On this day in history 1: Suede Fanclub Gig in Manchester

Unfeasibly good value ticket at a fiver

On this day in 1999:

I had been in the Suede fan club for some time. Getting 4 magazines a year for a tenner was fine, plus the other stuff, the odd cd etc but the best bit about the fan club for most was the fan club gigs. To date I had not ventured to these as they were usually in London mid week and, being a worker in Brum and not particularly adventurous, this put them out of my range. So as a result, I had to read on jealously in the music press or heaven forbid the next fanzine for what I had missed for my £10.

This was until 1999 when they ventured out of the capital to play a gig on a Tuesday night at Manchester Student Union. This was good for a couple of reasons - I new where Manchester Student Union was (Mrs P and I had spent our first night together in the academy next door some 7 years earlier) and with her loving Suede we could definitely go to this. To be fair I did have to buy the ticket for £5 but it was worth it.

I seem to recall it taking a while to get up there, I used to go up the A roads for some reason, probably a legacy of my old mini days, but we got there to hang around for not to long before the band came on. They came on to what has become, probably through them, one of my favourite albums, certainly the 6 years old Mr P had no recollection of god saving the queen, and her fascist regime. But Never Mind The Bollocks got us in the mood for Suede.

The five familiar men walked on the stage. But this was to be a show premiering the new stuff, Head Music was about to be unleashed on us. "Can't Get Enough" is up first. This is a distant cousin of my favourite "She", the same choppy guitar and the brilliant whoo-hoo vocals.


"Savoir Faire" up next, a relaxing Suede song, not like what had passed before. A love song maybe.

"Electricity" the lead single, with it's crackling video and quality "It's bigger than the universe" lyrics has us waving arms and shouting along.

"Everything Will Flow" slows us back down, it is to become a real favourite in future years . It glides. Followed by "Indian Strings" lighters aloft.

A couple of older songs "The Sound Of The Streets" and "Together" Brett throws tambourines, water bottles, lighted cigarettes out at the crowd, and teasingly runs his fingers across the outstretched hands of the crowd.

"He's Gone" sounds great. A lament to a long lost love. Huge and tiny at the same time.

"Elephant Man" is the oddest song from Suede, a primal chant, well shout along.

"Starcrazy", not one of my faves from Coming Up,  "Europe Is Our Playground lovely  Then the band leave the stage, with Brett there, on a stool, ready to do "Crack in the Union Jack"well just Brett and a guitar and Neil.

Before starting the song though, the shy Anderson says "I can play an F, a D, and a G.

The encore is She, which is just brilliant and leaves me ready for the journey home.

Hours of fun went into this scrap book

The joy of having a scrap book also brings the time to life, not sure who said this but it would have been one of the Music press, probably Melody Maker, although I would check other magazines for Suede, Pulp and others.

