It's a pretty full turn out at the Barfly for these two Italian bands. After chatting downstairs, we head upstairs in time to catch the last song from the second band on (whose name I didn't catch). They have an audience dominated by youg girls (I think it's a 16+ show). As the band finish we head for the front. Rather embarassingly some of the young girls have taken their tops off and are prading in their underwear. We avert our eyes, as do the band who may be too busy packing up to notice.
There is a bit of a delay before Maleficent take to the stage as everything is cleared away and new stuff set up (you can see I'm au fait with all these musical bits). Maleficent put on a visual extravaganza that even the barfly lighting fails to ruin. As always these days flashing lights are employed with increasing periods of strobing as the set goes on, until the last song is lit entirely by strobe. This is exactly the same sequence used for Mab and for the last band I saw here. From this pattern I presume there is a standard Barfly guide to lighting, pity it's so short. After a couple of songs I give up trying to capture photos in the brief moments of lightness and use flash. Everything is a bit random so I just take lots of pictures relying on probability and a Nikon SB800.

After another (brief) break we are treated to a powerful show by Mab. It vis a performance brimming with power and confidence. As they are late starting their setlist shows they have dropped a song. They finish at 11.10 which is still too late to catch the last southbound train (2320 from Camden Town) but miles too early for the first nightbus (0025 from Tottenham Court Road). Transport on Sunday nights is quite Kafkaesque. On a positive note the nightbus comes as timetabled and is remarkably fast.

Mab needed some new publicity pics, most weren't as weird as this

Mab have been touring in Italy most of this year, so I haven't seen them play since Rome in July. Unless you count the video we did in their garden, I think in September.

Strangely they are playing first at 8pm. Twice in a week I have queued to get into a gig to see the first band on (see Little Fish on Saturday). The place seems to be quite full of Italians (maybe the headliners are Italian as well?). It is also well populated with long term Mab fans who I have not met for a while ("don't think I've seen you since Rome").

Enjoy a good breakfast on the roof terrace with view of St Peters. No complaints there. Meanwhile Swan is on a plane from Luton; it took off at 6ish so she didn't get any sleep at all. We will meet her at termini so pass the time by checking out tonight's venue, which is lucky as the wrong way which we go is quite a lot further (this is significant later).

All goes well with meeting Swan and  dumping her stuff at hotel. However there is a fly in the ointment, a text from Sam, who is with Mab, tells us there is a problem with the guestlist tonight. The gig is sold out so buying tickets is not an option. Apparently Franco Battiato has over invited on his guest list and there is no room for Mab's friends. The band suggest we meet them at the venue when they arrive from the hotel and go in with them at 5.30 (and see what happens).

Not much we can do but sweat and have lunch. Pleasant restaurant in the area of the Coliseum. Back to the hotel to freshen up and change. Here we have a dilema - what to wear. We decide that Mab t-shirts may not be right for breezing in with the band. Personally I decide on a high visability approach. I want to be remembered as around all evening like part of the crew so wear my distinctive designer Little Fish t-shirt (see Sunday for picture). It won't seem like I've just sneaked in.

As the hotel is so close to the venue, (about 10 minutes walk in the heat), we cut it rather fine. I see the coach drive up just as we are approaching, with a little jog I join the Mab party as they walk from the coach, Voltane and Swan lag behind and are almost cut adrift but Alice dawdles for them. So we're all in the venue. Apart from the girls we meet Sam. Veronica, Stephano and Natalyia who have all come out from London too (mostly on different flights).

Nice to meet everyone. We chat and sit around and take snaps and watch the soundcheck. As we don't have passes we have to stay with Mab. When they are taken to their dressing room around 7.30 we go with them. There is a sense of optimism but the uncertainty hangs heavy. Lisa announces that it is arranged that a security guard will let all seven of us in as long as we are in the prescribed place at 8.15. The venue will apparently hold around 3000, but most ot them seem to be upstairs. relatively few seats downstairs with quite a lot of space behind.
After maybe 10 minutes the security guard appears and leads us through to the auditorium. We must stand by the mixer desk. Collective sigh of relief. Everyone looks reasonably confident, as if they're supposed to be here. Later the soundman brings in two other people without passes who give the air of escaped prisoners, with furtive glances all around. The show starts with a little set from a  cello and piano duo. Our view by the sound-desk is excellent (and obviously the sound is good).

