18/12/2007 Zen Motel (nearly) @ the Bull & Gate

Subject	Zen Motel (nearly) @ the Bull & Gate
PostedDate	12/17/2007
	One of those nights.  I'd been looking forward to this gig. I'd been informed last night that Zen Motel would be headlining this show, so I thought I didn't have to rush there quite so early. So I arrive at the tube station only to see a sign saying 'Serious delays'. Great.  I finally arrive and am informed on the door that Zen Motel are already playing.  I go in, and I spot Naomi. I ask her how long the band have been playing - I think she says it's their first song. I decide I'll enjoy this song and then get my camera out and try for some decent pictures during the next song. Actually, what Naomi said was "It's their last song". So I just get to hear the band play 'Rocket 69', then they stop as I get my camera out! It turns out that the promoters have changed the running order on the night and put Zen Motel on first.  As I hang around to see what the next band is like I notice something about the Bull & Gate that I never noticed before. It smells.  I remember before the smoking ban came in I heard that some music venues were thinking of adding some sort of air-freshener to their ventilation systems - the theory being that at least the pong of stale cigarette smoke covered up all the other unpleasant smells in the room. I now realise how bad these venues can really smell! If you are a smoker you probably wouldn't even notice, but the whiff of stale sweaty bodies, stale spilt beer in the carpets, other bodilly fluids, old food, and God knows what else trampled into the carpet and furnishings over the years is not pleasant! And there were only a few people in the place on this winter night - so what does it smell like when it's hot and packed in the summer? After a while the next band appear. I've never seen them before but they are called One Flew Over... The band start playing and their frontman is the last to take to the stage. He makes an unintentionally dramatic entrance as he appears from the back of the stage - trips over a cymbal stand, spills his pint, and nearly falls flat on his face! He quickly removes a pair of glasses and throws them to the side of the stage - pity they didn't help him see that cymbal stand. With his coat and long unkempt frizzy hair he looks like a tramp off the street, but he turns out to be a decent singer and rather a good frontman. When you see his slightly manic appearance the band's name suddenly make's sense.  They actually quite a good band, but not good enough for me to stay for more than half of their set before adjourning to the front bar for a chat.