Day two and Manchester brings more of the same: the same songs (nine new ones, three recentish B sides and two tracks from Coming up.) the same fervour and the same flooded beauty. Only like I said, it's more of the same. first because Manchester Universitys debating hall is to Glasgow's Garage what the new Richard 'James Dean Bradfield' Oakes is to the old one; about three times as big. Ahem. And, secondly, because Brett seems to have cramped right through his pre-gig bit tonight, and takes to the stage like a snotier John Lydon, his grinning charisma backed up by the heart of Nick Drake, the animal sneer of David Bowie and all the frantic footwork of Rudolf Nureyev on an E.
Which makes the new Neil-written, dumb as f*** Elephant Man perfect for a gig like tonight's, in all it's ridiculous, fall-style, yob bush, ranting, "Auf weirder sheen Pet" on crack get this for lo fi experimentation Blur glory. Once again, Star Crazy and Together do things to the roof it's builders never Egan to plan for, and the opening missile storm of 'can't get enough', 'Savoir fairer' and 'Electricity' flash fries the joint with probably the best 10 minutes of live performance Suede have ever played  Brett lashing out over his microphone stand with the snarling spite of a lion clawing at its cage, maniacally hopping up and down on his monitors like Tigger on a trampoline. The stage, it must be said, is all his.
It just feels like I'm at home onstage these days. Brett will tell us back n his dressing room after the show. Like I'm sitting in my front room actually I feel so relaxed it's ridiculous! I don't have any fear of being in front thousands of people at all now. I think back on when we fist started and I used to shit myself, but I couldn't give a flying f*** now! I could almost lie down onstage and take a quick nap now! Actually I think I might atthe next show!
Hardly. Though, having said that, while tonights show packs more punch than Lennox Lewis let loose on that American judge, it is Suedes more tender moments which hit the hardest. The sweeping 'Hes gone' is already a fan base legend, after it's Reading debut in 97. Tonight, it's feminine sympathies and aching melancholy shivers us senseless, a frozen reminder of just how and why Suede changed everything 7 years ago and look so certain to do so again. 'Down' with its hypnotic measure and smothering swathes of guitar, is almost as precious, all wasted ebb and flow and Brett's gentle 'you draw the blinds and blow your mid away' tucking us in tight. And an especially stirring 'Everything will flow' - a classic Suede slow dance, not entirely unlike 'Wild ones' cherries the cake, a priceless reminder of how Suede can say more with one wailed 'Aaoowowowowow' than most bands say across an entire lyric sheet.
So like Pantomime Horse, The Big Time and Sleeping Pills before them these are the sad songs and they'll always mean the most. Intimacy's a  rare commodity these days, but Suede more than ever - have the gift of making a hurricane sound personal. So you barely even notice when the others (bar Neil) slip off to allow Brett to perform a soloish 'Crack in the Union Jack' all hard struck acoustic guitar and softly political murmurs.

Morrissey Manchester Arena Gig Review

Morrissey Gig Review Manchester Arena
Gig 34 of 2012: 28 July 2012


Leaping straight into the main event for Morrissey yesterday, I have to come clean, I feel a bit of a fraud. Morrissey was Mrs P's idol not mine, and I used to give my house mate at Uni dogs abuse for liking the Smiths despite my music choices at that time being very questionable.

However I have seen the light in later years, driven by seeing him live and also the return to form album 'You are the Quarry' which dominated the ipod a few years back. So with Morrissey not being my reason for living, and having seen a lot of gigs this year, what did I think - well he's first class, he draws opinions, and he is unique.

At half eight the lights went out and from the black came a 5 minute lady scouse voiced list of things that are not particularly pleasant.....'poll tax, apartheid, John Lennon's murder, death of the rain forest, red necks........' and on came Moz, to the centre of the stage with Band in their trade mark now 'We hate William and Kate' T shirts for a bow. Being up in the gods, it was amazing to see the surge of the crowd running right the way front to back on his appearance and he was away.

Kicking off with burst of You Have Killed Me, Everyday Is Like Sunday, You're The One For Me, Fatty (a particular favourite of me and Mrs P) and the phenomenal How Soon Is Now? there was no way that the faithful were not going to be over the moon, twitter was proclaiming it the best live experience people had ever had although for me the sound quality of sheds this size is lacking somewhat.


Morrissey was also quick to get the quips out on his pet subjects, such as 


'You'll notice I wasn't invited to the opening ceremony of the Olympics as my smile was judged to be too sincere'


'Well done on surviving that moronic jubilee, when will we be rid of that family'


'I was in Tel Aviv recently where I was given the key to the city, Manchester Council have given me nothing'


This wasn't to everyone's delight with the chap across the aisle from me standing up shouting shut up and just sing and waving certain hand gestures at various points, and whilst I don't agree with everything that comes from his mouth, he is consistent and has an opinion which is very rare in the music world these days. 


Songs continued to come thick and fast, some I knew, some I didn't, regular shirt changes, one launched into the mosh pit causing a frenzy, the mic lent to the crowd to provide thoughts, which didn't last long, arms reaching out to the devoted, introducing the band. An engaging performance.


Meat is Murder - backed by a film inviting us to 'meet our meat' will no doubt have converted a few more people to vegetarianism and per twitter brought tears from sections of the crowd.


The exception in the band to wearing the 'Will & Kate' T's was the extremely bouncy guitarist, who from a long way back I thought was a young lady but turns out to be Boz Boorer in drag, made me smile anyway when I realised.


