Time: June 28^th 2002

Place: Bristol Academy, Bristol, England

Event: Secret gig, reportedly to record live performance for next album, but this album rumour turned out not to be true.  Was a warm up gig for Glastonbury though.

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This is going to be a slight change from the normal review, simply because I was right in the thick of the scrum in front of Richard's part of the stage and was very close to being crushed – therefore I missed some of the funnies.  I’ve heard things since, which I’m picking up, but some of it is second hand information, such as Scott wetting himself laughing at Stuart, during Don't Let Me Down, as he was pretending to dry his curly locks in the fan, because of the heat!

The main highlights for this particular gig were firstly that the boys were rumoured to be playing new material, but secondly and mainly it was an opportunity to meet some of the biggest fans the boys have, or at least the biggest net-connected fans there are, anyway!!  I wasn’t disappointed – all the people I met were completely friendly, and funny, and slightly obsessed, so I felt right at home!

The people I managed to meet beforehand were Donna, otherwise known as Stereodonic – yes, the very same, Donna's friend Lianne, "Loopy" Lou, and yes she really IS!  Lisa, Babs, my very good friend Ella, Neil and his sister Helen, and also a couple of other girls whose names escape me – please drop me a line if you remember me.

The other thing that was especially significant tonight, of course, was the fact that the boys had been kind enough to come to me for once – they were playing Bristol because the next night they’d be headlining Glastonbury.  The last time I saw them live, I’d had to take a ferry trip to Amsterdam, so it was incredible to be going to a gig by popping into town after work!  I’d even got tickets for some workmates so that they got to know what it was I’d been harping on about, for so long!

The venue is typically Bristol-sized, i.e.. small!  I’m told it can hold about 1600-1700 people, but it didn’t seem possible from where I was stood.  There was a tiny stage, just a bit bigger than the Paradiso, and a standing area in front that wasn’t much more than 1½ times bigger than that.  Then all around were stairways where people had positioned themselves to watch the gig.

Supporting Phonics this time was a woman from Cardiff called Rachel Marie Kimber, who turned up with herself and two guitars.  You could tell from the start that she was overwhelmed that she had been asked to support Stereophonics, but even more overwhelmed when we gave her a suitably warm reception.  Her style is very much that of Alanis Morrisette, she even has similar dark curly hair, and she got the crowd to really relax and smile a little, in anticipation of the main act.  She broke a string during one song, and a chap from the audience shouted “carry on love, you’re doing great!”  She didn’t know what to say, except grin an even bigger grin than she’d had already.  It seemed Kelly’s guitar technician, Simon, was pleased for the chance to fuss over her too, and get her string replaced – we were all convinced he was on the pull, and making progress too!  Go Simon!

Onto the main act, and the show opened with the signature intro to Mr. Writer – with the many devotees in the crowd singing along to the weird humming bit!  It seemed like forever before they made it on stage, but once they did, it all got rather mental!

Mr. Writer paved the way for Vegas, then 1000 Trees and we just knew this was going be a night for rocking!  The noticeable difference tonight was the inclusion of backing singers, as they’d had on Jools Holland’s show a few weeks earlier.  We were worried about this, as most people, me included, think that they’d slaughtered Bartender on that show.  However they filled in the usual live gaps on Vegas, and we thankfully didn’t hear them on Bartender.  In fact, the crowd supported the girls by singing along to the “oo’s” in Vegas!

The Phorum gang I had joined up with were right in the front between Richard and Kelly, and at the end of every song, we were chanting "Chaplin, Chaplin", just to see if they would play it!  They didn’t, but plenty of old rockers made an appearance, most notably Last of the Big Time Drinkers, which they’ve not played in a while – probably since Day At The Races actually.

Kelly completely forgot the words in the middle of Bartender and the Thief!  The crowd kept it going and as soon as Kelly could stop laughing at himself, he joined in with us again!  I think he was impressed we kept it going better than he did!  We also managed the same in Traffic, where we have come to expect to sing parts of the song instead of Kelly.

Scott played a “K minus” in another song, but I forget which!  A subtle look between Scott and Richard was enough to have me in stitches, Richard was like “what was that??” and Scott looked like “sorry, my bad!”  There was plenty of heckling and banter with the crowd – when Kelly took his glasses off, there was a cheer from the crowd, and Kelly replied with “Well hello!”

Madam Helga was and will be a real crowd pleaser – the rumoured new song – no lyrics could be made out at this stage but the style of the song is good old-fashioned rock and roll.  It’s based on an experience a band member had in Sri Lanka from what Kelly said, but we will no doubt hear more about it soon.

At the end of the encore Stuart came to the front of the stage with his tambourine, and Kelly announced they were about to do a cover of the song Substitute in respect for Jon Entwhistle of The Who, who had died that morning.  This was an excellent rendition, with Kelly singing and playing guitar, and Stuart doing backing singing and percussion.  This ended the night in rapturous applause, and by this time I was glad to get free of the crush, as Ella had been pulled out a couple of songs earlier.

My friends from work met up with me afterwards and were full of post-gig smiles, so I knew that the magic was spreading.  Besides a couple of blunders, the band knocked out an astounding 21 songs in 2 hours, the performance was a real belter!

Good one boys, see you again soon!

Set-list:

Mr. Writer

Vegas Two Times

1000 Trees

Bartender and the Thief

Wouldn't Believe Your Radio

Just Looking

Last of the Big Time Drinkers

Madam Helga

Hurry Up

Handbags and Gladrags

Step on my old Size Nines

Local Boy in the Photograph

Have A Nice Day

Traffic

Rooftop

Roll up and Shine

Watch Them Fly Sundays

T Shirt Suntan

Everyday I Think Of Money

Don’t Let Me Down

Substitute