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Sat 22 Oct – The Mission, Fields of the Nephilim, Gene Loves Jezebel

This was an eargerly-awaited gig for The Mission 's 25th anniversary.It turned out to have been worth the wait,I reckon.Opening act Gene Loves Jezebel played pretty well and got quite a few of the crowd joining in on songs like Desire-even down to the accompanying moves!
The Fields Of The Nephilim came next and a few more people appeared for their set-a competently played set with a good mix of newer stuff and older numbers, all delivered to the setting of plenty of dry ice atmospherics.I enjoyed the blend of McCoy's own brand of mysticism with the underlying energy of the songs-especially on slow-builder Forever Remain and the (dare I say it?) danceable Psychonaut Lib III.
The Mission are an act I've seen before and from that I was expecting a well-played set and expectations were definitely met there.Wayne Hussey ,a very good guitarist and an engaging frontman,got us singing along straight from the first song and turned the mic to give vocal duties to the crowd more than once-and what a buzz it was joining the whole auditorium in singing the outro to Deliverance.It made a big and positive difference to have Simon Hinkler adding his own characteristic touches to the guitaring.
Craig Adams played driving,tight bass all evening and even gave us a short vocal with the entertainingVigilante Man.The only low point was the mix falling apart on The Crystal Ocean,though that was possibly beyond the band's direct control.The setlist was full of older favourites like Wasteland,Serpent's Kiss and
Tower Of Strength,which was welcome enough and fitted the line up.Wayne gave us a solo rendition ofLike A Child Again at the start of the encore.
The news earlier in the show that the three of them,Adams,Hussey,Hinkler,plan to tour next year as well was extremely welcome-and well-received!Here's to next year's shows.Cheers!

Mon 9 May – Simon McBride

I'm going to try to be a man of few words here but not because the gig only deserved a few words-far from it!As on the previous occasion that I saw him at The Brook,Simon McBrideplayed an amazing little gig:great blues rock guitar with a bit of a modern feel to the grooves behind it,good songs and a voice more than able to carry it all off very,very well indeed.
Songs were mostly from the two albums,RIch Man Falling and Since Then,with a surprise track thrown in from songs left off one album.A great evening's entertainment was had by all.....
Didn't I say man of few words...?Oh well.

Wed 16 Mar – The Primitives

This was an enjoyable gig at a nice little venue,The Joiners.Both support acts,Subdued and The Morphic Fields,were good and both also had singers with an excellent voice.Subdued were quite rocky,whereas The Morphic Fields had a few grooves going on within their sound too.They were two local bands well worth catching.
The Primitivesdeliver brilliant feel good music live much as they do on record.(I saw a cartoon on their merchandise with a girl saying she must put on a Primitives record to cheer herself up and I thought yeah,that sums it up well.) There were a lot of favourites amongst the setlist,sick of it all and Crash to mention just a couple,as well a few songss off the new E.P..The band played well,had a decent rapport going with the crowd and even weathered a guitar technical hitch before the encore pretty well.I confess to spending a lot of the time gazing at and listening adoringly to Tracey Tracey-when I wasn't dancing about like a nutter that is!
It was a great midweek gig.I've been to see them before and will definitely go again when they next come round this way.