Tonight was Brexit night, although none of us knew it, at the time…
Moving house does strange things, like all the CDs you want to listen to are in storage and you are left with The Final Straw by Snow Patrol and that first Klaxons album, both of which prove to be better remembered than at the time, so well done guys!
The gig itself was quite hilarious, the day of a Scottish rail strike but St Et being held up by one of the notorious Network Rail power failures somewhere in Cheshire, well Warrington in fact. A massive queue formed outside the venue and it transpired there were people who had come from as far away as Germany (ok part of a holiday in Scotland but all the same) and were a bit unimpressed. Everyone got in before the music started though, but this was getting on for 9.15pm, a bit late for a school night (second last day of term in Scotchland).
Support were the Pastels and singer Stephen made a slightly controversial comment: “well at least if the Nazi party gets in maybe the trains will run on time” – careful what you wish for… Betty was a Pastels virgin and they put in a good shift, 6 musicians on stage playing stuff mainly from 2014 offering Slow Summits and ending with a pretty muscular ‘Baby Honey’.
The main act got onstage well after 10pm and treated us to a collection of greatest hits, and misses. Aided by some live bass etc, the boys at the back (Pete and Bob) fiddled away with the tech while English Rose Sarah fronted things, along with regular female backing singer (Sue, possibly, sorry?)
This was one of several pre-Glasto gigs and they were definitely testing out their technology and live sound on us, but that was fine. There were a few pauses to fix wires etc and during one of them Betty decided to ask Sarah how her dental work, from which she was suffering during Betty’s last St Et gig in 2012, was working out. Sarah did not remember what that was all about, although at Oran Mor she used some very unladylike language to describe the pain felt the day of that gig. This wtf response caused the woman next to BM to declare she was a “weirdo”, thanks a lot missus and btw you do not get out enough – 90s ravers settled down, oh dear…
Sound at GSA was good, as usual – one new song from the band but the set mainly comprised older stuff, a great ‘Join Our Club’ (an EU flag was projected throughout the entire gig) and a fantastic ‘Who Do You Think You Are” – they really have the lot, great songs, photogenic front and an understanding of real pop music. ‘Only Love…’ got an airing and ‘He’s On The Phone’ sent us out into the midnight air pondering the result being counted as we walked.
Brexit indeed.