After a couple of hours we were treated to an encore of Smith song Still Ill and he was gone, with a bow. Overall a really enjoyable gig, not life changing, not the best Moz gig I've seen, but all round great entertainment.

A bit bizarre though was the support act, regularly I'll come out of a gig having bought the supports album/single but Kristeen Young is definitely an acquired taste. Appearing from the darkness in the corner of the stage behind a madly used piano she sounded like a really loud and spikey Kate Bush to me, and not that easy to get into at all, other songs were sung to a backing tape with visuals, but no, not for me.

The other standout from Moz is the merchandise, well thought through and this was the best T I'd seen for ages:

Set list from here

1. You Have Killed Me 
2. Everyday Is Like Sunday 
3. You're The One For Me, Fatty 
4. How Soon Is Now? 
   (The Smiths song)
5. I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris 
6. Ouija Board, Ouija Board 
7. Maladjusted 
8. When Last I Spoke To Carol 
9. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me 
   (The Smiths song)
10. People Are The Same Everywhere 
11. I Know It's Over 
    (The Smiths song)
12. To Give (The Reason I Live) 
    (Frankie Valli cover)
13. Scandinavia 
14. Black Cloud 
15. Action Is My Middle Name 
16. I Will See You In Far-Off Places 
17. Meat Is Murder 
    (The Smiths song)
18. Let Me Kiss You 
19. Speedway 
20. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want 
    (The Smiths song)
21. Encore:
21. Still Ill 
    (The Smiths song)

Paul Heaton's The 8th @ Lyric Theatre Salford

Paul Heaton & Friends: The Lyric Theatre
Gig 32, 6 July 2012


Surrounded by torrential rain until 6 pm I took a half day and headed to Manchester (half day facilitated by starting work at 6am). Trying to decide what to do with my time I looked up record shops in Manchester and found a great site which reviewed the 10 to 15 record shops still existing in Manchester, which really puts Brum to shame. With this incentive and knowing the lyric theatre was right by the Piazza de Stan Ogden (as named by Radcliffe and Maconi) I was raring to go. Sadly the rain put a dampener on the M6 traffic but I eventually parked in the M&S car park, emerged out into Manchester and realised I knew where I was! Minutes away from the old site of Piccadilly Records, which was now Fopp. Wandering in I spent a good half an hour settling into an old routine, shuffling through he CD racks, trying to remember what I already had, and needed!


Really enjoyed this first little stint, came away with the new Dexys and School of Seven Bells albums, the Yellow submarine DvD, a film about Bruce Campbell star of Bubba Ho Tep and the evil Dead films, a quality B movie it looks like, and then at the till I was caught by a War Child box set of 15 singles with original and cover of lots of famous artists. All music I could have bought possibly cheaper on the net, but the thrill of buying it in Manchester was grand. Wandering around outside and I decided to try and locate the new site of Piccadilly Records, which was by Afflecks palace, miles away when I was a student, today however it was simply round the corner, passed the road closed off by the police due to suicidal jumper, and there was Oldham Street, Piccadilly Records were really welcoming, impressively they had their chart of the year, which was very reasonably priced, and was headed up by First Aid Kit and had Beach House, both were albums I had heard great things about and heard singles on Rad Mac, those purchases came with a free sampler CD too, nice touch, chatty staff, cheapy section and an obligatory tote bag.


Two hundred yards away, Vinyl Exchange beckoned as I was on a roll, and there was a fantastic bargain sight, boxes and boxes of CD album samplers, for £1 and £2. Rattling through those and came away with 9 albums for £13 plus a tote bag, but better than that he thrill of rifling through music, which I haven't had for a long long time due to the Internet and lack of quality record shops.

Armed with these treasures I headed to Megacity / Mediacity home of the BBC and Lyric theatre. The rain having stopped finally I checked out the square and the extra large Pictures of Radcliffe and Maconi, I wonder whether they can really be seen doing there work live between 1 and 4 through the window, but it's a really nice view, I got to get the view from Wagamama next door whilst I ate my Chicken Katsu curry and Edamame with garlic and chilli salt.

