Linux Outlaws Live in Liverpool
By Jon Archer
There are a number of events in my geek calendar I really look forward to throughout the year, most of them centre around a particular group of people too. This year an extra event has turned up early in the list, Linux Outlaws Live, or LOL as it seems to be more affectionately known. The live show, celebrating the 300th episode of Linux Outlaws, was held at Leaf on Bold st, Liverpool.
I set off around 3pm, driving as I couldn’t be bothered buggering about getting to Manchester to catch the train, and picked Stu up who, may I add was a LO virgin. Yes he’d never listened to Dan’s dulcet tones, or endured a Fab rant, his reaction alone I was quite looking forward to. Anyhoo, fast forward a couple of hours and we’re parked up and looking for a (working) cash machine so I can indulge in a coffee or 2. It was actually my first experience of Leaf, and after hearing many good things it didn’t disappoint, a really cosy venue with what can only be described as an “all the tea in China” range of teas.
Just about to sit down and I realised I’d left my phone in the car (no jokes here please), who do I bump into walking out of the door? Olly, Matt C and of course Mr Cannon. They quickly said hello and Pete started f’ing and jeffing about not being invited to lunch, excellent! Tonight is going to be a good laugh… Back in Leaf, we headed upstairs where a number of familiar faces were already settled, Les P, Becky and Phil Newborough and a few more, fab looking venue with the thrones already setup for the show. Dan running back and forth trying to get stuff setup - he’s a busy guy, and I could just see Fab in a crowd.
Les proceded to tell me I should be drinking coke, that way I could at least suggest there was vodka in there. However I was quite happy with the coffee. Second trip to the bar I finally got a chance to speak to Pete, and proceded to ask him how his journey was…. How did I know there would be a story there? We had a good giggle at the fact.
Onto the show, which was quite different from a normal one not just in the obvious sense but it was far more chilled - I think that may have been the jazz, nice! - and reflective over the past. A lot of good content which I won’t go into as you can watch the video or listen to the feed whichever happens. The twitfall was fairly amusing from blatant LUG plugs, to Jon the nice guy telling some joker trying to advertise to Foxtrot Oscar.
A nice touch to the show was the intro which Les P put together containing messages from community members congratulating them on the 300 eps, amusingly Dan happened to accidentally fade it out just as I was saying my piece. I also liked the engraved “diamonds” Les P presented them with, nice touch alongside the thrones.The aftershow party was great, managing to get to chat to some ace folks there.
I always come away from these events feeling happy, the community which attends them are such nice people and make me proud to be part of something (not sure what like). Cheers guys, here’s to the next event.