GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHT
Who
The website was filled with loads of helpful information - and it all seemed touted as a picnic and deck chairs kind of occasion - but I was totally focused on my three trips to London and planned very little until one hour in advance. This worked out nicely as the event passed off without the slightest hitch, and in having a hot lunch the theory was that I then wouldn't need to eat anything else. I decided to wear my blue Blur t-shirt and admired my first sight of the tickets in the car on the way there. The car park opened at 5pm and gates at 6pm so we resolved to leave at 6pm, but ended up waiting around for my Dad for an additional fifteen minutes of delay. I'd spent the day itself writing up reviews for The Killers and The Strypes, and was almost hoping for a featureless concert so I'd have less to write about here! Also we were encouraged to take deck chairs, and I had a bottle of water and a packet of unnecessary prawn crackers, and we had no problems finding the place as it was very clearly sign-posted through the woods. The site looked stunning - almost Twin Peaksesque - and it blows my mind that I could live so close to somewhere but never have got round to visiting it before. It was a little further than expected - I certainly couldn't have walked it - but the helpful stewards guided us efficiently to our free parking space, and up to this point the focus was on keeping the crowds moving rather than wasting time checking all our tickets. In theory you could stand outside the perimeter and watch but I suppose security would put a stop to that, and a guy outside was holding a sign asking to buy a ticket, and the security guards were surprisingly polite in getting him to move on. Ultimately if you want to go just buy a ticket, it's not hard, there's no excuses!
We unpacked the car and changed our shoes then headed towards the queue, which grew at an exponential rate in the couple of minutes it took us to reach it. However the queue moved fast and the place deserves credit for letting us take in our own food and drink, and I can kind of understand why cans and bottles are banned. Also I was delighted that umbrellas were banned completely, and it always surprises me that venues always ban "professional" type cameras, as the number one purpose I'd want one for is to shoot decent photos of faraway bands! We got inside, walking past the guy trying to down the beer can he wasn't allowed to take in, encountering the first ticket check at this point. The site was in a very attractive clearing with a helpful natural slope down towards the stage, but the mixing desk seemed unnecessarily massive and sliced the arena in two, generating an enormous empty space behind it. Video screens could have solved this problem but the venue had clearly stated that there wouldn't be any. The difficulty of finding somewhere clear to sit was the only flaw in arriving 45 minutes after the gates opened but we headed far to the right and found somewhere that my brother and Dad accepted, but immediately I knew that sitting right at the back watching ants in the distance - especially without video screens - wasn't for me. Nevertheless I opened the deck chair and sat down to enjoy my packet of prawn crackers, which must be one of the most delicious but pointless foods known to man. I say pointless because all they do is make me hungry and thirsty, and sips from my bottle of water weren't sufficient. Therefore I checked out the handful of food stores and settled on fish and chips for £7, wisely not paying a pound extra for curry sauce.
I've got to say it was quite nice if completely unnecessary, and my brother advised me afterwards that another store were selling battered pork or prawn balls, which are amongst my favourite things! After getting my fill of the water my restless legs dictated that I couldn't just sit here when the area in front of the stage was so deliciously empty, so I made arrangements with my brother to meet after the show near one of the stands. I should have anticipated this urge to stand, but in fact had left my phone at the car so was relying on good old-fashioned meeting as agreed, as I could have struggled a bit to find the car by myself. I walked around the back of the site and quickly checked out the merchandise store - which didn't tempt me - before heading to the line of loos to the left of the site. Unusually there were none on the right at all apart from a couple of disabled ones guarded by bouncers near the elevated viewing platform, but incredibly they actually smelled acceptable! Considering this was the second night - after Paloma Faith - this was no mean feat, but even from a distance it was obvious that the area directly in front of the stage was quite scrappy and muddy, which is strange as I can't imagine Paloma Faith fans finding the energy levels to stand, let alone to mosh! The place was still quiet and I comfortably settled into the fourth row or so a bit to the left, and although this was the point in the evening when I statistically should have met someone I know I never did. Shame on everyone else for not being there! In lieu of side screens we just had a Forestry Commission logo to either side, and three little screens towards the back of the stage, and already I could see most of the equipment was in place for Blondie, including a mysterious cloth-covered box.
