Yo? Anyone???

You know when you’re just in the mood to do something and nothing will put you off? Last night I went to see Yo Majesty! at Bar Rumba. I was originally meant to catch them at Barfly, but the guest list was too full for the likes of me. Since it was a late start I decided to head home to my new place in Homerton, while I will miss Dalston the constant smell of Dixy Chicken emanating in my hall was becoming too much to bear. Plus have you ever tried walking up Kingsland Road on a Saturday? Fuck that. So after preparing some pork stir fry with broccoli and pak choi, a couple glasses of wine and an episode of the office I was starting to enter an extremely tempting comfort zone. But no! My mission for the day was to review Yo Majesty and my god was I going to achieve it. I picked up my copy of Everything by Simon Price (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everything-about-Manic-Street-Preachers/dp/0753501392) and a precious can of Duff energy drink and headed for the door.

Despite my housemate’s fair well statement of “I’d rather be doing anything else than leaving the house at 11pm”, I remained positive. I have a fairly high constitution for these kind of challenges, I once got a coach to London at 6 in the morning after having no sleep and went straight to filming a music video that didn’t end till 8pm. Granted I felt like turd afterwards, but I still did it. My view is if your mind is fully prepared, you can easily complete tasks like this.

So I started my route to the train station. My plan was:

· Get the overground from Homerton to Highbury & Islington.
· Jump on the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road.
· Walk to Bar Rumba in time for gig, watch gig, leave.
· Catch 242/38/whatever came along first, walk home.


I braved the slight rain and walked to the train station. No trains, urrrrgh. It was here I hit the wall of hesitation. Should I bother? What if it rains? What if I get mugged? But I knew what had to be done. I pulled my hood tighter and headed to Mare St. After a brief walk and one desperate chase, I made it on to a bus.

Bus rides are generally boring so I won’t go into great detail. Although there was a bunch of Goths at the back arguing whether or not Manowar are a joke band, I’m gonna go with yes. Right so after a brief walk I make it to Bar Rumba, guestlist is fine. The girl asks if I have a plus one, I look down and give an ashamed negative nod. The venue itself is a dimly lit basement that’s half full, I glance for clock check and it’s nearly midnight. I get a glass of water from the bar and try and pull off the ‘alone but not a sex pest look’. I spot Hervé amongst the crowd but couldn’t really think of a worthy conversation starter, I knew something like “Hey, I know you” wouldn’t cut it in this kind of venue.

It was at this moment I became slightly worried. It was 00:15 and I hadn’t seen any member of Yo Majesty, I’d also exhausted the fun potential of the solitaire game on my phone. At half past I threw in the towel and left. This may seem like a hugely pointless evening to you, but at least I made myself proud. Kind of.