HW: Northampton, Brighton & Walthamstow

[Nick Lee]

After good start to tour (for me) at Liverpoool, Northampton was up next.  Local venue and I managed to drag a mate from work along (and he offered to drive!) who'd not really heard much HW other than in my car.
All in all a pretty good gig, fairly much on a par with Liverpool.  Managed to catch Tim's set this time.  The computer crashed a few times again but he seemed happy to soldier on regardless and even managed to elicit a round of applause for the erratic PC on the grounds it might help!  Quite good fun, but I've seen him play better when he's not been having technical difficulties.  
Dave, Alan & Richard were incredibly tight again, but i thought I noticed a few sideways glances when Huw came in from time to time.  Huw didn't arrive on stage until halfway throuh Angels, apparently having locked out or in somewhere , as Dave said 'He couldn't get out of it so he had to get in to it!'  And again, Huw seemed somewhat lost in the middle of Assassins and noodled rather pointlessly.  Arthur was on top form, standing atop one of the amps during Master, this even got Dave out from behind his keyboards!  A good gig, and my mate enjoyed it, but I heard later that the band hadn't liked the venue much and Neil & co on lights weren't too happy about the lightshow 'cos of the low ceiling.
Brighton on Thursday next.  After a horrendous journey that I thought I wouldn't manage to complete I arrived just after Tim finished, enough time to grab a drink & say hello to a few people before HW started.  What a revelation tonight was.  No Huw and, sad to say as I'm quite a fan of his when he's on form, the band were all the better for it.  They seemed much more relaxed and really rocked out.  The jams in the middle of songs seemed to go on a lot longer (particularly the Space Is Their variatin in Assassins) and with Dave's soloing the strongest I've heard in years Huw wasn't missed at all.  The people who slagged the band for this show must've been at a different gig to me as everyone around me was really getting into it.  Again, it was another packed (capacity?) venue and a great atmosphere.  Bit of topical comment in Sonic Attack with Arthur referring to Cherie Blair!  
Last night of the tour next at Walthamstow.  Managed to arrive in plenty of time tonight, although I got to the hotel later than intended, met Arin at reception and several list members plus Kris & Dave were waiting around.  A few beers in the pub and a bag of chips later we in the venue.  No warm-up from Tim tonight but Litmus provided an enjoyable support.  HW gave easily the best performance of tour tonight, everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Despite the capacity crowd (I really made one fan's night by selling him my spare ticket!) there seemed to be a fair bit of space to move around in even near the front.The large stage gave the Chaos Illumination team a big canvass to paint on and the sound was great. The set was as at the other gigs, with Out Of The Shadows, Master Of The Universe, The Watcher and Shouldn't Do That being my faves.  Tim played around with quite a long intro for the best version of Lighthouse this tour.  The stage show was augmented by a dancer for a couple of numbers (didn't catch her name despite chatting to her at the party afterwards!) who would've appeared earlier if she hadn't been delayed by a train fire.  An extra encore rounded the show off in the form of Spirit Of The Age.  I certainly never heard this played so heavily.  Dave picking up his guitar part way through and hammering away the riff.  Classic way to end a HW show!
The after show party was a very pleasant and relaxed do.  All the band & crew were there along with lots of list members and everyone was very open and chatty.  Managed to talk to most of the band, I only wish that my camera battery hadn't run out during the show! This was followed by a further smaller gathering at the hotel afterwards which went on into the wee hours.
A pretty cracking tour all told.  My only minor gripe being that the set could've been slightly longer and the usual wish for new stuff (though Arthur's material was new to me).  Having said that, I understand that the set list also would've included Spiral Galaxy if Simon had turnedup and Strange Flower if Huw had been more together.  Definitely a band on fine form though having Simon on board would've been the icing the cake, hopefully next tour.
A very big 'Hi!' to everyone I met & chatted to at all the gigs, great to put some more names and faces together, I'll not try list everyone as I'll only forget some of you.  
Here's looking forward to the next tour (next Spring did I hear?) & hopefully the album.

Nick