Who
British Sea Power
Support
Mark Peters
Where
Wolverhampton Newhampton Arts Centre
When
21st August 2019
Price
£16.50 (FREE for me!)
Who with
Reno, Dean, another guy
Position
Disabled area, towards the right
Comments
Ludicrously I didn't have my first concert of 2019 until August, although I had seen Kraftwerk at the Bluedot Festival in July. 2019 was proving to be an excellent year for me and a vast improvement on the appalling 2018, and I was keeping extremely busy, now being well on course to visit all the cathedrals in England by the end of 2020. I'd reached the point where every weekend for several months seemed to be fully booked and I'm not quite sure how this happened, but it does mean that I've not had the time to write up this review until a month after the show. All I had to go on was a few notes in my diary and any memories jogged by my photos, and unusually for me I'm writing this before I attempt to review Kraftwerk, as that had been followed by a trip to Sheffield and a few cities of the north and I hadn't had time to make any notes whatsoever. Part of me wants to just give up and stop writing these reviews, but I've kept it up for 20 years and feel it would be a terrible shame to stop now. Also the non-concert shows I'd seen simply don't stick in my memory, and here I am a week after watching The Lovely Bones and Tape Face in Birmingham and fully aware that they will leave my memory much sooner because I don't review such things. I feel I should but the time investment would be massive, and ultimately as I could never do a complete record back to my first every theatre shows I could never hope to match the ludicrous detail and history I aim to capture with these concert reviews.

It was nine months after my last show Gruff Rhys but luckily I had a good few gigs coming up, including Metronomy, Hot Chip, Half Man Half Biscuit, Badly Drawn Boy, Gruff Rhys, The Supernaturals, and then Pet Shop Boys and Supergrass already booked in for 2020. So at least the second half of my year would be great for gigs, and here I am writing this prior to my final major holiday of 2019 and hoping that the extra time at home in winter will enable me to keep on top of these reviews. I last saw British Sea Power in 2005 - as well as once before with The Flaming Lips in January 2003 - and can't claim it was amongst my best gigs, but I'd become a fan of Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton and was intrigued to check this out. I'd visited there for the Wolverhampton Beer Festival two years on the trot, plus attended a couple of art exhibitions, and it's fascinating that despite how intently I try to keep my eyes open for new cultural activities that these places manage to stay off my radar for so long. When I asked Reno if he wanted to go I was very pleasantly surprised when he managed to wrangle me a place on the guestlist, utilising his previous music industry connections to get us in for free. I'd expected the show would sell out immediately and was surprised when this didn't prove to be the case, and although a little worried that my free ticket would fall through and that I'd regret not just buying straight out, it all worked out wonderfully in the end.

I only had access to the Do You Like Rock Music album and a handful of other tracks and only got around to listening through the tunes the one time prior to the show. I really like Remember Me and Waving Flags and have always had some admiration for the guys, but I can't claim to know much of their music at all. I'd had a good day at work, checking out the new falafel restaurant in Wolves, then driving home and getting changed before heading back into town ahead of the show. I wore my Apocalypse Now t-shirt and it felt especially tight, and as Reno had been rather quiet on the text front I thought it best to head to a pub and hang around until he made contact. I was disappointed that the pleasant Dog And Doublet pub had closed down so I headed to the always-excellent Parisian bar, where you can get a very classy glass of La Trappe beer for just £2 something, which is a stellar bargain. At this point Reno revealed he was nearby so I headed to the venue, it being a bit after the doors had opened at 7:30pm. Reno was already there and unexpectedly had arrived via taxi and had two mates in tow, one of whom regrettably I can't remember the name of so I can't credit above as an attendee. Dean was there also, although I'd heard he wasn't coming as he'd hurt his leg. To my surprise he'd soldiered on and had been kindly provided with a wheelchair for the evening, as his regular crutches were too much of a pain for several hours of standing. I hope he'll be back to full fitness for our next concert but we got excellent treatment, with a lovely little area to the right of the stage cordoned off to be our exclusive disabled area!

It was a much better arrangement than that disabled absolute tosser many years before who showed up late and expected me and the rest of the crowd to stand aside and let him have the prime position at the front, which was incredibly selfish as I'd queued up for ages to get a frontal position and am a big believer in first come first served. So separating an area to the side of the stage was an agreeable arrangement that also stopped us from disrupting everyone else, although I kept kneeling down to chat with Dean then needing to get up to let people past, including at one point the singer of British Sea Power himself. Also the bouncer was very pleasant and chatty, asking Dean about his injury and for a bit of info on the band, who he'd never heard of. He even asked a photographer to move out of our line of sight so Dean could see better. We felt like we were getting the full VIP treatment and it was very nice. Now I'd expected that the concert would be in the main hall so was surprised that it was in this side bar room, and as we'd entered through a different door and the layout wasn't the same it took me ages to understand that this was the beer room at the festival. The bouncer said that the acoustics in the main room were no good, and to be fair there was a nice intimate atmosphere, and it blows my mind to think that Blur had played this room on their 2005 tour. Also I'd outgrown the moshpit and since I had a new phone and its case hadn't arrived yet I definitely appreciated a quiet space.

