isy, red, and stavros, in satan's hollow

it was one of those nights. on my home from zine fest in manchester's 'the basement', and after, a drink in the excellent castle hotel on oldham street, i was abducted and taken to satan's hollow. that there on the right is stavros, a regular of the basement. this saucy old beggar kept pushing me into this girl who was trying to talk to me. he didn't understand that i meant we could fuck *with* her, not that i wanted to fuck her. you can't meet people in clubs. "hi, what's your name," she offered. we went through the usual rigmarole.
"grilly."
"what?"
"grilly."
..
anyway, eventually i said, "and who are you?"
"i'm rachel."
"no, i said who are you, not what's your name."
"oh! i'm me!".
then 'there is a light that never goes out' came on, as if on cue, predicatably, and i said, "i have to dance now". if only they'd play ideoteque. i didn't speak to her again, which i feel quite bad about. she was harmless but misguided.
anyway, stavros loved u2's 'killing moon' and went and stood near two girls while it was playing.

anyway, that in the middle is red, who edited the pulse (sussex university's student glossy mag) , who i introduced myself to by saying, "i'm sure i've seen you organising something." i wasn't going to bother, i mean, one sees people one vaguely recognises infuriatingly regularly, but i noticed she had a sussex plastic bag (for some reason) which made it easier to place her. and then obviously i'm grilly that did a song for the pulse cd, so she then recognised me. we had a good long chat about the problems i think i have (but don't) in the castle.

and that on the far left is isy, which didn't mean anything to me at the time, other than that she was quite fun, but clearly, this being *zine fest* and her being from brighton, it's swedish nick's friend isy that does/did (?) 'morgunmuffel' that he gave a copy of. if only i'd known! but then if i knew anything about zines, i would have done, given that she was doing workshops at the event.

it's amazing what coincidences crop up when you hang out in what are evidently tiny circles.

it's not amazing that the basement reminded me a lot of other 'social centres' (their words), like the cowley club. there's a brand/meme distinction around here.

and now, inexplicably, i've got 'come together' by blur stuck in my head.

i should mention zine fest too; it was awesome. although due to restrictions outlined above, i couldn't enjoy it quite as much as some others, it was a spectacular turnout. all those people coming out of the woodwork for this one beautiful day, to swap and distribute zines.. i, a noob, was overwheled, not knowing where to start. it would be sensible for me to go down on a day with no festival, and just pick up some good looking piece of handiwork. or i could just not get involved at all. i would have taken photos but it seemed a bit rude.

p.s. stuck a few ore photos on flickr just now.