London baby!!!

[Poesiemau]

So we (Eloisa, Leila, Dees and me) arrived on the 19th of December in our lovely appartment in Stockwell which we booked at the last minute after cancelling a hotel that might have bed bugs (eeeuuuuwwww!!) according to some reviews. What a great decision that was: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a livingroom with kitchen! Stockwell tube was right around the corner as well as a couple of supermarkets.
First night we went for just a little shopping spree in Oxford Street (busyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!) which had a lovely Christmas-ie atmosphere.
On our way home we picked up some groceries for breakfast for the next 2 days. We all were a bit crushed from a long day of travelling so we spent a nice evening at 'home'.

Next day, gig night. After Leila cooked us a beautiful breakfast, we went to Liedl to buy groceries to have nice Sunday roast for dinner, before heading off to Brixton. We then went to Stratford for another shopping spree in the old and new Westfield shopping area (busyyyyyyyyy!!!). Got back in a timely manner so we would have enough time for our dinner and dress up for our boys later that night. Dinner and dessert were superb!!

Gig time!! We arrived in Brixton by tube and went to the venue. Met up with a couple of loonies there (not gonna name you all, you know who you are ) which was lovely as always. At 7pm doors opened and we went in (I'm not going to bother you with the whole queueing mess up lol). The inside of the Academy area was lovely, felt like being outside. About an hour later Steel Pulse and not long after that UB40 came on and played two fantastic sets (review a little further below ).

With thanx to a lovely friend we were allowed into the after party area where it was filled with people, UBLoonies (well we are a kind of different people lol) and Steel Pulse band members. Eloisa and Leila took their chance getting pictures with them. Turned out great (of course).
After a while we saw some of the UB's getting in to the area as well. Always great to see and meet up with Brian and Martin. Hope you had a blast playing in your hometown on Monday. Wish we could have been there too.

Back to the appartment. Taxi!!! What's up with Brixton and not being able to get to a taxi easy there? Our first time ever in Brixton we ended up in a police car because of that and we seemed to go in the same direction on our second time. Taxi stands that were supposed to be open 24/7 weren't open at all and no one that we asked knew a number. Then suddenly, like a miracle, a taxi drove by (huh?), but was too quick for us stop it. Luckily some guys behind us that we asked about a taxi as well did it for us (how lovely was that?) and we safely went on our way home. Which turned out be only about 1km away around the corner (uh... Doh).

Next day, departure day. Not spending too much words on that, traveling is always a hassle and of course we were delayed. I'm glad I'm back home save, during the landing at Schiphol it sometimes seemed we wouldn't make it, such rough weather it was. It was a scary end of an otherwise fantastic weekend with my girls Eloisa, Leila and my darling wannabe daughter Dees. Thanx girls!!

Steel Pulse & UB40 review O2 Academy Brixton
Steel Pulse and UB40 were fantastic at the O2 Academy in Brixton. Have to admit I didn't know any of the Steel Pulse songs, but the guys were great live. I loved the guy with the dark suite and head, he was very funny in how he moved.
There were a lot of Steel Pulse fans and I was a bit worried they might leave after their set, but no need for that. It only got crowdier, when UB40 came on we hardly had any room left to dance.

Our boys put on a fantastic show, brought back another great oldie after the break (though sadly for me skipped my all time favorite because of it). The intro of Don't break my heart at a live gig is always SO brilliant and then when the music really starts it fills up your whole body.
But as always it was over far too soon.

Thanx guys, see you in April and hopefully a lot more after that! XXX

[Version Girl]

Great review of your adventure, wish we could've been there. Hope our paths cross again in 2016

[puma]

Lovely read. Sounds like it was just as good as the Brum gig. X

[Poesiemau]

Oh i hope so my UK sis!!! We've got to have the lads working on making that happen xxx

[queenv]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful experience of the Brixton gig. The UBs were certainly firing on all cylinders