Ventnor Blog

Saturday night seems so long ago now, especially because of the fact that I’m still recovering from it.

It was on that night that I and my dear husband took ourselves up to Ryde to see The Bees play on home ground. Having seen them play at various other venues on the mainland (cargo, brixton and at the hmv store for a chicken payback promo) I was interested to see how differently the audience would react.

They were a very friendly crowd who all revelled in the joy of listening to live music and although much of the audience were islanders, there were a fair few who’d come over from the mainland to get their live Bees fix.

I quite liked The Venue, a reasonable enough size to hold a decent amount of people, but still felt quite cosy. The gig was sold out so the place was full to capacity, but I was still able to get down near the front of the stage without much trouble and even managed to jump around to the old favs without treading on people’s toes or knocking drinks out of hands (although I did bump into their number one fan … the guy with the big pointy hat whose name I’ve forgotten who’d travelled all the way down from Essex just for the gig).

They started with one of my favourite tracks, Russian (which I’ve not been able get out of my head since - it’s so good to hear it live) and followed up with some of the new material, one of which I was not quite sure about, but I did love the long instrumental one. I must admit, it’s all a bit hazy now, so I guess I’ll have to wait until the new album comes out in order to listen again and make my mind up with a clear head.

Something I love about watching The Bees play live is how the band always swap instruments throughout their gigs. They all seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and wearing a smile like a cheshire cat, Paul was definitely killing it on the drums.

The after party was much fun … but I’m keeping that to myself

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