of all time.




The Forum had these great pumpkins for Halloween.

Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside Norwich Cathedral as they were holding a communion when we stopped by but we walked all around the pretty grounds to make the most of it.





Such pleasing exteriors.






I saw so many fig trees!



Or apple salt and pepper shakers...









Maud, the Birdcage's resident cat. ♥




I definitely don't think this will be my last intentional trip to Norwich, my main regret is that we didn't get to have a cocktail at The Birdcage as our hotel was pretty far out of the city, so you know, I've got to go back and do that!

Welcome Back, Jamie.

This might have been the gig of my life!

I'm not sure how many people will care all that much but around 4 years ago, Jamie T was kind of a big deal. He was one of my favourite artists before his first album even dropped but then after a winning awards and critical acclaim for his second album and selling out shows everywhere, he just disappeared.

Hey, things like that happen, you move on, you find someone else to listen to, but Jamie T was always a regular among my playlists.

I think someone broke his heart terribly and it's something you can really feel in some of the raw lyrics across his new album, Carry On the Grudge. I'd love to know where he's been but mostly, I'm really happy that he's back and I hope he doesn't do a disappearing act like that, at least without an explanation, for a long while.

So that's why Moon and I were in Norwich over the weekend, not just because we fancied visiting Norwich (more on that part later though because it's a swell city), but because when the guy who wrote 'your song' makes a comeback after being quiet for practically half a decade and is sold out anywhere nearby, you've got to make the effort.




When in a student union, man must snakebite, and then regret it.
This is around the fourth time I've seen Jamie T and I must admit, as great a performer as he is and as much as I've enjoyed each show, he had a 1 in 3 track-record in my eyes of poor support - I did see Slow Club support him at the iTunes Festival though (before it became impossible to get tickets) - so when Moon said he recognised Saturday night's support as Slaves, a shouty, aggressive band that 'I'm gonna hate', I wasn't looking forward to waiting around for 2 hours to get to the good bit.

I think what I learnt from the above is that Moon, even after all this time, might not know me as well as he thinks he does. SLAVES WERE AWESOME!
When he said I'd hate it, I figured it might be metally - metal, I can do without - but they weren't. Much like Jamie T, this duo from Royal Tunbridge Wells were a brilliant blend of rap with old-school punk vibes and they had the perfect amount of swagger with almost (Arctic)Monkey-esque banter. I'm a fan.



Their lyrics are clever and funny, and yes, they are loud and not necessarily what I would usually listen to but as live performances go, I'd definitely recommend that you check them out. Especially for their on-stage stories, Girl Fight's back story was my favourite.




As for Jamie T himself, as you may gather from my opening statement, he was just as on-point as I remember. Performing with a new band, it was fairly obvious that he was a bit nervous as the crowd were crazy-buzzed but as soon as he was out from behind the guitar, he came into his own and it really felt like he'd never even been away.






He played a mixture of old and new songs and we sang along to every word and (even as far back as we were) got pushed about a bit. First time in a long while that I've lost my voice at a gig, but that just about did the trick.





The stand-out songs for me (Pacemaker, Operation and If You Got the Money) were oldies but the whole set was perfection. If you're lucky enough to be catching him at all this month during this sell-out tour run then you're in for a proper treat, he's doing a few less whiskey chasers on stage than before and the slow songs are a bit more poignant but there's no doubt about it that he's still got it!