HW: The tour I survived

[Nick Lee]

Hi,

still reeling after a slightly woolly day back at work (thankfully only a
course rather than real work this week!).  It seemed prudent to take most of
last week off, and polite since I had quite a house-full staying over for
the Stables gig on Wednesday.

The (main) setlist (which has been listed already by a couple of folk) was
pretty much the same each night I attended (all except Cornwall, there's
dedication and there's dedication...) except that Aniseed was dropped at
Croydon and High Rise was replaced with Green Finned Demon at the same.

Oxford was probably the weakest of the gigs, but not by much.  Ron broke a
string, and although it wasn't a big disaster he did keep apologising for
troubles with his bass thereafter (amidst cries from Dave of "Come on Ron...
you're a professional musician now!"),  High Rise seemed a bit
under-rehearsed but was great to finally hear live.  Harvey didn't perform
with the band here either,  his gear had been set up at the front of the
stage where Simon was to stand, and so had to be removed be HW came on.  At
future gigs he was tucked away in the shadows, just like the good old days.
Rizz came on and joined the band for a new middle section to Brainstorm,
which to my mind didn't work as well as the old Camera That Could Lie/In
Your Area space reggae thing.

We arrived at Norwich just in time to grab a drink and catch the end of
Harvey's set, followed by a fairly swift changeover for HW. We managed to
get ourselves a good spot near the stage in front of Dave and Simon.  The
wrinkles from the previous night had all been ironed-out.  High-Rise was
beautiful and Brainstorm dropped any sense an ambient middle section in
favour of all-out mayhem.  The same encore tracks of The Right Stuff and
Song of the Gremlin were played (Standing at the Edge was also recited).
Spirit of the Age followed, with Richard using a drum machine to begin with,
before switching to drums as the song built slowly to a powerful climax.
Just when I thought would be it, the smoke machine when into overdrive and I
could just make Dave picking his guitar up again before thrashing out the
opening riff to Master of the Universe.  Totally stunning, just as it was at
Pentrich this summer.  All that followed was a rather difficult drive home,
involving various detours (some of my accidental making and one due to a
road closure) and a strange encounter with some incredibly demonic-looking
highway maintenance vehicles.  At least I had Wednesday off which I most
definitely needed!

Next up was the Stables gig, which is just over the other side of town for
me.  Several friends and relatives came over for this and the band didn't
disappoint!  Harvey was joined by Dibs on bass (which may have the case at
Norwich, but we hadn't got near the stage before he left).  Again we managed
to get a spot right at the foot of the stage in front of Dave and Simon,
much to my friend John's delight - he's been wondering what  Dave Brock
looked like since first saw the band in about '74!  I had been told that the
Stables was a small venue, but I was prepared for how small!  As Ron pointed
out at "this is just like playing a private party".  The no smoking policy
was somewhat ignored!  I'd have sparked up sooner but I thought the guy
behind me was a bouncer, until he seemed to know all the words!  The set was
the same as the previous two nights but even tighter, Brainstorm even more
powerful than the night before.  The encore (as such, the band didn't leave
the stage at all until the very end,  as someone pointed out, they couldn't
have if they wanted to anyway!)  Green Finned Demon was up first, with some
beautiful guitar and violin from Messrs Brock and House (this was the first
time that Dave's guitar has dominated the mix at HW gig for me - but then I
was only about 10ft away from his backline!).  The Right Stuff and Song of
the Gremlin followed, the Master of the Universe and an even-better version
of Spirit of the Age.  Following this was a sort techno-jam/duel between
Dave and Richard which didn't really go anywhere but both seemed to enjoy,
especially Richard who kicked his legs in the air in delight at the end.
Richard seemed to be having a particularly good-time at this gig and chatted
quite a lot in between songs.  Rizz had turned up but didn't get on stage, I
could hear Ron saying "Dave Rizz is here!" but Dave didn't seem to notice as
he had his head buried in his keyboards.

Getting my ticket on the night meant I was sat right up the back at Croydon
(and I arrived a bit too late to go looking for the pub).  Harvey's set
worked particularly well this night, with Dibs helping out on bass again.
This was the only night I saw to have a full show.  The stage was big enough
to accommodate a full light show and the dancers and fire eaters as at
Pentrich.  Only the '99 band plus Harvey took the stage to start, but during
Motorway City I distinctly thought I could hear a sax and then noticed this
spiky-looking character making his way through the audience, playing with a
radio make, and picking his way to the stage.  Quite an entrance for Mr.
Turner!  Simon joined for Assault & Battery/Golden Void which was enhanced
by some lovely flute from Nik.  Nik, in general, was somewhat more subdued
than I'd expected.  Rizz joined the band for the middle sections of Arrival
In Utopia (which was preceded by Nik reciting Utopia '84/2000, or whatever)
and Brainstorm.  The encore was altered to Ejection (with Dibs on bass and
Nik on vocals, but with Ron doing his "Falling" piece as per the HW '97 cd).
Master of the Universe followed with Nik desperately trying to cram in an
extra verse!

All in all a great gig, not the best of the tour, which for me was Milton
Keynes both musically and because I had a crowd of mates with me (plus my
sister, I dragged  her and her boyfriend to the '97 tour because I thought
he'd enjoy it and they both loved it, and jumped at the chance to come and
stay for the gig last week).

Roll on the next one!

I guess thats more than enough for now,

Nick