GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND TWO
Who
It was pretty quiet at the Bar Academy, especially early on, and no doubt Euros is shooting himself in the foot a bit by touring so often. I'm not complaining though, and the luxury of being able to see him so regularly makes me more willing to tolerate as many new songs as he may wish to unleash on us! I passed the time by sending endless txts, partly about the graffiti in the toilets slagging off Mayday - a so-so band who I'd seen here supporting Good Shoes. I could only afford two and a half pints and just as before Euros was hanging around amongst the crowd, looking even thinner than I remember. I sincerely hope he makes enough money from his wonderful music that he doesn't have to go hungry. The support band for the evening were Threatmantics and they were pretty good - just three guys, the singer doubling on violin duties. They made a pleasing sound, and it's great how Euros always picks out somebody decent to back him up. We then had quite a wait while Euros and his band set up their stuff. This was, excitingly, the first night of the tour, meaning I'd be hearing songs never performed before. There was no sign of Alun Tan Lan or Radio Luxembourg and it seems that to the loss of all parties they are no longer performing with Euros. There were probably more people here than at the brilliant Little Civic show, but as this is the second most populous city in Britain so there should be!
Despite releasing two albums in the year, Euros showed himself to be laughably ahead of the game by treating us to a set of largely new songs, rendering my efforts to learn his solo back catalogue slightly redundant. Thankfully, the guy is brilliant and can get away with just about everything he wants to, and watching him smashing away at that keyboard inevitably drew comparisons with Brian Wilson in my mind. I'm afraid Brian's the obvious winner, but then again I'd also regard Euros as a musical genius. There was a touching song about getting married, and also a cool segment when Euros and two of his band all got behind keyboards, donned sunglasses and went Superstar DJ on us. The closest we got to a hit was, believe it or not, Costa Rica, which featured a drum machine and some banter beforehand about whether she was working selling ice cream or peanuts. He didn't play any Gorky's songs (again), and neither Donkey Island or Henry A Matilda Supermarketsuper had made the set. He may have played Horse Riding, or I could have imagined this, and we also had Country Girl towards the end. It summed it all up when Euros introduced the last song of the main set by saying "this one's so new it doesn't have a title yet!" Thankfully I didn't mind. I enjoyed what was played, even though this set was nowhere near as exciting as the last two times. If I hadn't seen him twice before I'd probably had been furious, but Euros Childs likes to think forwards, and who am I to try and hold him back?
He was backed by three new guys, one of them with the stage presence of a nervous sixth former, which may partly account for their reluctance to learn/play old songs, but even though first night mistakes would have been understandable, it all sounded pretty decent. The Miracle Inn itself was introduced and, a bit like That Lucky Old Sun, was a song suite with much imagination and twists and turns. This piece was only 15 minutes long though, and not as accomplished, but had its moments. The token cover version was Chop Chop by The Sweet, a typically obscure and supremely exciting choice about chopping wood. I also recall that the set finished with (you guessed it) another newbie. Towards the end I was looking at my watch and praying that he wouldn't run late and make me have to catch a taxi home so was relieved to see it was all over after this one encore, although at the same time surprised that he had played so little from even his three solo L.P.'s. Wouldn't It Be Nice was put on as he left the stage and it's always nice to hear, making me go home and listen to even more Beach Boys. This show was completely overshadowed by Brian Wilson and could never be called a classic, but it was still rather pleasing.
Mark: 7.5/10
Euros Childs
Support
Threatmantics
Where
Birmingham Bar Academy
When
18th September 2007
Price
£8.00
Who with
No-one
Position
Towards the front
Comments
Just six months ago I'd seen Euros on a tour supporting Bore Da, and now his third solo album had come out, I'd purchased it and I was seeing him live again. It's promising to see him being so prolific, and I was doing my bit by listening to his stuff and trying to drill it all into my brain in time for the show. Hot on the heels of Brian Wilson, this had been a fantastic week. In fact, after seeing Brian I'd gone to The National Portrait Gallery, had a top night out in Camden, then decided to pop down to The Isle Of Wight for a few days. We managed to visit every town on the island except Ventnor on the south coast, we'd seen The Needles, the coloured cliffs, the model village, the steam railway, been on a hovercraft and went on a chairlift. I wonder sometimes how people can stand to spend two weeks on holiday in the same place, and only two days after coming back from The Isle Of Wight I was going out again to see Euros. After an extremely hot weekend, which had burnt my skin yet again, the morning of the show had been cold enough to warrant gloves but things fortunately warmed up throughout the day. I went to the chip shop beforehand and had been agonising over what time to set out. In the end I decided I couldn't take the risk of him starting early so arrived around 8ish, then spent the next 90 minutes or so waiting around - d'oh!