At this point the biggest excess in the crowd were some beers and loads of people sporting blonde wigs - boys and girls! - and a guy appeared onstage 5/10 minutes after the scheduled start time of 7:40pm to introduce us to the site. At first I was worried that he was about to announce that Lightning Seeds couldn't be arsed to play, but he was more concerned in welcoming us and reminding us that the site is open 365 days a year so we can come back any time. I also managed a cheeky snap of him that makes it look like he's doing a Nazi salute, which made me chuckle. By this point I could see Ian Broudie had appeared to the left of the stage and I got a good shot of him too, and he appeared onstage to enthusiastic applause with two young guys who apparently pass for the Lightning Seeds nowadays. The set was described as acoustic but stripped back and without keyboards is a better word for it, and one of the members found himself in front of what could easily have been a child's drum kit. Ian himself was wearing a large coat and sunglasses and looked like a painter, and the three video screens were utilised very gently with a few swirling patterns. If I recall he opened with Sense, which I shot a video to, as my camera eventually found its focus the sound jittered in and out a bit on my recording. However the real talking point was third track The Life Of Riley, which was definitely the high point of the set. I shot a short shaky video and captured the crowd singing along and lots of hands and heads getting in the way. However the song lacked a certain something. I was very concerned beforehand that "acoustic" was a way of saying that they were going to be playing random/unwanted b-sides, but here was Ian doing the hits and, dammit, actually doing them well, but the whole thing was undermined by the decision to not just get a full band along and do the songs properly as nature intended! I wonder if it was Blondie who insisted on this whole acoustic thing to ensure they didn't get upstaged?
Ian cheekily played a bit of Be My Baby, announcing it to be one of their hits which we'll know, a cruel tease that Three Lions or Sugar Coated Iceberg were about to follow. This was a nice moment though, and the set was jam-packed with songs I knew, including All I Want, Change, You Showed Me and What You Say. Or at least that's what I remember, I can't seem to find the setlist. However by this point a crowd of wankers had gathered in front of me who were chattering loudly and had no interest whatsoever in listening including - shame! - a guy in an Editors Recommendation HMHB t-shirt! Their annoying screeching and talking ruined my third video of the intro of Pure, and I just wanted to slap them hard and say "pay attention or fuck off to the back", as the Lightning Seeds don't deserve this when they're playing the hits, and song-for-song they can hold their own against Blondie. Particularly annoying was a drunk woman loudly apologising for bumping into me and being drunk, rather than just paying attention and watching the show. However maybe this is Ian Broudie's fault, as if he was playing the songs properly he would have found it far easier to hold everyone's attention, or at the very least to drown the wankers out! I think they also played Perfect - dedicated to the River Mersey - and Lucky You, but by this point attention had wandered, which is a shame as this was much more enjoyable than the last time I'd seen the Lightning Seeds a stonking thirteen and a half years before this! Hell, I can almost let them off for not playing Marvellous, Sugar Coated Iceberg and Three Lions, as they kept the mid-level hits coming which understandably were more suited for the low-key style they'd chosen to adopt. Ian praised Blondie and said that they were sounding great on this tour, but sadly the Blondie fans had earned themselves a wanker rating of somewhere between Killers fans (good) and Stone Roses fans (bad) by not paying more attention.
There was an interesting mix of very young and very old with some in-between like me, although I'm sure many of the older fans took a good few steps back once we really got to business, and a lot of old farts sitting on the deckchairs I can imagine shaking their heads in disgust at people standing up and participating in a gig. Aaah the middle-ground of appropriate enthusiasm which I occupy is far too small! A message saying Please Stand By was displayed on the three screens and Debbie's mic stand was wheeled out, which had a little glass heart on it. Incredibly it wasn't until several hours after the show that I realised this represented a heart of glass! The curtain over the mystery box was dropped to reveal a drum kit behind Perspex glass, which presumably was an indicator that the rest of the band didn't want to be deafened and drowned out by the drummer's hard-hitting. This was actually really cool though as the reflection in the glass created an image of the crowd, which was a lovely little effect I took a few photos of, and it's nice to see reflective glass actually helping rather than ruining photos for a change! The roadies were wearing Blondie Road Crew fleeces and keyboards were placed at the back, and everything was set up to allow Blondie to come onstage 5 minutes before their scheduled start time of 9pm. Firstly though we had a cruel moment of all mentally making the same joke when a lady with a walking stick staggered her way to a viewing area to the side of the stage, all thinking "bloody hell, Debbie Harry's age has finally caught up with her!" Also there was a bit more drama as a guy and his girlfriend somehow fell flat on their arses in front of us, and security again showed a remarkably sensible approach in diffusing the situation, as the guy either calmed down or was removed from the crowd so silently I never even noticed.
