original_sin

April 9th 2008.

The day began fairly early when Hannah and I headed into London, arriving at about 11.00am. Since we were heading to Soho we decided to hit Oxford Street as well and had a quick look in HMV (sadly no famous people inside this time) before walking to Soho Square and finding the cake shop in Greek Street which, at the moment, is housing Noels art. The upstairs part of the shop (aka the 'art gallery') was all but empty so Hannah and I were able to enjoy the art on display and Noel's crazy writing on the walls whilst having a cup of tea and cake. After paying for our drinks (£12!!) we headed back into Oxford Street and had a quick look in Top Shop before catching the underground to Camden.

Sadly we never saw any of the Boosh boys there but to be honest that didn't matter as we had a nice afternoon on our own. We wandered around the stalls for a bit before trying to find the Hawley Arms (which had in fact burnt down) so instead we headed to the Elephants Head where, as any obsessed Boosh fan will know, the guys filmed the mini-film 'Sweet' at. I pointed out the stools they had sat on but we actually sat in the corner whilst having our drinks since there was a nice view of Camden out of the window .

After drinks we headed across the lock and had a meal at a small bar/ restaurant before having another wander around. Since we'd finished eating earlier than expected we figured we might as well make the most of the day and took the tube into Covent Garden where we wandered round for a bit before deciding to hit another expensive tea room for yet more cakes (but coffee and not tea this time- at least for me). Having decided I fancied getting hold of a piece of Noel's art we went back to Soho and nipped back into the 'art gallery' to jot down the phone number (although whether I actually decided to call or not is another question).

Since time was running out we decided to make our way towards the Royal Albert Hall, arriving at 6.55pm which meant that we didn't have to wait ages to get in since the doors were already open. Our seats were brilliant- we were sat at the top in the circle right in the middle . The only complaint I have is that the lights were blocking my view of the screen so, although I could see what was going on on stage, I couldn't really see the screen.
Noel came on at about 7.30pm and launched into a slightly crazy live show. He had a number of special guests on including 'Johnny Two Hats' from the Mighty Boosh and Garth Marenghi. Even the Moon made a few appearances!

After the interval he brought on his 'special' guests Razorlight who did two acoustic versions of their songs which was really good because the sound was fantastic in the hall. Once they'd left Noel (who had been coming on stage between all the guests) came back on and did some more stand up before introducing Julian to the stage (complete with guitar). I think by this point however my brain had switched off for the night because I turned into the crazy fan girl that I am and cheered a little too loudly  (I don't think the girls sat next to me were too impressed).

They ended up doing three songs from the Mighty Boosh with the aid of Dave (aka Bollo) and Rich (aka Bob Fossil) under the name 'The Boosh Band' which Noel said had never done anything like this before so we were all very lucky to see it. Like I said though, my brain had died, so when a group of people yelled "We love Julian" I figured I might as well yell "Me too". So I did!

When they'd finished it was a quick case of nipping to the merch stand and picking up a t-shirt before dashing round to the stage door. We were waiting for ages and actually thinking about going but then Dave turned up on the other side of the (glass) door and waved at the small crowd gathered around outside. After that we decided to hold out a little longer which was well worth it since a few moments later the doors opened and Mike (Fielding, aka Naboo) and his Dad, Ray appeared and dashed to a waiting car. The guy was TINY! I'd always thought Hannah was small but obviously not!

Sometime after that Rich appeared and I managed to have a small conversation with him which went something like:
Rich (holding someone's pen and doing an autograph): You know I could get high on this…
Me: (holding a biro) You could probably get high on this- it's leaking.
Rich: Could I? (Laughs) I could probably get high on anything to be honest.
Sadly since he was too busy signing everyone else's stuff he didn't sign my programme but ah well- I can't really complain.

Dave also made an appearance but by this point I was stood talking to Paul King (the Boosh director) so I never got to talk to him but Hannah did get some photos I'm going to steal. Paul signed my programme for me though and laughed when I told him my name was spelt the boys way.

We waited a while longer but were eventually told by a security guard that Noel had already made his escape through another exit. We asked about Julian but the guard had no idea who we were on about so we figured he's probably left with Noel and so called it a night and headed back to the station to catch the last train back.