Nevertheless...

Well, my birthday came a week early. I got my new cartridges for my turntables yesterday - Numark CS1s. Thanks to Pudd for the reccomendation on these babies, they're amazing! Good old Carl Cox, eh? Not only that, but today, as I was testing them out for the first time, I got a phone call from the greatest guitar shop in the world, Rockshack, telling me that they had fitted the Artec pickup to my acoustic, and it was ready to, erm, pick up. Both of these things are presents from my wonderful parents, and I am extremely fortunate to have such lovely gifts, especially a week before I should have them! If you're in Leeds, or in reach of it, and you want to hear the pickup in action (and trust me, you'll want to...), then head over to the Salvator Darlings' gig at the Packhorse on Woodhouse Lane on Monday night. Doors open at seven thirty, and entry is free!

Tonight I went to see NeverTheLess in Harrogate. This was their last ever gig, as drummer, David Dickinson, is off to London to drum school. Not that he needs to go, he's already amazing, as anyone who's heard him will testify, but he's off anyway. So they played a stonking set. Every time that I've heard them before, they've been very much about the music, but this gig was a bit different. I think probably because the seriousness has gone out of it, because of the split, there was an air of the silly about tonight. Whereas before the band played, and occasionally introduced a particular song, tonight it was like a Salvator Darlings gig, but with the music being played well... Matt took photographs of the crowd 'for himself', they covered MC Hammer, and Postman Pat... Lots of fun.

The highlight for me, though, was the encore. Having played an incredible set of AC/DC influenced rock, with Danny freestyling his way through both old and new songs (my favourite line: 'Freestylin' for the Daddy'), they left the stage, and were hollered at until they returned, despite the fact that they were already about 15 minutes over their alloted time slot. They came back and played 'Today', which is a real worship song. The atmosphere was electric, and Matt ended with an altar call and a prayer, in which he basically just gave praise to the Almighty God. It was so intense, and so right - in the past, they've not shyed away from the Christian message, but they've certainly never done that before. The Holy Spirit was so thick in that room, and the band rocked, and to be honest, it wouldn't have mattered if they'd have sucked, because people were touched tonight. I love The Jesus, and I love the NeverTheLess because they love him too...