Ben Mark Live at the Union Chapel 02/05/08
It’s been 15 months since the last time I managed to get to a gig so this one was an unmissable opportunity for me as it was a Friday night. The gig was as support to American Actor/Singer James Marsters (Torchwood/Buffy etc) and Ben didn’t disappoint his interaction with the almost full house was great and the songs were a good mix of older favourites and newer tunes. Here was the set list!
Tied To
The Wagon
Bad Boyfriend
New String to Pull
Amber
Bent
Your Favourite Time of Year
You Try
Fixer Upper
The Venue was a Chapel situated in Islington, London. It’s a really beautiful place with great acoustics perfect for an acoustic gig. Ben was worried about some of the bad language in some of his songs and asked what she mum would say. Needless to say she’d not like him swearing in a church but Ben said she wasn’t there but he did try and sing without the f’ing and blinding (there was some success not allot though lol).
He had 'Paces We’ll Never Go' and the 'Limited Edition EP' for sale so he thought he’d better sing an album track to get peoples taste for it (my god it did more on that later) so Amber was the track chosen to showcase the cd. I’ve filmed the song and should be available to view on our myspace page @
http://www.myspace.com/benmarkunofficial. not sure he got the lyrics completely right and afterwards said as much asking for a copy of the album and the booklet had the lyrics to all the songs in it in case he sang another one (of course he didn’t do another one but never mind lol). Then came the news we have been waiting for since the release of 'Places...' 4 years ago, the new album will be mixed in the next couple of weeks woohoo although the next song bent wont make the new album and would probably never make any album (which is a shame cos I love it! Lol)
After his set there was a short interval before James Masters was due on stage and he spent the time doing a meet and greet with fans, signing copies of the album and the ep like they were going out of fashion well actually the eps did they all sold out really quickly . He came over to me and my friends Alice and Mona and said hi which is when I gave him a couple of prezzies 1 was a copy of a signed team sheet full of Bristol Rovers players at their game with Plymouth (when Ian Holloway was in charge) followed by a signed pic of Mr Holloway himself the photo was of him in his Bristol Rovers playing days, to say Ben was really pleased would be an understatement I’ve never known anyone as excited than him hehe.
James’ set then began Mona wanted to get a drink so we headed to the bar so we did miss most of his set but what I heard of it was really impressive. The gig ended and we went back to the merchandise area and met back up with Ben again he was signing autographs and chatting to fans like a pro. I went over and got a cd for Alice as she spent what felt like an age deciding where or not too get one handing my cash over b4 he had time to say anything apart from “shall I sign it for her too” erm yes ben that’s the whole point!! I then called the girls over to us while he chatted to yet more fans I then got him to sign a couple of pictures one was an old one of him (cant really say much more than that) the other one was a screen capture of him in the Take That video Rule The World for my friend (god bless Sky +) I also got myself a pic with him thanked him for putting Amber into the set list he told me that was just for me (bless) and as always talked turned to football lol a few minutes later it was hugs all round and we left. We were so pleased we saw him Mona and Alice especially as it was their first Ben Mark live gig. Looking forward to the next one already
Pictures available via the pictures section of
http://www.benmarkworld.co.uk. I hope u enjoy them and the video at
http://www.myspace.com/benmarkunofficial
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Brilliant idea Fliss, will help keep this place something like tidy an' all. 
looked like great gigs not that i'm really into either bands though to be honest (sorry)
) and I didn't like them. But, I thought they were better than last time and couldn't stop my foot from tapping ever so slightly. Couldn't hear the dude singing though - possibly a good thing considering I could hear him last time & didn't like them!
A very well behaved crowd - the place was pretty big, I think it holds about 800 in the ballroom itself - it felt like I was at a smaller gig though - no pushing, no shoving, no screaming in my ear - bliss! Some woman's hair touched me a few times though, made my skin crawl, urgh!