Brum gig tonight (25th Sept)

[suave harv]

I loved it, almost as much as Mac seemed to, dancing and being all nice. Apart from that long ramble in Lips where he called loads of people cunts. I think he was feeling no pain at that point. . . y'know?



Opened with Rust, mentioned how good the last Brum gig was. Forgot the words to NLF, grabbed the rhythm guitar of the dude at one point saying "it doesn't go like that". Said that they should play this type of venue all the time, (I bet the dressing rooms are lush, the Symphony hall is well posh).

I enjoyed it loads more than the Croc/wotsit gig in Liverpool last year. And despite what you lot say, I thought the 'new' songs sounded great. Stormy Weather is a corker.

[Red]

"Croc/wotsit gig " ????

wotsit?? um....yeah.

[suave harv]

"Croc/wotsit gig " ????

wotsit?? um....yeah.

Go on, cuss me out, you know you want to!

Seriously, I don't think those first two albums are all that good. That's all.

[Major Budleigh Salterton]

Mac lost it though during the encores though. After a pretty damn good set including very good Ocean Rain section the first two encore tracks turned into a farce which ended spoling the evening.

Mac forgot the words to Nothing Last Forever so looked for someone to take it out on and it was the poor rhythm guitarist Gordy who was having a great night and played a storming set. Mac took his guitar off him to show him how to play then realised 'hang on this guy's better than me anyway' so handed it back to him and headed back to the mic beffore making more a fool of himself.

Then had a go at everybody from Oasis (to Gary Barlow (who is on drugs apparently, stated the hypocritical Mac!), slagged off Mancunians, thought he was at the London Palladium (when really he was a pale imitation of George Roper meets Mr Rigsby meets Colin Crompton). Mac probably thought the audience were laughing with him when in fact they were laughing at him. Shame really. The man would be better off joining up with Charlie Cairoli.

But like I said the gig on the whole was pretty damn good, an interesting selection of tracks in first set but they went down well, Ocean Rain was very impressive (including the String Section), Encores a shambles (but only because of Mac), at least The Cutter sent everyone home happy. All in all a mixed evening in a great hall.

What did everyone else think?

[suave harv]

I don't think the encores spoiled the evening. I thought it was funny, him rambling on like that, with all those posh girls behind sitting there thinking they never warned us about this at the conservatoire. .

The hall is great, but not suited to rock gigs. I've seen quite a few concerts suffer from lack of atmosphere there. Plus, for a venue that prides itself on fantastic sound, I've often thought the sound could be better. I thought that last night.

The girls on the strings were great. They did a 45 minute slot before the band came on, mixing classical stuff like Pachelbel's Cannon in D to contemporary stuff like The Beatles. I didn't think Love Will Tear Us Apart worked so well, but it was lovely to hear. A guy behind me was moaning that there wasn't a full orchestra with horns, but I don't think there was on the record, was there? And it wasn't advertised as 'with orchestra'. It was advertised 'with strings'.

It's a shame Mac isn't more of a gent. It would have cost him nothing to ask the audience to give a round of applause for the girls playing strings. He just made leery comments about them being a 'sexy sextet' and chuntered about their lipstick.

But the music's the thing, and it was a real treat for me to hear those swooping strings live on the album songs. There really is no keyboard substitute. The band were tight, Will played great (he was out in the foyer earlier), and I bet they were on stage for a good couple of hours.

[Grumpy_Jimbo]

I don't think the encores spoiled the evening. I thought it was funny, him rambling on like that, with all those posh girls behind sitting there thinking they never warned us about this at the conservatoire. .

I know a few of the girls who play with Cairns Strings, who hail from Glasgow and I can tell you they are certainly not posh, they could probably out swear and out drink most chaps............

[suave harv]

I know a few of the girls who play with Cairns Strings, who hail from Glasgow and I can tell you they are certainly not posh, they could probably out swear and out drink most chaps............

Don't spoil it for me, I want to think of them as little English roses, not dockers fram Glasgee.

[grebes]

Any reviews in the local press or pics from last nights gig? I felt it was a great gig and Macs ramblings at the end were very funny. I prefer to see a chatty Mac, rather than the one that was knocking around a few years back not saying a word.