Who
Super Furry Animals
Support
The Magic Numbers
Where
Manchester Albert Hall
When
6th May 2015
Price
£30.00
Who with
No-one
Position
At the front, towards the right
Comments
The SFA "reunion" came out of nowhere, but to be fair they'd never split up, promising to their fans that they'd be together for now and forever, as the song said. I guess I felt less excited than I should have done both because I was travelling around Asia and having a great time, and also in the comfort of knowing that I'd seen them live many times before. It was hard to believe that I'd seen them fifteen times already, the last time at Manchester Ritz in 2009. In fact SFA had played just seven shows after that one then another for Cardiff City in 2012, and that had been it up until these gigs. I had yet to find the time to really get into anyone else's side projects but had the strong feeling that only Gruff was really going for it, with astonishing releases as part of Neon Neon and then the American Interior LP. There was a great teaser YouTube video featuring one of the Radiator era inflatable bears being taken out of retirement, and the reaction to this nine day tour was just fantastic. The band started in Gloucester before three shows in Cardiff then finishing things off with two sets at Brixton Academy. I didn't really have the time to follow them around the country so just settled for the first night in Manchester in the middle of all this, booking my ticket at Singapore Airport, overcoming a terrible Wifi connection and forsaking a few hours of potential sightseeing time to ensure I got to go. I was pleased to see that the shows did sell out although tickets intermittently went back on sale, and astonishingly this would be my first gig in five months and first of 2015. Apart from an exciting run of shows in June I had little of musical consequence planned, the first half of my year being firmly focused on travelling abroad.

After visiting China, North Korea, South-East Asia and Perth I decided to fill in the glaring gap in my itinerary by heading back over east to explore Japan and South Korea, finding myself utterly boxed in with dates as I knew that I had to be back for this show but also I didn't want to leave home before my birthday. I'm very fortunate that this left precisely the right length of time to fulfil my itinerary, and also that I'd be back to vote in the general election for all the good that did, as despite all the warnings from SFA the wrong party were voted in to destroy the country for another five years. I was so busy that I had little time to listen to their music or even to properly deal with the catastrophe of Angelfire rudely pulling the plug on this website for no reason and taking forever to reinstate it. That was deeply annoying as I sometimes feel that this is the only genuine Angelfire website left, and is only let down by all the spam that they install on each page which you may well have noticed if you've reached this far. But anyway, as the show was a Wednesday night I was actually able to get a cheap central Manchester hotel and I packed on that very morning, leaving home less than 24 hours after flying back from Shanghai/Amsterdam, but thankfully with little jet lag to report. It was an utterly wretched day with non-stop rain but I was nevertheless excited, and after dropping my stuff off at the hotel I marched straight to the Manchester Museum to check out an exhibition based on the Easter Island statues. It was interesting and well worth a quick look, and most importantly you were free to take photos as you should be! I then ventured over to Deansgate via a McDonald's wrap, arriving at Cask bar completely soaked to find it deserted, but the staff were as fabulously friendly as ever and I got to enjoy two great beers that I was unfamiliar with.

Despite the relentless rain I walked the length of the street to Wetherspoons to indulge in Chicken Club, and although I'd hoped for a better beer at least I was getting into the Welsh theme with a pint of Brains! The building was rather grand too, but I wasn't here to get drunk and was determined to go to the AMC cinema to watch The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: Sponge Out Of Water. Despite being advertised as such it wasn't in 3-D but I knew by now that that makes no real difference, and there were just two other people in there, including a guy with a deeply annoying laugh. Nevertheless I was just grateful that it was still on screen, as once I get it into my head that I need to see a movie I won't let anything stop me. It was very silly, yes, but a passable way to spend a couple of hours. Also the day was working out brilliantly as I walked past the Albert Hall at 6:20pm to find that there was still no queue, and wandered over to McDonald's for a chicken selects meal and McFlurry. It was quite unnecessary - especially since I'd pigged out with a late lunch to allow me to join the gig queue straight away - but still very nice, especially as chicken selects are bafflingly unavailable in Asian McDonald's. I guess that everyone was in the Brewdog next door sheltering from the rain - which would have been a nice idea for sure - but by the time I got back there were eight or so people in line and the ticket touts in attendance - and even some early t-shirt sellers - and the rain had finally stopped too, so I joined the queue. It was my first time at the Albert Hall and to be honest I'd never been aware that the place even existed, but it was an impressive building both inside and out, although once the doors opened at 7pm I was mightily confused trying to figure out where the stage was, eventually following a psychic punter upstairs, thankfully in good time to secure my place at the front for a 15th consecutive SFA gig.