I could see Debbie before 99% of the crowd as she slunk around backstage wearing a black hood, and as the music stopped - an acceptable but anonymous mix that included The Smiths twice - the drummer led the charge coming onstage in a red military tunic just like The Libertines, which was more than a little pointless as he immediately took it off before I even managed to take a single photo! Debbie was greeted warmly and the band launched straight into One Way Or Another, which went down rather well to put in mildly, blocking out the horrors of a certain cover version! At this point the crowd were enthusiastic but not too pushy, and apart from a few twats this was generally the way it remained, and I think I only felt the very gentlest of sprayings from someone throwing beer. I shot my first video and Debbie initially had her hood up on her black hoodie and was wearing a long pink skirt. Debbie looked fantastic, with long blonde hair - maybe fake, I don't know! - and a warm crazy expression on her face, as she was enthusiastically doing lots of gestures to the lyrics, including a driving the car motion, and also waving to the crowd, and even cheekily flashed her knickers under her dress! This was followed with Rave then the pattern of the evening was established with third song Hanging On The Telephone. Yes, they'd be playing some unknown songs, but they'd be liberally sprinkling them with the hits we wanted to hear! I shot my second video and captured Debbie enthusiastically going between the sides of the stage, twirling and with her skirt trailing elegantly behind her. They then judged the mood perfectly by playing Union City Blue, and the three video screens were used gently for some imagery to help accompany the song, but this was hardly on the same scale as Heaton Park. Understandable too, as there were just 5000 people here, as opposed to 75,000!
As I was so disappointed by the quality of distant photos from The Killers I was glad to be standing closer and did my very best to capture good close-ups of Debbie Harry - you can see one of my best efforts above - as I correctly surmised that full-band shots wouldn't turn out well. I definitely still need to work on finding the best camera settings though, as most of them came out blurred, but the sea of movement and hand-waving in front of me certainly didn't help either. After A Rose By Any Name came The Tide Is High and another brief video shot by me. At this point I'm disappointed to learn that both The Tide Is High and Hanging On The Telephone are cover versions, it's hard to imagine them being sung by anyone else except Blondie, but at least many of their best songs are originals. Perhaps the highlight though was when Debbie Harry blew a kiss DIRECTLY at me, although the tiresome and factually incorrect tosser behind me was loudly screaming to anyone who was listening - i.e. nobody - that the kiss was for him, but I know the truth! After watching the Blondie videos I was disappointed - but understood why of course - to see how much Debbie had aged between her heyday and the Maria video. It blows my mind to read that she was turning 68 years old just two days after the show, as here I was thinking that she looked better than anyone could possibly expect and could easily pass for someone in their 40s. This was quite an amusing contrast to the ridiculous youth and talented-beyond-their-years-ness of The Strypes and in fact Debbie was well in her 30s by the time Blondie hit the big time.
