Pynchon

So... Amy Winehouse at the Carling Academy in Birmingham.



I think I'll split this into negatives and positives.

Negatives first.

1. There were two support bands. One too many, if you ask me. (I know bands need to be given a chance, and I've seen some great support bands that have gone on to be very big indeed - Wet Wet Wet supporting Lionel Ritchie and the Housemartins supporting... Er... Can't remember - but one support band is enough, thanks guys.)

The first support band (3 guys, acoustic guitar, bass and keyboards - I think they may have been called Cherry Ghost) made no impression on me whatsoever. Thankfully they did not play many songs.

The second support band (I think they were called Mr. Hudson and the Library) looked and sounded as if they had dropped through a time warp from 1985, and were everything I hated about the 80's. Bad suits, bad haircuts (bleached blond under, yes, a trilby), bad drum sound (horrible synthey, tinny, pow-pow, crash crash), bad faux Caribbean keyboard sound, wailing black female singer playing percussion. Terrible. Shit. Awful. Thank Christ for Suede and Blur and Oasis and Brit pop.

2. How long should it take from the support band leaving the stage to the main attraction taking to the stage? Half an hour? Three quarters of an hour? Try an hour and a bit, with half an hour of that being a ready stage with nothing whatsoever happening on it. The noise level went up, there was slow hand clapping and then there was booing. Motown and Soul over the speakers is very nice, but we came to hear live music.

3. Amy's bad attitude. Now, I love a bit of bad attitude from my pop stars, but what I don't want when they finally take to the stage, after a long delay, is a comment along the lines of, "If you want a fucking refund, I'll give you a fucking refund".

4. It was a short gig. Amy played for about an hour. I know that most of the songs on "Back To Black" are under 4 minutes, but I think the brevity of the set was mostly to do with the fact that the venue had a curfew of 11pm and they had overrun.

5. The mighty crush at the end of the gig when trying to retrieve my coat from the cloakroom. There's no need for it. All that was needed was an orderly queue and we could all have got out of the venue that much quicker. Also, a special mention to the fat arsehole who pushed his way to the very front of the queue and got into an argument with some young girls who had been queueing for ages. He used certain words to describe these ladies. All I will say is that he was mistaken because it was actually he who was the cunt.

Positives.

1. The audience were great. Really brilliant. In my little area I was surrounded by (in front of me) a very short brunette lady, wearing a backless top which showed off an amazing spiderweb tattoo on her back, (to the left of me) a very large black lady, dressed all in black, who danced with abandon, and (to the right of me) a large chested teenage lady wearing a low cut top, who looked exactly like Britney Spears down to the daft blond wig she has been pictured wearing recently.

2. The band and stage set looked amazing. The guys in white shirts, black suits and ties; Amy in a long navy blue dress, long black gloves and hair piled high. She looked like a tattooed Ava Gardner (a good thing). The stage set was simple curtains at the back (sometimes blood red, sometimes deep blue, depending on the lighting) and lamps. Really stunning. It was like an old fashioned supper club review.

3. Amy and the band sounded amazing. Obviously the highlights were "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good", because most of the audience knew those, but that girl really sang with bite and power. The band were tight, the grooves were hypnotic, and I had no choice but to wiggle my buttocks to the music. Several people fainted at the sight.

A mixed night, then.

I am on holiday. I do not have to go back to work until Thursday next week. It's not a relaxing time (I was up at 6am today), but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Is that the time? (17:14). Lorraine will be home sometime around six. There is food to be cooked...

Back later.

Labels: Music