Things were going swimmingly all round I think, as I'd also had no problem bringing in my bottle of water which I'd been carrying around all day with me, which was a great move as water was being sold for an extortionate £3 inside the venue! A failure to carry water is perhaps my big recurring gig-going mistake so I'm glad to finally learn! Also this was the first time at an SFA gig that I had a camera with me and I was ready to take photos, albeit in my usual unobtrusive and considerate way. The past six months and my time in Asia had seen the appalling rise of the selfie and - even worse - the selfie stick. It's a type of photography that I gave a brief try in around 2007 then dismissed it as leading to awful pictures, and I hope it proves a fad. Also I fear that all these twats taking endless selfies are a key reason why more places are becoming photo Nazis, and perhaps they wouldn't feel the need to ban photography if people weren't such utter dicks with it? Fortunately though this was an SFA crowd who took photos but considerately, and never at the expense of the enjoyment of anyone at the show. The Albert Hall was an intimate and historic room with good views all round, with a balcony and windows that seemed to let in light even after dark. Its most notable feature was that the stage was ludicrously high, and I'd be looking up at the band all evening at a most unusual steep angle. At least this meant that there was no risk of a stage invasion! I've never taken too much notice of the fellow crowd - never wanting to sacrifice my place at the front for the sake of a bit of socialising and ending up distracted from the show - but I could tell that there were some familiar faces there. The main downer of being by myself was that I couldn't leave the moshpit for 30 minutes like the others were doing, letting my chums reserve my spot. Fortunately as the room took a while to fill up this didn't cause as much consternation as it could easily have done. I prepare myself to be at the front for four hours without a break, why can't everyone else?

The stage was already set up for The Magic Numbers, a band I'd barely given a thought to since seeing them almost exactly ten years beforehand in Manchester, excepting of course their brilliant cameo in the Harry Hill Movie. There was a Pete Doherty look-a-like printed on the drum kit and they took to the stage over ten minutes before the advertised 7:45pm. Third song was Forever Lost which they treated as their biggest tune, although by both my reckoning and its higher chart position of #12 in fact Love Me Like You is their greatest hit. The singer said that we could sing along if we wanted to and the room was filling up nicely, and the band were going down very well indeed. There seemed to be some enthusiasm beyond general politeness and they earned it. I felt like they hadn't moved on one iota in the past ten years but the songs were still quite good and they made for an engaging presence. It felt like they were wearing exactly the same clothes too, except for Michele who had lost an extraordinary amount of weight and was wearing a shortish skirt and looking great. The singer looked about the same and with exactly the same facial hair. They encouraged us to cheer when Roy Orbison was mentioned in the track of the same name and praised SFA, pointing out that in no time at all they'd reached the halfway point of this tour. The bouncers had nothing to do so the front pit was dominated by the photographers, most of whom no doubt were wondering how to take normal-looking shots pointing up to a stage seemingly as high as the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Although all of their songs sounded good they suffered from a lack of familiarity, and so the only other one I remember was their finale of Love Me Like You, which went down a storm. They seemed genuinely moved by the positive reception and it was clear that this crowd were enthused about the evening ahead.

There was a very familiar face amongst the roadies, as Kliph formerly of The Flaming Lips was helping out. He worshipped the band and who could blame him for wanting to be a part of it? I certainly would if I could! An SFA OK registration plate graced the right of the stage in front of me and the large video screen had already been installed. The DJing was pretty decent although I only recall an instrumental version of Wouldn't It Be Nice, and the room was certainly full when the lights went down and the starting music of [A] Touch Sensitive came on. It was an unexpected choice and was delivered exactly as it had been done in 2001, with a good light show before the band came onstage to rock out. When SFA appeared I realised that I was on the wrong side - in front of Bunf rather than Gruff - and thought that I really should have learned where the singer stands by now! The band looked very healthy, with short to medium length beards and all dressed in white lab costumes, with Bunf and perhaps some of the others sporting an SFA guitar strap. This opener was followed by (Drawing) Rings Around The World, which established two things. Firstly that the setlist wouldn't be as innovative as I'd hoped for and as the band had teased, and also that absence had made the heart grow fonder and that the crowd were giving the SFA the most enthusiastic reception I've ever seen them get. Between songs they seemed amazed by the force of the roars of approval, and Gruff took a step back to smile at the rest of the group. The Magic Numbers were watching from the balcony to the left of the stage - it extended all the way to the front of the room - and must have felt like the luckiest guys in the world to get to watch this show every night. There was very little chit chat and most of it seemed to be in Welsh, although Bunf got quite a cheer when he simply said hello!

