Well, it was moved into the Rescue Room, and I'm very glad they did as it was rammed in there with a great atmosphere...
Support act, Mr Tim Smith with Random and Ginger on guitars... I like my odd stuff and this was delirious! Crazy spagged out songs with hilarious between song 'stories'. The thing I like about the Cardiacs stuff is as soon as you've got comfortable with the style of the song (usually about 12 bars in) it spags out and changes round completely, leaving you with no idea of where it's going to go. Too cool.
The people sticking stuff in each other. Really no need, but like everyone else, I was kinda transfixed.
The Sonic Circus. There were so many of them! And as so many people have already said, the musicianship was stupendous! Special mentions have to go to the sax player who adds a lot of colour, Mr Conny Bloom who is just a tremendous guitar player and the drummer, who must have five arms! The large set-up of musicians really works with the new stuff and adds a lot of colour. We said afterwards it's great to see Ginger doing a project where he looks so comfortable and he's also not carrying half the band. It was obvious he was having fun and we were treated to an extended set. Along with all the other stuff we had a massive introduce the band jam session with little snippets of tunes from everywhere, including an impromptu version of Dancing Queen! We also had Jon Poole leading the crowd in his version of The Stranglers' Peaches, all together now, "Pound my arse!" Conny looked most amused! Best tunes for me were Ten Flaws Down, The Drunken Lord of Everything, My Friend the Enemy, Drinking in the Daytime and Only Lonely... I think my whole thoughts were summed up half way through when they were midway through a tune, the band were locked in perfect harmony and time and I just thought "Who the hell needs The Wildhearts."
A top night. The only minor quibble was a very crackly sound at times, but this was a minor thing on a flippin fantastic night!