Knowing I would be making a swift exit, I checked out the Merchandise, £10 for the cd of the eighth, but they had sold out already of the cd and DVD version, I was amazed though that I could buy it from Amazon with free postage, for £11.26 using my blackberry. 


Anyway the Eighth, Paul Heaton summed it up well by saying that you had to concentrate whilst listening to it, as this wasnt a Take That concert, well he was right it was tricky.


First half was narrated by Reg E Cathey from the Wire. Not a show I have watched but I gather it is very good, but to me he was a mixture between Queeg from Red Dwarf and Isaac Hayes, he was up at the lectern and was incredibly expressive with his moves and narration. I got the stories, each bit of story was interspersed by a song sung by a different singer. Soul, indie, pop, rock, oak tree, gospel. Great tunes, difficult to hear the lyrics and understand how they fit, I will save that for when the CD arrives. Each singer was masked until they came to the centre stage to sing and the place erupted when Jacqui from the Beautiful South started off and double erupted for Paul Heaton. Reading a review, few people moaned about the light show, but really this was a gig about the songs and singers. For me I was more annoyed with the 57 times I had to get up to let the weak bladdered row out, it really was only my row that seemed to suffer with a weak bladder, perhaps it was an outing of the slackbladderers.


Section 2 was again something different, the singers sat round again and all singing one of Paul Heaton's penned hits, with him conducting ceremonies, lots of singing by Jacqui Abbott who has a stunning voice and anecdotes between each song, lots about not liking songs so much when they have been a hit by Paul. Best smile was for news that the weekends festival was cancelled but despite the same amount of rain falling on the Stone Roses they were ok because of the volume of flared trousers and Bez was sent out equipped with sponge shoes to soak up the spots ...... Spose you had to be there.

The new tunes were pretty good, ready for an album next April. Best bit for me though was being reminded about Paul's dancing, little shuffles here and there, back to the audience wiggle bottom, great stuff, more Jarvis than Jarvis had been when I saw him earlier in the year. The other revelation from these tunes was they were a big part of mine and Mrs P's courting. Not my usual but they bring back great memories of being a student together listening to our few CDs endlessly.


We also got invited afterwards to Paul Heatons pub in Salford, wonder how many people went.


Tracklist (maybe) with singers (also maybe)


Blackbird on a wire - Steve Menzies with Jacqui Abbott

Mike Greaves with Jacqui Abbott - Diamonds (Mikes song)

Aaron Wright - Good as gold

Ivonne Shelton - Poems (from the fat chance album)

Paul Heaton's Costa del sombre (a new song resplendent with surf guitar)

Gareth Palsey (Los Campesinos) One last love song

Paul Heaton - Old red eyes is back

Paul Heaton, A New song - Some dancing to do

Simon Aldred (Cherry Ghost) - Sail this ship alone

Wayne Gidden (Soul sensation) - dumb

Simon Aldred (Cherry Ghost) Prettiest eyes 

Build (Housemartins song) Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott

Me and the farmer (Housemartins again) Paul & Jacqui and mates as an encore.....with a nice red guitar


A bit of Jacqui to whet the appetite whilst waiting for the DVD...............

Great show to start off the second half of my year of gigs...............

The Charlatans @ Manchester Apollo

The Charlatans: Manchester Apollo
Gig 30: 1 June 2012 


Going to watch the Charlatans on their home turf in Manchester, playing their Telling Stories album in its entirety, what better way to start the Jubilee weekend. Better still, this was coming on top of a long, long week and I was incredibly ready to unwind, and best still I got the opportunity to leave early and shoot up the M6. Sadly this being Friday afternoon before the Jubilee all of the travel reporters seemed a little to gleeful in telling me about the great British Getaway weekend and the delays that started at junction 8 (mine) and lasted to junction 19, ironically the junction I would be leaving the M6 on.


Still I was on holiday and heading north, nothing would dampen my mood, changing into jeans at the service station and I was totally relaxed, a short detour to see the Salford Lads Club site (see this post) and I arrived at the Apollo in Manchester for a debut at the venue. It's a venue I had read about regularly over the years in the NME and Melody Maker and the Art Deco outside made it look a quality venue compared to some of the sheds on the circuit currently.

