Live At Nottingham Arena

Stereophonics

Date: 14/09/05   —   27.50   —   Other

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Don’t ever go to gig’s with me, I’m a fucking nightmare, ask Moog she knows! After the debacle of forgetting my ticket for U2 and almost missing the gig I was anal about having the Stereophonics ticket about my person for the whole day to ensure I didn’t forget it because that would have been very stupid. When I got to the arena and removed my receipt but not my ticket from my pocket, I had one of those moments where you stand still and the camera rushes towards you very fast! One very swift trip back to the car revealed it on the front seat and I made my way to the gig again with just about enough time to spare.

So anyway hoo-wah, the Baron’s tour of quality live acts continues

The gig wasn’t as expensive as U2 but the Arena isn’t as big as a U2 stadium sell-out and I was in the standing area about 20 rows of people back. I could have fought to get even nearer, as some did, but being long-sighted I was in a pretty decent place, quite near the front but not too in your face viz the lights.

Support act The Dead 60s came on nearish 8pm, I hadn’t come across before, they were pretty vibrant, very Clash-like, a fusion of some reggae, ska, rock and funk. The lead singer was very animated, I got the feeling they were Mancunian, that was the aura of confidence that they exuded. It was a good support act to have, little is going to compare to U2s support but where else do you get 2 bands you’d pay to see as headliners as support?! The Dead 60s debut album comes out later this month and is probably worth a listen.

I was pretty surprised that even after the Dead 60s did their set the arena was still pretty empty, I thought maybe the gig wasn’t as much of a sell-out as had been suggested. People did arrive just before the ‘main event’ and it was full to bursting. This happened at the U2 gig as well, I don’t really understand the reasoning, if you’re going to pay what is quite a substantial amount of money, surely you’re going to watch the whole show not just the final part of it whether or not that is the most important bit.

The ‘Phonics themselves didn’t come out until 9ish, they played a combination of old and new, mostly the hard rock stuff they did do a couple of acoustic numbers but I think for the venue and the people there we were in it for the heavy stuff. They did Devil and Deadhead from their latest album Language, Sex, Violence, Other? From Just Enough Education to Perform we had Mr Writer, Step On My Old Size 9s and Vegas 2 Times; from Performance & Cocktails – Hurry Up & Wait and Just Looking (in the encore) I think You Gotta Go There to Come Back was the album least served, I think there may have been a couple from it though, but it’s the album I know the least and there were a few songs I didn’t recognise. There was some of the old stuff as well which went down very well with the crowd. A Thousand Trees, Local Boy in the Photograph and Same Size Feet all off their first album Word Gets Around They finished at around 10.50 with Dakota and the crowd by this point were well into it.

Kelly Jones is very personable, he regaled the crowd with a generic story of pulling down the local when he was working on the market. He said ‘thanks’ a great deal and applauded the crowd at the end and thanked everyone for coming. This was the part unlike a U2 concert, U2 are big and more detached, this gig was more intimate in feel. You dod get the impression that the group are still a pretty genuine bunch based on this performance.

I had forgotten that whilst standing down for a gig is good for the atmosphere etc. it is murder on the feet. I had to move around a bit when my left foot started complaining quite a bit. There was also the matter of navigating the inevitable dickheads that come and stand right in front of you, at least they don’t tend to do that to me, they just gradually try to sidle across and you have to disuade them! Oh, and I dropped one of my rings during a particularly zealous mosh, which fortunately I found later in front of a rather tasty looking lady!

All in all, yes I think they did live up to the price of the ticket, pity the merchandise is more geared to those of a svelt bent so no tour t-shirt for me.

Original Comments:


moog made this comment,
im glad you had a cool time mate! 🙂 next time, im coming with you!!!!
comment added :: 18th September 2005, 20:27 GMT+01