30 years, eh? And given Miles Hunt’s famous long locks are largely intact, unlike those of the majority of tonight’s audience, the fact that everyone’s favourite grebo chart act are celebrating three decades in music is enough to make anyone feel their age.
It’s apt that The Wedding Present are guests for tonight’s show – on ludicrously early, we’re in time to catch a little of David Gedge and chums who, being of a marginally greater vintage than the headliners, make some of us feel even older. Playing a mix of tunes from forthcoming long-player ‘Going Going’ and a crowd-pleasing selection of oldies, it’s the likes of ‘Brassneck’ that garner the best response of the night – so far.
Because, the stage is set for The Wonder Stuff. Now really just a vehicle for Miles Hunt, the fivesome rattle through The Hits, albeit interspersed with some new material – the singer being very aware of the ambivalence of any audience for ‘non-classic’ songs, insists that if we’re going to boo we do it in the correct key (the Glasgow crowd response with a decent approximation of a chorus of disapproval in ‘D’ ).
Consisting largely of material from ‘Never Loved Elvis’ and ‘Hup’, the setlist is a little curious – ‘Golden Green’ and ‘Caught In My Shadow’ are dispensed with early doors, closely followed by ‘Size of a Cow’ with Hunt’s sister-in-law Debbie guesting on piano. ‘Welcome to the Cheap Seats’ provides the most poignant moment for the nostalgic audience, dedicated to the departed Rob “Bass Thing” Jones, Martin Gilks, and Kirsty MacColl. Erica Nockalls provides backing vocals throughout but it’s her violin which contributes most, acting as a counterpoint to Hunt’s frantically-strummed guitar throughout.
From then on it’s a trawl through the lesser hits – perhaps thankfully, there’s no sign of ‘Dizzy’ either – although before an encore including ‘Can’t Shape Up’, Hunt implores us to make some use of the phones which have been capturing the event for shakily-filmed posterity and buy – now! – the band’s new album ’30 Goes Around the Sun’. Whether many present actually do, or have any interest in the new songs is anther matter, but with a performance to match those of the band in their heyday, sales of singles collection ‘If The Beatles Had Read Hunter’ may reach a new peak.