With Grimsby being only just over an hour away, i was frustrated that i couldn’t get there due to not being able to drive anymore. Fortunately, a good friend i’ve known for years, offered to drive there. Thanks Andy G ! I’d prearranged with Scott to have 2 tickets held on the door & it worked out fine. As ever, cheers Scott 🙂
We got there around the time that doors opened. It was obviously kinda quiet inside. One advantage of that was we could get a couple of decent seats for a while.
First band on were “Crisis Garden”. Never heard of them before tonight. Didn’t take me long for a “Yay or Nay”. Being brutally honest, there was nothing that stood out from them that peaked my interest. But good on them for getting up there & giving it a go. 
Next up, as far as we were concerned, it was the headliners ; Hands Off Gretel 🙂 By now the place had got a bit busier & i’m sure there were a couple of faces in the crowd that i recognised from previous HOG gigs. I saw an old guy with what looked like a monopod & at the top he had some kind of recording device 😉
The kicked off with ” World Against She”, closely followed by “Bad Egg”. Tonight they had a stand in bassist since Joe recently quit HOG.* EDIT *: Bassists name is Becky Baldwin. I gotta say she pretty much nailed it tonight. Seems she’s a Professional bassist who has played in various bands. She teaches. (Later Helen told me there’s another temp bassist doing other gigs). Oh a funny moment was when the bassist was really rockin out, in the moment & accidentally whacked her microphone with the bass guitar. Dunno how many saw it, but she was cracking up afterwards 😉 
Before the next song, “Be Mine”, Lauren had to tune up & she told Sean to talk to the crowd…for one second…well, see it here, he’s a funny fooker 🙂
Next up they do “One Eyed Girl”. I already consider this to be a classic in their set 😉 The crowd seem to be enjoying everything. The rest of the set flew by.
They finished with “My Size”
After HOGs set, the place seemed to almost seem empty. But i think a lot of peeps had gone out for beer/fag breaks. Before Skating Polly took to the stage, it did get busy-ish again. This was the first time i’d seen/heard them. All credit to them for making the journey over from the States. I also think they work well on some bill as HOG. Personally, i need to hear more studio recordings before i decide if i like em or not. We didn’t stay till the end of their set as i was getting a bit tired & both myself & Andy thought we’d seen enough to get a good idea of what they were about. As previously said, we really went there just to see HOG…& anything else was a bonus 😉
I was not at this gig, but I hope Becky Baldwin becomes a permanent member of the band as HOG have had a few changes already. I am hoping to catch them again soon.
You should’ve stayed for Skating Polly mate. Hands off Gretel puts on a good show, if you like grunge in general, but they don’ have the same quality of songs or originality as Skating Polly yet.
Both Hands Off Gretel and Skating Polly were great. Hands Off Gretel is much more one dimensional, but they do their thing very well. Skating Polly is on another level with songwriting.