Sinister: Birmingham - the Rio of England...

[Gardiner, Stuart]

Well, James beat me to getting the first Birmingham gig review to the list,
but hey, I always prefer to come second.

(That sentence was specifically included for the benefit of Dale)


Another day, another sparkling B&S gig. The Alexandra Theatre is
conveniently situated between The Foundry on one side, which was hosting a
goth / skatekid nedfest at the time; and a strip club on the other side.
Where did the band go after the show? Place your bets now...

Inside the theatre, it was hotter than a vindaloo in a microwave in the
Sahara. But the walls were decorated with pictures of past performers,
including Sid Little and Eddie Large's autographs, and Lionel Blair on top
of Maureen Lipman. Which you don't see every day. The auditorium went up and
up forever, hence Stuart announcing after the first song (Le Pastie,
introduced as being "A song about a cake") that he'd have to play the rest
of the gig lying on his back so everyone could see him; and the band later
worrying about whether they had bald spots which could be seen from the
upper circle. Stuart then went on to talk about how he was bullied at school
for having a bald spot from the age of 12, and how he wished all the other
kids had now turned completely bald.

I didn't make notes as I went along as to what the setlist was, but it was
more-or-less the same as the previous nights, with a few alterations. Slow
Graffiti made an appearance (despite Stuart fluffing his lines), as did
Mayfly. They also played You Made Me Forget My Dreams, which Stuart said he
was very nervous about because they hadn't practiced it. Stevie's voice has
finally revovered, enabling him to reach the high notes on Jonathan David
(not an easy task, as anyone who has tried singing along in the comfort of
their own room will know). The cover in the middle was Heroes by David
Bowie; for once noone accused them of planning and practicing it beforehand,
and Stevie apologised to any Bowie fans at the end. Stevie also announced
that he wanted to have kids, at which point Stuart said by the time he was
old enough, they might have invented a way for men to have babies; and
Stevie replied "Adoption?". At another point, a large Scottish flag was
draped across the front of the stage by someone on the front row; prompting
Stuart to talk about how he wasn't into all the SNP Scottish independence
stuff; not least because if Scotland was independent, England would
permanently be ruled by the Conservatives.

But the big news: another new song! Instead of I Love My Car, they played a
different new one; a Northern Soul / Motown style song all about a
relationship coming to an end in a not-very-amicable fashion. Stuart said
they hadn't decided on a name for it yet; I'm wondering if it's going to be
the new single? It would certainly sound good with a 40-piece string section
behind it (the string players on stage were going at it all the way
through), it would be a lot more logical choice for a single than the
time-signature-morphing I Love My Car, and the name confusion would explain
the delay in confirming the details of the new EP. And David Moore and
others will be pleased to know that it's another song which is absolutely
impossible to sing along to, Stuart almost sounded like he was yodelling in
the chorus...

The atmosphere wasn't up to Scarborough standards, partly because the
stewards refused to let anyone dance in the aisles, even by the end of Legal
Man only about 10 people were stood up. But never mind, the sound was good
and the band played really well. Three girls were dragged up onstage during
Wrong Girl and again during Legal Man to dance (and received their disco
dancing medals); half the audience were jealous, and the other half felt
sorry for them because they looked so embarrassed. It was too hot in there
to do much dancing anyway; Stuart even suggested at one point that the band
and the audience should all take all their clothes off to cool down, but he
chickened out...


Post-gig, the bar was already shut (at 10.15!), forcing us to, erm, go to
the pub instead. And then 5 of us took an impromptu tour around the sights
of Birmingham looking for a chipshop (the city mysteriously appears to have
more lap-dancing bars than food outlets), before getting the hell out of the
city. Let's face it, there aren't many places in the world that make Preston
look glamourous.


Well, that's my gig-going over with. They're so much better live now than a
few years ago; it's the first tour where loads of songs have sounded better
than they do on the record (Legal Man, Too Much Love, The Model etc). Here's
hoping it's not another 3 years until the next one!

Big Stu
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