Ratgirl and I drove to Killarney last Saturday for the BellX1 gig. We arrived around six o’clock and dumped our stuff at the B&B before heading in search of food. In no time at all we found a lovely restaurant and despite difficulties with the door getting in and out of the restaurant (which provided much amusement for the waiters) it was a delicious meal. I went the route of two starters and a dessert because I tend to get very full with a main course and a dessert. Needless to say I could have just had a main course and skipped the dessert but where would the fun have been in that? After the meal we met another friend and headed to the INEC where we met a couple of other friends. The support band started to play shortly after 10pm and we watched most of their slot. Then there was a bit of waiting around while the roadies got everything set up on stage. I think I’d like to be a BellX1 roadie for a while; it would make a nice change from staring at excel for most of the day. At about 11pm the screen behind the stage starting playing a scene from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film. It was the scene where everyone is waiting outside the gates of the chocolate factory for Willy Wonka to appear. Then BellX1 slowly came on stage and started playing. They played lots of great songs like ‘Alphabet Soup’, ‘Mr Benn’ and ‘Monkey 61’. Paul produced some excellent tourettes dancing which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is almost like he is suppressing his inner disco king and his dancing is only released in spurts of gyrating bliss. The band played a great version of ‘Tongue’ from Music In Mouth. It would be great to hear a couple of more BellX1 songs like it. They also played ‘Blue Rinse Baby’ from Neither Am I which I haven’t heard in a long time.

The last song that they played at the end of their encore was ‘I’ll See Your Heart and I’ll Raise You Mine’. This is a really beautiful song and one of my favourites but unfortunately at this gig it was ruined by a bunch of gobshites from Dublin. I have no problem with someone drinking at a gig as long as their drinking doesn’t disrupt my enjoyment of the gig. I have never seen a group of people have such a lack of respect for a group performing on stage or the audience that paid to see them. They were loud, obnoxious, rude and in love with the sound of their own polluted voices. I was so pissed off that I moved away from the group because I was afraid of what I would do, particularly to the guy in the stripy jumper who yelled out in the middle of this quiet song ‘hey you with the guitar you’re shite’. I’m a fairly peace loving person (despite bouts of road rage) but I really wanted to punch this guy in the face. Fair enough if you aren’t enjoying something yourself but at least allow the people around you, who have spent forty quid on their tickets, a fighting chance of enjoying themselves.