The rest of the band were in decent shape too, but as far as I can gather only two of the others - Chris Stein on guitar and Clem Burke on drums - are original members. Ultimately of course Blondie are very much a one-woman band, but the other two came across quite strongly as other personalities in the group. Jimmy Destri was the main loss as he'd left the group in 2004 and used to play keyboards, but if anything the band seemed to gain energy and relevance from their more youthful members, and as I've just said ultimately it's all about Debbie! Harry had fun pronouncing Cannock - she failed miserably - but I guess an American would struggle with that one a bit. She also pointed out that they'd now played a good few forests, but that the only animals they'd got to see were us guys! They certainly hadn't been fannying about, as they'd also found time in 2013 to play a few regular indoor shows, The Isle Of Wight festival and Chile, France and Russia. The next notable moment was introduced as a newbie, but I'd consider that a bit harsh considering it was Maria, their sixth and latest number 1 hit. For some strange reason Debbie let one of the guys sing the verses, but thankfully she took over on the chorus, and although I've never felt it to be as good as their early hits it went down a storm tonight. I shot another video which was blighted by difficulty focusing the image, and by the annoying people behind me who were screeching the tune horribly and were making me wince as I watched! There was a bit of moshing too in pockets but for the most part I abstained, as I'd had my fill of that from The Killers thank you very much!
Surprisingly they played a cover version of Lights by Ellie Goulding, which I doubt anybody would have wanted, and now seems a good time to critique the wanker element of the crowd a bit. For the most part spirits were good-tempered and friendly but a few of the tossers really ground my gears. Firstly was a guy who claimed to be trying to get out of the crowd to the right, who naturally when he'd pushed in a prime position suddenly was happy to stay there. Also the girl who at first was furious towards him and apologetic for bumping into me due to pushing from others, but then offset this goodwill by doing a hefty bit of pushing herself to make her way further forwards! Most annoying though was a rude fucker who waved a Parallel Lines vinyl record over his head, and had the audacity to be using this as a reason to push all the way to the front in the vain hope of getting it signed. Even worse this record held aloft blocked our view for some of the latter part of the set, and it's a shame that nobody was bold enough to snap it in half then shove it down his throat!! I guess I'll have to settle for the fact he never got it signed, as Debbie didn't come down into the crowd. Take that fuckface! Musical highlight though - surprisingly - was Atomic, which is a smash hit I've never particularly rated. Judging from the video I shot, by this point I appear to have moved backwards, and the crowd went crazy, with hands held aloft and tons of singing along. Sadly though the business end of the set was undermined as Blondie followed this with three unknown b-sides, otherwise they seemed to have effectively strewn hits evenly throughout the evening, which took me by surprise but obviously worked as I never even noticed this lull at the time, and even was excited enough to shoot a video of one of these random tracks!
At some point prior to the encore Debbie Harry found time to leave the stage for a quick costume change and came back wearing hot pants, long leather boots and a tight-fitting top that no other 67 year old on this planet could pull off. I did my best to take a decent full-length photo but the hands in the air were getting ridiculous by this point, almost as if everyone else was trying to reach out and somehow grab her from the stage! Although Lightning Seeds and Blondie technically fall into the remit of bands they are both completely centred around one personality each, and my choice of photos above - although determined by what shots came out best - could also be considered a profound statement based upon this observation! Another notable bit of suggestive banter was Debbie asking us if we were thirsty, before displaying some shrewd common sense by suggesting that if anyone is thirsty perhaps they should have a drink! The main set then finished strongly with Heart Of Glass, and my outstanding ability to recognise a song from its introduction when nobody else can was vindicated again! I shot my last video of the evening and the crowd were singing enthusiastically, and also an annoying hand kept bobbing into my line of sight. I used to think of it as their best song, but after listening to a lot of Blondie and getting to hear them live it's actually fallen quite far down my list. Still great though. Also the video screen featured a rotating crystal skull - hopefully inspired by Damien Hirst rather than Indiana Jones - and I was shocked to learn afterwards that my version of the song seemingly is a mere remix. Getting the original version was high on my order of business for after the show!
