The Ponys

The Pony's - The Late Room, Manchester 17/5/07

With being off work for a couple of days I was able to take my time here. Well sort of. I still had to get stuff ready for work on Friday, butties and clothes etc and take them to work. I did that and aimed to get the 2 pm train to arrive in Manchester at 3 pm.
I wanted to give myself some time to visit Piccadilly records. There was some stuff I wanted I could not get in Chester. Also I wanted to visit the Circus Manchester's smallest pub my friend Tim had told me about. I managed to find what I was looking for in Picc'y records plus a bonus. I found a four song EP by Lonelady, an artist I've been tracking for a while. I then went to Circus Tavern, jeez that is one small Ale - er! cupboard? Shame the Tetleys was not on good a form as Tim had predicted it would be.

I then went to check the venue as I had a pick-up ticket so I wasn't sure what time doors were. There was a poster on the door but it didn't give any info as to times. Ah well 7:30 - 8 pm I guess. I strolled off to get something to eat. I ate in a Spanish tapas place I've been to before which is very good and reasonably priced.

I got back to the venue at about 7:40, I wasn't sure if there would be a queue or not. Not sure how well known the Pony's are here. There was one guy stood outside, I started chatting to him after a few mins of just hanging around. Then some people came out of the venue so we asked what time doors were. It turns out the Pony's were running late so they were going to open just gone 8. As time went on no one else came to join the queue, or lack of! The guy I got chatting to was a nice chap called Nas, he loved the Pony's album so thought he would come and check them out. He reckoned he may have been too old to come to a gig like this, he's 35!! "Thanks" I said "how bloody old do you think I am" I ain't stoppin' yet either.

Doors opened at 8:10, in we went. It was a very poor turnout, I recon no more than 100 people. Nas an I sat stage right and chatted for a while. We worked out that practically everyone else in the place was in the entourage of the other two bands playing. Leaving just Nas and myself there to see the Pony's. I don't understand that, their album is really good it's on Matador records too.

Because of the delay the first band on called Married to the --(something) announced they'd only be playing a four song set. That they did, who were they again? Next up were a band called the Vipers. They seemed to have the biggest entourage with them so, ok let's see how they are. At first I thought OK not bad. The bass player was leaping up and down like Flea on acid. I then realised they had two bass players and there was no way there was two bass coming out of the speakers. This really pissed me off this fuckin' guy was for fuckin' show. I can't tell you how
angry this made me feel I almost went up to the stage to expose the twat.

OK! calm down. The Pony's. They came on quietly set their gear up and pleasantly smiled. I moved up to the stage next to the pillar center stage right. I was the only person standing watching them. Even Nas kept sat down at our table.

I really enjoyed them they played exclusively the new album. I like the way Melisa head rocked her hair while playing bass, almost Janetesque at times. It has to said she is a strange looking girl, but I had a chat with her after and she seemed really nice. I apologised for the poor turn out and said I had been championing the album the best I could. She thanked me for turning up though.

I bought a t - shirt and their first album, partly in sympathy I think.