Suede at Alexandra Palace

A decent gang of us for this show at Ally Pally, Bish & Andy plus their respective brothers and Gowri. And managed to persuade them all down to the front.

I of course walked up early, as is my wont, and caught Nadine Shah, whom I have seen many times as a support act. Strong deep voice, but just no memorable songs.

But in due course came the phenomenon that is Brett Anderson of Suede. Honestly going to see Suede it is hard to notice that they are a band at all, so much does Brett dominate the stage. Amazingly he is 54 but on stage would easily pass for 30. All the more remarkable for his much publicized past addictions to heroine and crack cocaine. Looking at him now you might think of that as health remedy (No I am not serious). But he is just so frenetic on stage, and slim, and just so well preserved a man in his mid fifties.

Although I did remark to one of my companions that he incredible bursts of energy were often interspersed with bits of complete downtime - a couple of parts where he just laid down on stage. You can only really do that if you have the magnetism that people will watch you prone!

Note how unobtrusive the other band members are - truly in the background.

He was joined for a couple of quieter numbers by hos support act Nadine Shah.

And for the encore I suggested we vacate our spot at the front (where Andy even managed to touch the great man to his intense joy. I pointed out that it was unlikely Brett can actually heal, although he was convinced that his "avocado hand" injury has since improved!😂). There is a great advantage to get ahead of most of the crowd in exiting the Palace. So we watched the encore from the back - a dramatically different view.