Review: Fee Fie Foe Fum @ Cargo

What a super duper eventful evening! As a prelude to Fee Fie Foe Fum I went to see Emmy the Great ‘and friends’ play at Pure Groove.

I got there early because I thought there would be a queue outside, but there wasn’t. I met up with Adam inside the shop and we talked about Man Man and Frida Hyvonen and other cool bands. CrazyBobbles soon arrived after being held up on the tubes. Emmy told us Eugene McGuinness is ill and re-named him “Eugene McNot-Here”. She had two other friends with her who played for us.

The first was Younghusband and the second was Pengilly’s, who played a couple of cute ukulele + whistling songs. Then it was time for the lady everyone came to see, Emmy the Great. But not before she dashed off for a toilet break. CrazyBob and I discussed this and concluded that it’s perhaps better for her to take a toilet break as oppose to a wet patch appearing while she played. Gross.

SO, after she returned from her toilet break she said hi. She had tied a festive ribbon to her guitar strap. To keep with the festive theme she turned We Almost Had A Baby into We Almost Had A Baby Jesus. I really like that single and can’t wait for her full length album next year. Emmy is quite a funny character and I enjoy her in-between-song talk. She chatted with us about X-Factor. She said she voted for the girl that won twice, and then (apparently) she covered Hallelujah, the Leonard song Emmy holds dearest, and murdered it. Emmy was not best pleased. She asked the audience if any of us watched X-Factor, nobody said anything, she said “None of you watched it? Because you like music.” The band then launched into First Love. A couple of songs later, Emmy concluded with Absentee, which was awesome.

Despite not having a ticket Crazy Bob decided to come to Cargo with me in the hope of getting into the show. This turned out to be worthwhile for him, because in the end he did manage to get in. Woo! The front area of Cargo was pretty busy, the busiest I’ve ever seen it.  We arrived just in time to go into the stage area. We got a spot on the left hand side of the stage and it wasn’t long before the first act started.

KING CHARLES: King Charles has really epic hair. That was the first thing I noticed about him. He just had an electric guitar and it was him alone. He was quite good, he only played a few songs.

DEREK MEINS: Derek Meins was very interesting. I can imagine he probably did drama at school… he was pretty dramatic. The second ’song’ he played was a weird monologue about exercise and jogging. He changed his voice to be both the husband and the wife. It was bizarre but very entertaining.

PEGGY SUE: While Peggy Sue was setting up Crazy Bob tried to convince me the melodica resting on top of the glockenspiel was a moog. It was funny. I thought the band were enjoyable, they were pretty good but it wasn’t really my thing. During this set (I think it was this set anyway), I noticed the girl next to me tapped her boyfriend and then fainted. I hoped she was alright. As some people moved into her spot a drink was kicked over. It was inevitably going to happen sooner or later. Luckily nothing got that wet, so crisis was averted! At the end of Peggy Sue we saw Chalky who came over to say hi.

CHERBOURG: I was really impressed by Cherbourg. They’re not too dissimilar to Mumford and Sons, they play folky songs. They just don’t have a banjo. But they DO have a violin. The singer had a really strong voice and I would quite like to hear them play again sometime. Ben from Mumford and Sons was standing at the side of the stage cheering them on.

JAY JAY PISTOLET: I really like Jay Jay Pistolet, he was one of the main reasons (along with Mumford and Sons) I got a ticket for the show. He played the songs from his Happy Birthday EP. He had an inetersting mic set up that made his voice sound really lovely and relaxing. He didn’t play for long but I really enjoyed his performance alot. After his set I started to get quite hungry and my legs got a bit tired, which was weird because my legs don’t usually get tired at gigs anymore.

MUMFORD AND SONS: I think alot of the crowd were Mumford and Sons fans as there was a huge cheer and applause after the first songs. They thanked the crowd for coming and said how special it is to be on the line up (aww). They played Little Lion Man and White Blank Page, which I really enjoyed and I’m glad they played them at the start of the set because this is where it went all twilight zone on me.

FAINTING TIME! I started to get hot and thirsty, which isn’t exactly out of the ordinary at a gig. I drank some orange squash from my handy bottle that I took with me. I stood up, this is where things get a little blurry and I can’t really remember what order anything happened in. There was a girl next to Crazy Bob who was flashing her polaroid during the whole show and blinding us. I remember seeing like 3 camera flashes from different places. I tried to hold on to the speaker, then I got SUPER SUPER dizzy. It was like a movie, the room started spinning! Literally! It was like I was on a roundabout. I couldn’t focus my eyes properly and it was really confusing. I can’t really remember what happened. At some point I half-fell half-sat on the floor. When I stood up and felt marginally better, although very confused, I noticed Crazy Bob and the kind girl next to me looking at me really worried. I thought I fell on the girl or something because she was looking at me really concerned and asking if I was ok. I thought I better take a break, so I got through the crowd and went and collapsed on a sofa. I guess that what happened is I fainted. Which is really weird because I have never ever fainted before, and I don’t think I’m the fainting type, but I guess on that occasion I was. In novels like North and South and Hard Times, whenever anyone faints I always roll my eyes and think ‘who actually ever faints!???” but now I know, it happens! And I have more sympathy for them. I got a coke and then watched Mumford and Sons from the door. I managed to get back to my spot, although some girl did get her necklace hooked on me somehow and I ended up pulling her along with me. It was all very bizarre and somewhat comical (because nobody got hurt). Crazy Bob said I went all pale and my lips went blue. Creepy. Maybe he can give a better account of what happened because I can’t remember! I apologized to the girl next to me, she was very friendly and lovely. I was lucky to have Crazy Bob and the kind girl next to me, it would have sucked to have been on my own. Crazy Bob forumlated several theories about why both I and the other girl who was next to me had fainted, and also noted he started feeling a bit faint, and it was perhaps the air. He kindly managed to make it through the crowd to get me some water. The whole thing was bizarre. I think I was probably just hungry. Or, to sound more dramatic we could just say that Mumford and Sons were that good they made me faint.

LAURA MARLING: I’ve never really gotten into Laura Marling, I never understood all the hype. After seeing her play, I like her alot more. She only played about 5 songs, which angered the crowd because they were obviously mostly all there to see her. They booed and shouted requests to her. She played her songs and smiled when the crowd sung along, it was all very sweet. After she left the stage there were shouts and claps for an encore. She soon retuned after eating a buscuit. She’s got a nice voice and some of her lyrics are pretty sweet so maybe I’ll give in and listen to her album. I thought Laura Marling was the headliner, but it turns out Johnny Flynn was.

Crazy Bob and I decided to call it a day after Laura Marling, neither of us were that interested in seeing Johnny Flynn, and it was now about midnight. It was raining and gross outside. We walked to Old Street station where I said bye to Crazy Bob, then I headed back to halls, which was luckily pretty close. I am no doctor but I thought I should eat, so I ate 2 sandwiches, 2 packs of crisps, a banana and an apple. Then slept. It’s pretty scary (and confusing)  fainting, I hope it never happens again. I think I’ll be going home to Ashford later today so I can eat loads, because I think the amount I eat in proportion to the amount I walk is just not enough. But when I’m at home I can eat loads, so that’s good. I guess it means I’ll give Mumford and Sons at Pure Groove on Friday a miss, which is a shame. I’ve seen them 3 times in the past few months (twice in the last two weeks) so I’m not that desperate to see them again right now anyway. In conclusion, great show, great value. I can’t wait for next year and more gigging to begin!