My version of the all-nighter

[Dr. M S Wright]

We got into the Academy to hear the last Capt Rizz song, which sounded as
bad as it did in Manchester, and far worse than the CD sounds, and then
settled down to lots of bands I wasn't too sure about while trying to
catch up on my sleep. I thought that Porcupine Tree were quite melodic
and OK, without ever really catching my attention - a bit like their 'On
the sunday of life' CD (which is all I've got by them), pleasant enough
but not good enough to make me listen to it very frequently. After them
were RDF, who were as I remember them, a rather uninspiring vocalist with
a band to match (sorry Dave). They were followed by Back to the Planet,
who are still doing their thing, and were the first  band who almost kept
me awake, I still like the line "I blame the turtles, an influence bad".
The Utah Saints were the surprise band of the evening - a new experience
for me that I quite liked - I would have preferred them if I thought
there was any correlation between what they were playing on stage and
what I was hearing. As near as I could tell there was no SM remix played.

We moved down to the front for HW, and as it wasn't hugely packed it was
quite easy to find somewhere close to the stage without being crushed to
death. I think the set list was the same as at Manchester, with the level
of performance being about the same - which surprised me because Dave
seemed to be enjoying himself and moving around on stage, twice in one tour!
The highlights for me were the bit in Golden Void after the 1st verse
where everyone starts playing everything louder than everything else,
Welcome ot the future, which always brings a smile to my face as the
instruments explode into life, and the new songs. I really liked Space
Sex, and only just behind it in the good new songs stakes is Alien. The
versions of Deathtrap and Robot did the job for me, but the best of the
old songs is a tie between Silver Machine and Lord of Light, both blew my
socks off.

After HW had left I foolishly stayed for all four and a half hours of
techno malarky, which was quite good but I wasn't in the mood for staying
awake - I felt I could never go home as I'd left half my brain in a hall
in Brixton (which is a paraphrase of a Pulp song entitled Sorted for Es
and whizz, just so you know).

I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything different for the
alnighter, especially as Mike M is in the country (or was until quite
recently) as he compered the Albert Hall Beat poets reunion, so I
thought/hoped I might get to see him with HW at long last.

Cheers

Mike w