I spent much of the show - especially once BSP took to the stage - keeping Dean company, sadly having less time to chat with Reno than I'd normally like. However we made a few trips to the bar and I got my round in, drinking East Coast IPA and enduring the nasty process of needing to transfer it to a plastic cup. The second one I poured so badly that it took forever to settle, and as I was going to drive home I switched to full fat Coke on my last two rounds. It was a reasonably busy and enthusiastic room and I was impressed by the venue, and support guy Mark Peters took to the stage as scheduled at 8:15pm for his slot. He was just one guy and a guitar and I took a few photos to take advantage of my prime side position, but as I hadn't made many notes there is very little else I can recall. I fear we spent most of his set chatting and Reno remembered that he'd played alongside this guy when he'd been in a band rather than solo. But anyway, let's move onto the main event. There had been some very attractive foliage onstage from the outset and before BSP commenced it was lit up, creating a very pretty effect that you can see in my picture above. They came onstage at 9:15pm with Machineries Of Joy, but as I was so ignorant of their music I was aware that there'd be plenty of stuff I wouldn't know, and as long as I got the three or four songs I enjoyed most I'd be happy. British Sea Power looked good, young and slim and I appreciated how they've cultivated a unique and very recognisable niche sound of their own. I do worry that it can't be very lucrative being in a relatively obscure indie band with a small but devoted following, but I do hope that the guys make enough cash to live reasonably well.

But I suspect they do this out of love for music rather than as a cash grab, and four members were original, with two newbies and sadly the guy who marched through the crowd with drums had departed way back in 2006. The sound was loud and slightly muffled, but I fear our position far to one side in front of one speaker was hardly the best spot for sonic perfection in either case. The singer Yan let his brother Hamilton sing lead on a good few songs, but I'm afraid I don't know enough detail to distinguish the tunes I didn't know. There was green lighting during Green Goddess I think, plus I vaguely recognised Bad Bohemian also. My favourite tune Remember Me appeared in the middle of the set and this was the time I shot my first video, capturing the intro, first verse and chorus amid blue lights, the band energetically tackling a classic from their debut album, plus the guitarist in a vest sporting a moustache across the stage from us looking a little like a porn star! During the intro the guys pointed their guitars at us but due to the volume and our position the sound was a little muffled, which is a shame as otherwise it was great to be so close without being consumed into a moshpit. The main set finished with No Lucifer and around this point a black bear and polar bear emerged from the side corridors, ducking to get through the doors and proceeding to dance with the crowd and give the already solid atmosphere a lovely lift. Yes, it's very much a gimmick but the value of a group doing something original and amusing at a show can never be underestimated!

I shot another video and Yan was waving a piece of foliage at us, and this may have been the point where he made his way into the crowd into the clutches of one of the bears, and by now even the friendly bouncer was enjoying himself and took a few photos of the amusing moment. There were red lights and it was just great to see this enormous polar bear towards the front leading the crowd. This marked the end of the main set but for logistical reasons the band never actually left the stage, continuing with The Spirit Of St. Louis, which is yet another one I didn't know. The high point of the set was undoubtedly Waving Flags and I can't recall if Dean took a loo break here or during another major hit, but I also took advantage of the disabled loos, and it was amusing that on his first visit Dean struggled into the gents and just never thought that those facilities were relevant to him. Waving Flags has the most wonderful intro and although it ultimately gets a little lost and meandering, it has now usurped Remember Me to become my favourite BSP song! I also shot a glorious video of the intro then was distracted as the polar bear made a beeline for me and danced with me for a bit as the camera captured the moment, although sadly it's a little too dark to be the brilliant YouTube video it could have been!

I shot a fourth video towards the end of the song, by which point the polar bear had made his way back into the centre of the crowd and was inciting people to enjoy themselves, not in a pushy way but by getting everyone to smile and leading the fun in what must be a very uncomfortable and hot costume! The set finished with The Great Skua, which I didn't know, and it's only after the event that I discovered that the marching drum guy had long since departed, no doubt taking the traditional BSP concert climax with him as he departed. We made our way to the merchandise stand and I was impressed by the quality and range of album artwork, although there was a very notable difference in how elaborate some of it is, and you could really tell when the guys had money on their side! Reno purchased a vinyl and although I was tempted I resisted, knowing that I have many, many CDs already and zero interest in vinyl, and that if I got one thing but didn't proceed to complete my collection that I'd feel bad. The set was crowd-pleasing much as I expected, with the band fun and enthusiastic. The omissions of note were Apologies To Insect Life and All In It, but to be fair these were hardly essential, and with more detailed knowledge of the source material I half-suspect that what they played was stronger stuff anyway. It's amazing how BSP have quietly ploughed on and amassed seven albums, and I have no complaints about the evening at all, although given my ignorance of the material and ludicrously high standards I can only give this show a solid 7/10 score. My mates got their taxi back and I headed for my car, and although it was unusual that British Sea Power had been the guys who'd lured me out of a long gig hibernation, as a musical spectacle in an unfamiliar venue with good friends, it had been everything I'd hoped for.
Setlist
Machineries Of Joy
Who's In Control
Atom
Green Goddess
Bad Bohemian
What You're Doing
Peach Blossom Island
Lights Out For Darker Skies
Remember Me
Two Fingers
Folly
Katzenjammer
No Lucifer
The Spirit Of St. Louis
Carrion
Waving Flags
The Great Skua

Mark: 7.0/10