Southbank Centre (MES book event), Wednesday, 16th July 2008

I wondered how the organisers were going to get MES on stage on time and for the stated duration without his mangling a microphone, so was gratified to see that they couldn't: they might as well have tried herding cats.

Who was that girl shouting out?
She got her moneys worth.

I'm glad he was late. I was late too.
I was much closer to the front than i wouldve been at the purcell.

Transcript please.

Christ, this was awful. MES off his pot, interviewer (Ian Harrison from Mojo, not A Collings) made heavy work of an impossible job. About ten seconds worth of worthwhile and intelligible speech in half an hour of embarrassed silence flecked with audience tittering / wankers shouting out. Quite touching when MES said he was quite affected by Bo Diddley's death and recounted meeting him on C4's The Tube. Otherwise, waste of time.

Time well spent, 1/2 an hour shaped. I didn't see anyone storming the stage for an encore though.

It was funny, but hardly anything of interest was said by the MES.
Worth it just to see him, though.

I got there with about 2 minutes to spare...and I'm supposed to be in Sandhurst at 6 in the morning, but I've come home coz I'm twatted.
Probably lost my job...

Was it worth it overall?
Was it billio!

Transcript please.

I can't remember what she said tbh. She didn't need a microphone...
She was pretty vocal though...good for her, everyone else (including me) was pretty silent/reverential.

At least MES won't need to wipe his arse tonight!!

Transcript please.

I can't remember what she said tbh. She didn't need a microphone...
She was pretty vocal though...good for her, everyone else (including me) was pretty silent/reverential.

At least MES won't need to wipe his arse tonight!!

She was part of a couple. He tried shouting out a couple of things too but it was chiefly her shouting out crap, most frequently 'A Lot of Wind!!!'. Saw her in the foyer afterwards, she was paralytic.

There was nothing reverential about the silence - we were supposed to be listening to an interview, after all - I'm sure it was more discomfort on how badly the whole thing was going.

total farce, mes as drunk as i've seen him and guy interviewing him was so awful it would have been better if a member of the audience had got up to do it, he kept asking him really obvious questions and sticking to his script rather than making mes loosen up with a bit of banter. austin did a much better job the brighton one was a treat compared to this. you have to wonder why mark is putting himself/us through it. if it was any more than 9 quid it would have been a rip off but i've wasted 9 quid on worse things. for some reason i decided to ask mark what type of reggae he likes, as in older stuff versus modern dancehall etc, and he said he loved all reggae, the maytalls and big youth which along with the bo diddley bit that the fella above mentions were the only highlights. my friend had the misfortune of sitting directly in front of the really drunk girl who kept shouting while mark was talking. total nausebag.

He tried to get MES to open up with a bit of banter (alright, it was mundane banter, I agree) but MES said,
"This ain't the fucking Royle Family, get on with the fuckin interview"...or waords to that effect...

there seemed to be a heavy helping of contempt for london and the whole event which gets a bit tiresome. i'd rather have heard what he'd been watching on telly this week rather than all the pseudo journalist questions, i did like it when he started sticking it to journalists, but he didn't elaborate on anything.

I thought the interviewer seemed out of his depth because he wasn't expecting MES to do his usual interview thing, but according to MES he's known Ian Harrison (?) for a number of years or spoken to him on the phone, anyway. So he must've known what to expect...

i think he was probably hoping it'd be more like brighton, but mes had obviously been in the pub for donkeys beforehand, but he could have handled it alot better. it was also weird that whats his name in the band and the other guy were just sitting next to them the whole time but didn't get involved.

Epecially when MES was talking about Liverpool bands living together and then he said he couldn't do that coz he gets fed up of seeing their (the band members) faces in the tour van...and Dave was sitting right next to him.

exactly as i had expected. highly entertaining.

the challenge is to arrive as drunk as MES.
There are plenty of toilets, so it is no problem.
I once went to a poetry even there, sober.
Never again.

Reminded me of visiting my grandmother, during her later years in an old people's home. Mumbling, forgetting what she was saying, making no sense, and with the distinct smell of piss and fart in the background. Sad.

can she play bongos??

You joining the Army then? I hope MES gave you a good send-off.

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Argh, couldn't get on here from last night til now!!!!

Anyway...
Funny going into the Queeny Purcell Rooms, as the last time I was there was to see my Uncle Noam Chomsky - so I kept thinking when MES came on "What would happen if anyone else turned up to talk that pissed?"
But, you know, tis Mark - it's all part of the act, innit?
Exactly what we expected.
We'd've booed if he'd been drinking orange juice, shirley.
I loved it - I thought it was touching that MES had his new boyfriend sitting patiently next to him.
Looked pretty fit, too. Non?



Thought that was interesting in itself, that MES had sat them two there - just to, presumably, freak out, Ian Whatsisname.
Again, it's what you expect MES to do, like fucking with the levels on your amp when you're playing live or saying "Meet the new guitarist... Didn't you know?" - he's Mr Mindgames innee?

The interviewer was dreadful. Appalling ill-prepared, but in his credit he probably only had two days notice after Collings pulled out. BUT EVEN SO... he didn't have any fucking questions! Just made boring statements from the book - which is why MES had every right to go; "Did I?" and look bored.

The whole thing illuminated me to the whole rigmasausagerole that is the MES interview, which are as important to me as those nice records he has made. So, good and worthwhile time on that score.

Hated that drunk woman shouting unfunny comments. Wanted to turn round and shout out; "Shut up, you drunken fuck!" but feared MES might think I was talking about him.

So, in conclusion: Nice night. Too short. Wish he'd stuck round to sign my book which I'd lugged up from Brighton, but in conclusion; MES comedy gold!

Anyway enough about you...

x

So predictable it could've been scripted.

Made all the worse for me by being too close to The Woman in Row M.

"So predictable it could've been scripted."

A script might have helped.

"Made all the worse for me by being too close to The Woman in Row M."

And you didn't kill her?

What a silly bint that woman was.

Ian Harrison didn't seem to have listened to a Fall record since 1996.

And his answer to the Ronaldinho question was quality.

Worst question was from that posh prig who wanted Mark to stay and drink those San Miguels and talk to us.

MES, re: Powder Keg pre-cog, how that came about etc etc

" 'cause I was in the IRA."

lol