I had read on the website that it was advisable to park in the secure parking by the venue so when the was a big car park next to the venue with official blokes waving shouting park here I was a bit disappointed to find this was a dearer unofficial one, cheeky chaps, which on leaving the venue I was totally blocked in on all sides, note to self.

Wandering in early to the gig, the venue was impressive, I was downstairs in what is evidently built to be a Cinema and so the stalls are on a massive slope, which means that everyone gets a decent view. Even when Andre the Giant decided to dance in front of me the the view was fine, my only complaint being caught in the grollies by his flailing dancing arm. So settling in at the back waiting with a beer I reflected how much better the New Order gig (see here) would have been in this venue compared to the Ballroom.

Promptly at 8 the support band, Deadbeat Echoes, came on and kicked off with confident drums, and is pretty good, the second song with a catchy woo hoo refrain sounding like the tune from Kill Bill, and again pretty memorable, in fact this is the theme for the performance, real hooks and catches in each song, impressive for such a debut band, such as the 'Twang Twang err, Twang Twang oooh song', probably not the best description but you had to be there. I suppose the swagger of the band is best summed up by the drummer, particularly impressive I thought with his drum stick twirling throughout, nice touch. Sadly the slab of 7inch vinyl purchased outside didn't really live up to the swagger.

Another half hour and on walked the Charlatans, and they were definitively coming home, they really looked at home. Tim front and centre, twirling his supremely dodgy blond raggedy bowl cut left and right, Mark Collins just standing coolly on his left, keyboards by Tony Rogers driving things forward and Jon Brookes behind the Drums. This was impressive to see as the last time I had seen the Charlies in Brum Jon was absent due to his Brain Tumor, returning to the kit for the encore of Sproston Green for his first appearance after successfully battling back from the affliction.

It's shocking that it's 15 years since telling stories, bang at the end of britpop and a great album that re-established my love of the Charlatans following my brief dalliance with 'the only one I know'. It was an important album for me, and the opening strains of 'with no shoes' zoomed me back to the days of Mark and Lard on the Radio 1 breakfast show. North Country Boy, Telling Stories, a B side, One to Another (resplendent with crowd whistles) and everyone was enjoying the party, I was slightly distracted by Andre stood in front of me dancing, as he danced exactly the same way as my brother in law, now dubbed Uncle Small by my kids, perhaps that is the best way for tall people to dance, just less swinging arms in a confined space please.

A recurring bonus for the gig was leaning against the bar at the back of the gig, like an old fashioned leaning post at the footie in the days of terraces. I got people walk up in the dark and try to push past, only to find their way blocked, not particularly amusing, that only happened when they saw the bar, ducked down to go under and bumped into the black paneling that was below the bar and slunk off sheepishly, amusing far more because most of them were people out in their Manc trendy finery and trying so hard to look cool.

A few more album tracks and B sides later, and the air had subsided a bit, only to erupt again with How High, a blistering song, with the crowd in full voice, after this out came the mouth organ and they we gone, with the crowd baying for more.

The band returned for getting on for an hour of the greatest hits, spanning the whole of their career, all stood up very well, and this was where Tim Burgess came into his own, whether it be the arms outstretched in white Tshirt messianic poses for Forever, or the failed golf swing dancing on Wierdo, Tim is a perfect front man, very at home with the adoration.


Another reason that the Charlatans hold a special place for me is the Keyboards, I can't think of another band I have seen that so closely pulls on the legacy of the Stax sound, this really shone through in 'Oh Vanity'  which owes more than just a nod to the Memphis sounds.

What better way to finish than The Only One I Know, being played true to the original which for a long time was an omission from the set list and then back as a re-imagined version, and then finishing on the obligatory Sproston Green.

My only criticism from the night, Tim should definitely work on his signature in the signed book....... And nearly getting run over when crossing a round (which would have put a dampener on the evening). Back down the M6 and I was in a great frame of mind to celebrate the damp jubilee weekend.