My day was always going to be a little bit strange. Before I could get too excited about the gig I had to go for an interview for a position at Oxfam. I couldn't really think about Bob until this was over. Or maybe I could. Whilst I was waiting in reception I spotted a huge advert/poster about the Make Poverty History Campaign. On it was a list of the events involved or related with/to the campaign. Next to the G8 it clearly said Live Aid?? Sorry Oxfam but I think that is slightly incorrect…

We left slightly later than we would have done, as I then needed to go home and change. This left us little time to see much of Cardiff, which was a shame. Particularly as, being the rather ageing groupie that I am, I wanted to go out early to a particular place where I thought the band might be before the show.

As it turned out there was a big rugby match on and practically the entire population of Cardiff (and probably elsewhere in Wales for that matter) were out and about in the pubs and bars. None of the band was in the said place - it was packed in there too. I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted to sit in such a packed bar. So I bought us a glass of wine each for a fiver a go for nothing!

On the way into the theatre I tried to steal the large and beautiful poster of Bob from the advertising board. It ripped and I could see lots of people looking at me, so I gave up. I later regretted this.

Once in the theatre we made out way to our seats, which weren't quite as good as I was lead to believe. We were 4th row back to the right of the auditorium. Did the person at the box office think I'd refuse to buy the seats if that's all he had to offer? I think NOT! Still the view was pretty good from there. Kaz and her husband had already arrived. And it was a real pleasure to meet them. They told me they had seen the support person before and he was pretty good. That made a refreshing change, as they were right.

We'd had a slight disaster with the camera situation. Somehow we'd foolishly left the little digital camera in the car, which was locked in a car park until 8 am on Saturday. We did manage to smuggle our SLR in under Howard's jacket, but as we are only using the in built flash it was too dark and the camera just refused to take any shots. So we were left with my high definition-high quality-inbuilt flash camera phone. See the photos and video clips to see what that actually means (PM me if you'd like to see any of them I'll have to email them to you).

Bob said he felt rather nervous, as it had been a couple of years since he did a gig, apart from one song at a little gig in the summer. Actually I thought it was 2 little gigs and more songs at the second. Nerves didn't make any difference to his performance tonight though; he was, as ever, superb.

Bob played a number of tracks which I'd never heard him perform live before which also meant some new stories to hear. He seemed different when talking about his marriage break-up, less emotional, more contained. He talked about everyone going through it and you just end up parking it in a convenient space in your brain. Seems as though this is what he's done. When it came to the requests section of the show I had decided to ask for Attitude Chicken, as he'd claimed in an interview that this was his favourite track from The Happy Club. He'd never played it live, so I wanted to see his reaction. At first he didn't hear me among all the shouts from the audience. Then a moment of silence, I snatched it and called out 'Attitude Chicken'. He repeated it and laughed as if it was a rather ridiculous suggestion. Ah well, the first song was what would have been my real request - Dave. My favourite Rats song and as he had said before when I requested it was also his. Then to my surprise he actually sang Attitude Chicken. I was amazed. He also did Banana Republic which was Kaz's request. (See below for full set list).

Towards the end we got up to dance. I made my way to the front. My mobile memory was now full and I forgot to pick up the SLR, which Howard had under his seat. I spotted a gap at the front and right in front of Bob so I made my way into it. This made up for the seats not being quite as expected for sure. Kaz and Chris were now to my right.

After the show we hung around to meet Bob. Whilst I was queuing at the merchandise stall for a tee shirt (which I didn't leave behind this time) Kaz found Reevo, or it might have been the other way around. Anyway, I could hear voices behind me saying 'and there's Jules' and turned round to be introduced to him. It was great to meet him too. Lucky Reevo also had tickets for the Peterborough show the next day.

Bob came out around 15 minutes later to greet his fans. Quite a long queue had formed. He didn't seem to mind at all. When it came to my turn, I had already decided what I was going to say. First I handed him the set list Kaz had managed to retrieve for me from the stage for him to sign. I also handed him my pen, with which to sign it. I then congratulated him on being Nobel Man of Peace. Rather tongue-tied I stumbled over the words but as soon as he heard the word 'Nobel' he interjected and said 'I don't know what it means yet, but I guess I will soon. Something big I think'. I meant to say 'and much deserved' but came out with 'something fantastic', probably a little over enthusiastically. Not quite what I had intended. He didn't bat an eyelid though, no raised eyebrow treatment for me this time. I went to take my pen back from him and nearly took his pen. He grabbed it back rather possessively and handed me mine. I laughed and said 'oops I nearly took your pen'. He then kissed me on the cheek and gave me a big hug. I realised he was leaning down towards me politely to greet my 5'0” lowly stance. So I took my moment and kissed his cheek, he kissed me again….

Howard then went to take a photo, the light was better over us here, so the camera clicked and flashed. Bob noted the camera and said 'ah a proper camera, no faffing around'. We both said 'well when it works'.

When we left I looked at the set list, he'd signed it with his own probably rather expensive ink pen. This struck me is rather bizarre, why did he take my pen to hold whilst using his? Another weird Bob thing, maybe? Perhaps he was being polite as I'd offered him my pen and thought I might get offended? Who knows?

Roll on 9 December and the Bristol show.

The set list:

Indifference
Love or Something
Sex Thing
When The Night Comes
Pouring Rain
World Calling
Clockwork
Scream in Vain
One For Me
Mudslide
Birthday Suit
Mondays
Someone's Looking at You
Beat of the Night
Joey
Requests
Mary
Rat Trap
I Cry Too
Diamond Smiles
Life is the Hardest Thing



Peterborough people tonight - enjoy and reports please!