Saturday July 17
I wish I could say I knew who the lads at the next table in Bella Italia were, as we dined before seeing The Coral at the Lowry in Salford. But I didn't. And then, an hour or so later, they turned out to be in a band who made my skin shiver from about a minute into their first song and all the way to the end of their set. Prior to these moments my only knowledge of Cherry Ghost were that they were the support act I missed last month when I went to see Teenage Fanclub. I didn't know they had won an Ivor Novello or that they were from Bolton and were big mates of Doves. I never imagined, over my pollo pasta, that I'd be playing the video I shot of 'Kissing Strangers' on repeat the next day, ordering their 2 albums and banging on and on about how glad I am to have found another band I can believe in. It was only really in the bar just before the show, when my Sal said animatedly "Cherry Ghost are supporting?" and revealed that she has a version they did of My Chemical Romance's 'Welcome To The Black Parade', that I had any real appetite to go in early enough to see who was opening for The Coral. Which makes me wonder how many other great bands I've missed just because they weren't the ones I was paying to see. Jacquie observed "it's like you're falling in love" when I couldn't get their music out of my head all the next day. Which it kind of is.
