13/3/2006 My forlorn attempt to see B*Movie Heroes in Camden

Subject	My forlorn attempt to see B*Movie Heroes in Camden
PostedDate	3/13/2006 3:02:00 PM
	What's worse than 'Friday the 13th'? 'Monday the 13th'!  So this was a gig I'd been looking forward to for quite a few weeks now. Especially as it's so long since I've seen B*Movie Heroes - I couldn't get to see them when they played in London last year.  I ripped their three EPs and one album to my MP3 player and have been listening to them a lot over the last week. Today I learn that the band won't be including anything from the first three of those four CDs I've been listening to the last week.  I spent an hour getting ready to go out and pulled on my 'Old Blue Shoes' - in spite of learning today that they won't be playing that old favourite tonight.  I left home with well over an hour to go before the band were due on stage at the Underworld - the journey to Camden normally takes around 45-55  minutes. So I arrive at the tube station, to be informed (after I have just swiped my Oyster card) that service on the Picadilly line has been suspended due to a problem with the power supply.  I expect this was due to privatisation leading to skimping on the maintainence - the root of most of the delays on the shabby service we get from the tube these days... Naturally, there are no staff to be seen to explain further or give an idea when service will resume. I watch forlornly as the sole train in the station leaves for the depot. Of course the ticket office is shut and the touch screen machine isn't working so I can't get a refund for my freshly swiped Oyster card and I now stand to be charged for the maximum length journey even though I can't actually travel anywhere!  As I start walking back home I look at my watch and realise there is still just a chance I can get a bus to High Barnet and get the tube to Camden in time on the dreaded Northern Line instead. After freezing my arse off for 15 minutes the bus leaves and makes it's slow and tortuous way 'round the houses' to High Barnet. On arrival at the station I discover that the only train present in the three platforms is being taken out of service!  Eventually another train arrives and I take a seat on it. After a few minutes the driver announces that this train won't be leaving for at least 12 minutes and may not be the first train to leave - although it's the only train actually present in the terminus... By now it's only about 15 minutes from when B*Movie Heroes are due on stage in Camden - and I'm still at the extreme northern end of the Northern Line. I realise at this stage that any further attempt to get to the gig is futile.  There is nothing for it but to make my way back home again. By this point I had left home well over an hour ago, and in spite of having been at two tube stations and having made a bus journey I was still only a couple of miles from home! And I'd swiped my Oyster card twice at tube stations and will be charged for journeys I hadn't even made.  The bloke in the ticket office let me back through the barrier but couldn't do anything about a refund. This was all followed by another freezing 15 minute wait for a bus  and a fourth journey charged to my Oyster card  and a cold walk of nearly a mile home from the bus stop. I arrived home over an hour and a half after leaving for Camden - having not actually got more than two miles from home, and being charged for four journeys - only two of which I had actually made!  I've had better nights out. Maybe I'll get another chance to see B*Movie Heroes again later in the year...