 Franco does a mixed set with a lot of variety. For some songs he is joined by part or all of Mab, some not. Mab get to play on their own whilst he takes a break. Wonderful to see them again and great to share the experience with the rest of the Mab contingent.

None of us get thrown out.

After the show we all follow the soundman through security to the hospitality room where we find the girls eating a hearty supper of rolls. So we join them for a ham sandwich and a can of beer. They have enjoyed the show, but their coach leaves for Naples at 9.30 in the morning.

We stroll back to the hotel around midnight.

Quite a different experience to Venice where being on my own emotions were bottled up. Here we share and relive experiences (particularly managing to sneak in); So now that I come to share the experiences with you, they have paled a little. That is not to say that Venice was better, just different.

Tonight I flew back from Venice. I had a pleasant day meandering around , mainly sitting on water buses riding up and down . Not only does this give your feet a rest, but provides a kalidescope of touristic views as we sail along. I find this particularly exciting as there are photographic moments to be grabbed rather than pondered. I don't really do pondered, it doesn't fit in with 'restless and pacing'.  The key to a sucessful trip on a waterbus (touristically) is to go to the end of the route and wait until you can be first onto the boat, then you can sit in one of the 7 outdoor seats at the back (or on some boats there also some at the front). Sometimes I wear my mp3 player and listen to encouraging songs (particularly enjoyed the White Stripes new cd, along with many of the bands I rave about on this blog), sometimes I listen to the fellow passengers, many of whom are tourists and have strange tales to tell. The locals may also have strange and interesting tales to tell but I don't have any italian so I have to rely on the english speakers for my tit-bits. Sad to say nothing I heard was strange or interesting enough to find its way into this blog.

This riding up and down has left me with a red forehead; normally a little sun would not effect me so badly, but this english summer has been so poor my skin has not aclimatised to the summer sun yet. Fortunately I am not struck down, but have the mildist of discomfort by the end of the day.

Having planned to catch a suitable waterbus to the airport for my flight I  arrive nicely at the ticket office. The ticket-seller then tries to sell me a ticket for a fast bus to the airport at  €25, rather than the slow bus at €12. As I had made my plans on the bus taking 1hr 20mins, catching the fast bus would have been completely pointless and just left me hanging round even longer at the airport. So I didn't.

Ok so that was more detail than you wanted, but do read on, my point will become less obscure. Check-in and security were unexceptional. Strangely the airport cafe was the only place that I came across in my stay which complied with my guidebook's guidance on buying things in a cafe. First you go to the till and pay for what you want, then you take the till receipt to the serving person. In my case I had to take it to the sandwich person on one side of the till then on to the capacchino person on the other side of the till. The man in front of me got something completely different to what he wanted as he couldn't point at what he wanted and the till-person just interpreted 'sandwich' into a particular sandwich of her choice. I was a little better prepared, ha ha. Whilst I am not in favour of internationalisation (americanisation) I do think it a little cruel to retain this quaint custom only at the airport full of foreigners.

When we arrived at the gate at the appointed hour we found a screen announcing that the flight was running half an hour late. After a brief moment of annoyance I decided that half an hour didn't matter as I hadn't any exact idea of when we were supposed to get back to Gatwick anyway, and half an hour wasn't that long. So I found a nice place on the floor, listened to some music and read a book. Around the time we were supposed to fly a check-in type person arrived, so virtually everyone jumped up and pressed towards the desk. I and a few other sane people didn't. For a moment I did wonder whether I'd missed some vital announcement about there only being room for the first 70 people or something like that, but I don't think I did. After about 5 minutes of nothing happening there was a general drift back to the seats. Then comes the easyjet speil about people who've paid £2.50 extra being allowed on first, then childern, then people with an A on their boarding card then finally those with a B. Meanwhile 2 coaches have arrived to take all 140 passengers to the plane (yes that's 70 in each). Well I didn't pay £2.50, I don't have any childern , although I suspect 1 can be hired for less that £2.50 and I've no idea what you have to do to get an A on your priority; so I'm a B then. Most of the other B's still seem to think sitting(well most stand of course) on the coach is better that sitting comfortably in the terminal. Very few seem to have considered that the last person onto the coach will be the first off the coach. The first coach which is shared by those who have paid extra and a large school party departs. The rest of us get on the second coach. I am in the last 10 to leave the terminal. I think I'm probably around 85th on the plane, I get a seat; I get to Gatwick the same time as everyone else; Next time I won't be paying £2.50 or hiring a child either.