The band left the stage and after very slightly longer than expected they returned, with Debbie surprising us all by bursting into Get Off Of My Cloud in tribute to The Rolling Stones who at the same moment were finally headlining the Glastonbury Festival. For most others in the crowd it should have served to remind them they could have been somewhere better, but for me it was a fantastic taster of my trip to Hyde Park in just seven days from this! The hits continued thanks to Call Me, before a random sidestep to play a cover of Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. This was the first point of the evening where I realised that Blondie were a band with presumably a large gay following, and this song was clearly aimed towards them. However, much like the Pet Shop Boys doing Go West, the crowd came across as just a bunch of regular people from a wide spectrum of society and this was a set that appealed to all. Also, for balance, surely The Stone Roses are the exact opposite of being gay music, right, so I deserve some kudos for appreciating a wide range of acts, limited only by the criteria that they have to be good? The band finished with Dreaming then joined together to take a bow, finishing promptly at 10:30pm as promised, although I'm sure I read somewhere else that the curfew was 11pm if needed. The drummer threw his drumsticks into the crowd - after doing a few cool drum rolls during the show, throwing them up in the air and catching them - presumably they were a magic pair! I quickly headed out and back through the deckchairs up the slope to where my Dad and brother were, but they'd already moved to the designated point and I found them quite easily, which is nice.
By this point I was very happy with my excellent decision to see the show properly from the front and they in turn had kidded themselves that life was just as good sitting down right at the back, so we were all happy! I changed my shoes back and we followed the stewards directions to be led via a quiet road out of the venue, which was a long way round but meant we avoided any queuing and kept moving. We got back in excellent time and apart from a tiny bit of mud on my jeans and plenty on my trainers I was in great shape. That very night I wrote up my notes directly onto my PC and even found time to pre-sort my photos, which was all well and good but meant I was tired the next day when writing everything up. With the possible exception of Moloko I think it's fair to say that Blondie are the best female-led band I'd ever seen, and mixing things up a bit is always a good thing. I was rather annoyed that they didn't play Denis, which is my very favourite song, and as far as I can gather they rarely play it apart from bringing it back quite a bit in 2007. Tragic! Also I was shocked to note afterwards that Sunday Girl had been missed out - which is the only number 1 hit that was left out and surprisingly they usually do play it! - and I note that Island Of Lost Souls had been played on another night, which would have been acceptable. The divisive Rapture had also been left out, and on a lesser note there was no sign of Picture This or X Offender. It's a shame as if they'd played a little bit longer, or dropped two out of the ten dubious/unknown songs for Denis and Sunday Sunday, Blondie could have really nailed it, rather than just being damned good. This was a night that could have lapsed into mediocrity, but amongst mighty company Blondie and the Lightning Seeds managed to hold their own.
Mark: 8.5/10
Blondie
Lightning Seeds
Where
Cannock Chase Forest
When
29th June 2013
Price
£36.00
Who with
Dad, Alex
Position
Towards the front
Comments
And so I'd arrived at the end of June 2013 for my fourth and final gig of that momentous month, knowing that I had The Rolling Stones in another seven days to go too! Unusual for a famous band fronted by a woman but only the men of our household wanted to go, and the combination of Blondie, Lightning Seeds, a nice but intimate local outdoor venue and it being Saturday night made this a winner for all. Also this is only the second gig ever I've decided to class as a double-header, as it seems a bit rude to just dismiss Lightning Seeds as a bog-standard support band, even though for some reason they'd decided that they were going to play acoustic! As I had little faith that Ian Broudie would roll out the hits I didn't listen to them much, but found plenty of time to listen to Blondie on repeat, and when I rewatched their DVD videos the night before I was impressed by how many of their songs I'd managed to learn. We got tickets quite far in advance and it did sell out but strangely enough so did Paloma Faith, who was randomly playing the Friday night. It had crossed our minds to see who else was announced in case we wanted to buy a weekend ticket, but we seem to have dodged a bullet there! We had been paying attention to this venue and their two shows a year in the past but never seriously considered going to any of them before this, which ranged from creditable - Paul Weller, The Charlatans, Sugababes and Status Quo - to fuck-awful - Will Young, Keane and Simply Red! They seem to find an interesting selection of acts every year who straddle the line between oldies and youth appeal, also between good and bad taste.
Setlist (Blondie)
One Way Or Another
Rave
Hanging On The Telephone
Union City Blue
A Rose By Any Name
The Tide Is High
Drag You Around
Maria
Winter
Lights
Atomic
What I Heard
Wipe Off My Sweat
Sugar On The Side
Heart Of Glass
Get Off Of My Cloud
Take Me In The Night
Call Me
Relax
Dreaming
