Entertainment For Lively Minds
My night with Pet Shop Boys (O2 Arena, London 21.12.09)
... or should I say our night with PSB, seeing as Messrs. Hepworth & Ellen were also "in the house", or at least in the O2 complex. Though events conspired to prevent this happy subscriber saying hello, hope you enjoyed the evening gents!
The usual dreadful service on the underground means as we take our seats, support act Bad Lieutenant are already underway. Of course this is New Order sans Hooky, and refreshingly, Barney & Steve seem to have no illusions about themselves being anything than their own tribute act, and play more New Order than new material, including an excellent extended "Temptation" and a muscular "Crystal", though purists probably spluttered into their beers at the closing "Love Will Tear Us Apart." On their own terms, I enjoyed them immensely.
The PSB show is the same one they toured earlier in the year with a few minor setlist changes ("Love Comes Quickly" replaced by "What Have I Done To Deserve This", complete with Dusty on the video screen.) I fondly imagine the stage show to be an affectionate parody of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" gigs - big white blocks in myriad combinations being built up and knocked down, with various films and animations being projected onto them.
It's remarkably effective, and between this, Chris's illuminated keyboard cubicle and 4 energetic dancers, it's a terrific showcase for a virtual greatest hits performance, skewed very slightly towards latest album "Yes" as you'd expect, but a 60-70% capacity crowd enjoys a surprising number of tracks from debut album "Please", with lots of medleys, mashups and odd snippets of songs keeping everything rolling along. Neil's in good voice throughout, and for an act that spent their first 6 years of existance swearing they'd never play live, they've become very comfortable on stage.
Encores included a remarkably jolly version of Madness' "My Girl", and to finish, their new single (but old song) "It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas", complete with dancing Christmas Trees and fake snow, sending us out into some real snow and a 30-minute wait outside North Greenwich station, but don't get me started on that...
The show was filmed for DVD, so if you missed it, look out for "Pandemonium" next year. "Here today, built to last" indeed.(The PSB Christmas EP is at Spotify here, includes "My Girl" and their version of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" - http://open.spotify.com/album/4DZfMTDyBwnJQ0k1PaT6U4)
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"The usual dreadful service on the underground..."
Am I the only person prepared to say a good word for London Transport? Mark and I left the office at about 6.30, took the tube from Angel, changed at London Bridge, where we had to let one train go because it was too full (small matter of returning commuters and Christmas shoppers in addition to people who were going to the 02) but were inside the venue well before 7.30. I left at 10.30 and was home at the far end of the Piccadilly line by 11.30 with two changes and no delays. Got home in time to catch the radio phone-ins full of no doubt heartfelt complaints from people all over the country whose journey home had been stymied by bad weather.
P.S. Just went down the Post Office and overheard a bloke saying "I drove from the Angel and it took two and a half hours" to which the unspoken riposte is "what the Jiggins are you doing driving when there's a perfectly good transport system you could use?"
Didn't mean to be too curmudgeonly, but...
... it took me 90 minutes to get from Denmark Hill to the O2, all by public transport - the TFL site says that journey should take 34 minutes.
Going home you got the benefit of leaving the O2 early - they closed the station just before the gig ended at 10.55 and I estimate 5,000+ people were kept waiting outside.
I'm sincerely glad your experience was better than mine, but I maintain that bearing in mind it's the most expensive underground in the world (don't take my word for it - http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jan/03/consumernews.transportintheu...) and doesn't even run 24 hours, it's a borderline shambles.
Aaah, Sarf London....
....why didn't you say?
dont get me started on the jubilee line
Commuting from Reading to Canary Wharf (you go where the work is) I find the JL so frustrating. When opened in 1999 it was really good - fast and frequent. Now the trains come every 2 minutes in rush hour (Bakerloo can manage 1 per min), there are numerous speed restrictions and then they have to hold the trains at the various stations because of congestion ahead up the line.
It was meant to be a state of the art line in 1999 - now its a shambles - why ?
Fantastic night out
If you were there early enough you would have heard Bernard the Bad Lieutenant complaining that superstars such as himself had to take the tube, oh the indignity, and expressing astonishment at what 'you lot' put up with every day. Ha ha, he was joking, that dry Mancunian wit, as expressed to an audience member :What's that on your head, oh it's a big knob". I took the boat home, it was fine...
But far more important than all that - what a tremendous night out. I have had the misfortune to go to some West End musicals - the PSBs, for a very reasonable £30 in these days of rock inflation indices tied to bankers bonuses, knock them all into a very cocked and threadbare hat. This was modern pop art at its thrilling, technological colourful best. Neil T as some sort of ringmaster, bowler hatted conjuror of cubist pop overseeing a stage set which is constantly rearranged and reconfigured as the dancers playground. Some of the projections were dazzling, abstract colours, cityscapes, kaleidoscopic patterns which would put many galleries to shame. And amidst all that eyeball-popping frenzy a never-ending sequence of great heartfelt songs. Why Yes isn't in the top ten of every music list this year is one of the great mysteries of music journalism. Packed with great tunes and production, I suppose people take them for granted, or sniffily consider them only 'pop'. One of the all time great British acts, visually and musically. I look forward to the DVD which they were recording last night.
Saw them when touring their
Saw them when touring their last album Fundamental and it was brilliant. The great thing was I loved that album, one of their best I'd say, so you enjoyed the new stuff as much as the 'old'. Can't say I am a big fan of Yes, maybe my expectations were too high after Fundamental and the fact Xenomania were producing. This tour sounds spectacular though, I look forward to the DVD. Nice to hear Please is well represented in the set as well!
Saw them at the O2 in the summer
and loved it, being a lifelong pet-fanatic. The projections, the staging, the dancers, the boxes on their heads, it all worked wonderfully, and digging out a few Please-era oldies was truly the icing on the cake (although for my Coldplay-adoring sister accompanying me that accolade was undoubtedly their unexpected version of Viva La Vida).
As for getting home, all the way out the fringes of The East, we groaned upon seeing the queues for the Jubilee line, then looked off to our right to see the almost deserted bus stops - 5 minutes later we were seated on a bus heading for Stratford, from whence a short train ride delivered us home. Hurrah for TfL!
Another great night with the PSB's...
Thought Kings Cross was fantastic,and the Dusty track was another highlight. Lots off Please & Actually, which is fine by me, but Yes is one of their best albums too. The way It Used To Be is a cracker!
And with what some might say is indecent haste...
... the Pandemonium live CD & DVD set will be out on Feb. 15th.