Wow what a show!
An interestingly different experience to the two gigs I had been to the previous two nights. Those had been watched by about 100 people. This one by about 10,000. One feels a bit more involved in the bands when they are in the back of a pub. Here one turns up to see a spectacle. Quite a spectacle in this case.
One complaint would be that there was only one support act. Doors opened at 6:30 and there was more than an hour to wait before there was anything to see. I had never heard of the support either - Hamish Hawk. Which is apparently both the name of the singer and his band. If that sounds Scottish its because he is. And while they looked a little insignificant on the large blacked out stage, I must say they were very good and quite different. Striking. I rather likened them to White Lies. Deep voiced vocalist with serious sounding songs. I like him/them enough to see them again if they did a headline show in London, or buy a record.
So while there was a paucity of supports, I suppose you might say we got quality over quantity. There may also have been issues with the stage - in the sense that there were a lot of things going on with Public Service Broadcasting's show so maybe they were reluctant to have too much more in the way of bands and equipment.
Now I hadn't realised that Public Service Broadcasting had quite got this big. I didn't really think they would sell out a venue as big as Alexandra Palace, but they did. This was one of those "anniversary" shows, ostensibly celebrating ten years since the release of the "Race for Space" album. So they did this by playing the first side of the album, then going on to some of their other "greatest hits" before returning the Race for Space and finally an encore with both Race for Space songs and one final surprise finale...
What makes them unique as far as I know is that they build there music on bits of broadcasting, so sampling it and turning public broadcasts and information films into rock or dance music. You really have to see and hear it.
But now that they have got this big, they can do more of a stage show than they did in the past. And they pretty much used every trick in the box on this event. Three huge "TV Screens" formed the backdrop, on which appeared various bits of broadcasts from the fifties to the seventies, much in black and white.
They also added an illuminated sputnik that travelled on a wire from above the stage to the back of the auditorium..
Brains of the operation is J Wilgoose Esq (the band play up to their posh boy image and sound)
I couldn't get a decent shot of the drummer, Wrigglesworth (no christian name offered!) because he was at the far side of the stage and my zoom lens couldn't cope with the low lighting at that distance. They added a third member after the Race for Space, JF Abraham, who plays just about everything that the other two don't.
And now they can afford it, they have a large brass section appearing from time to time, who are great fun as well as being seriously good
Plus the glamorous Smoke Fairies
Crowd got out their mobile phones for some "cigarette lighter" action
And we got the confetti
And as a finale to the encore everyone got on stage, including Hamish Hawk, for a cover version. And a lyrically appropriate one for the album - the Waterboys' classic "Whole of the Moon"
And yes Moon balloons came into the crowd
..with astronaut dancers
It was all quite exhilarating. And topped off, when I finally got out, by a full moon outside
No comments:
Post a Comment