The start of the set was very old school, with Do Or Die leading into the ecstatically-received Ice Hockey Hair. I was then disappointed when they launched into Demons, a song we've all heard thousands of times before which has no place in a forward-thinking SFA set. My preference is that they should dig deeper into their old songs, but hell, I'd be almost as enthused to hear the newer songs which never got airings at the time so that I could then reappraise them! At several points in the show animated versions of the original album sleeves were displayed - including Radiator before Demons - and I learned afterwards that these had been taken from the S4C documentary about SFA which provided a brilliant all-round history of the band jam-packed with rare footage. But anyway, back to the set, at least Demons reminded me of the brilliant Radiator - still the unarguable greatest album ever made 18 years after its release - and the appearance of trumpet players above the band in the corners of the balcony was quite nice. They remained there for the next few songs, first of which was Northern Lites played in its original style. Although I felt that it was a strange reason for their reformation, SFA had been motivated to return to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Mwng. I'd never noticed it going out of print - as I got my copy on the day it came out - and I guess that makes it worth a reissue, but it would be nice if this had been done in a more thorough manner. Why not compile 2/3/4 disc reissues of all their albums, collecting all the b-sides, remixes and - most importantly - unreleased songs? I've heard many times that there is a huge archive of unreleased tracks and given the strength of SFA b-sides throughout their career I have very high hopes that there is some extraordinary stuff in the vaults. A comprehensive set of reissues followed by that long-awaited tenth album would be a dream come true.

But anyway, Mwng was well-represented tonight, and I can understand why that was even though these weren't the songs I most wanted to hear. They'd never even toured the album in Wales and it was only because I was at the Leeds 2000 festival that I got to see these songs live at the time. First up was Ymaelodi Â'r Ymylon - played in front of the Mwng album artwork - then the trumpet players remained for Y Gwyneb Iau. I'd expected this to be it but it was followed by Nythod Cacwn then Pan Ddaw'r Wawr. Pan Ddaw'r Wawr was surprisingly effective and was the one and only song of the evening that I'd never heard the band play before. It was very far down the list of SFA tracks I wanted to hear though, so I guess my relative enjoyment just goes to show that the band should deep deeper into their catalogue and play more songs that we've never heard live before? Speaking of which, why do they never play Ysbeidiau Heulog? It's an extraordinary song and was a single at the time and would fit in perfectly with the Mwng theme of the evening. If SFA are looking to surprise and delight us, that's the kind of song they should be playing! The bulk of the crowd however were lapping it up, and I guess life is a bit different when you haven't seen them live so many times and don't hold SFA to the ridiculous high standards that I do. I want perfection as I know that the Super Furries can deliver it! But for me the set reached its nadir with the utterly unnecessary Run! Christian, Run! I am sick to death of hearing this song, it's a complete waste of space and represents a lot of time that could be filled by any number of unexpected delights. Its hard to assess how much of its reaction was tolerance and how much was enjoyment, as I just kept my head down and waited for it to end. SFA have long had a habit of drifting off with dull and over-played tracks in the middle of their set, and I knew that proceedings could only improve from this point onwards.

Although I'd hoped for a bit more of a banger, Hello Sunshine was a quite acceptable choice of song and is now greeted with near-hysteria, especially for the brilliant minger verse. Looking back it's hard to understand how this wasn't a global number one smash, and it's clear why Coca Cola wanted it so badly. A similarly ecstatic reception greeted Hometown Unicorn, with its glorious guitar solo making it a contender for strongest debut single of all time. The biggest surprise of the night was that SFA played only one tune from their last three albums, and that was the excellent Zoom! This was very strange as bands so often are determined to show us how brilliant their most recent material is, and Hey Venus! particularly had been a great album. Although a focus on pre-millennial material suited me, it was frustrating that the band were falling back to the same old songs rather than mixing it up a bit more. But the flipside was that everyone else seemed to be delighted, and I guess that this was exactly the setlist someone who'd never seen them live before would be hoping for. The song that embodied what I wanted from the evening came next with Arnofio/Glô In The Dark. It was the first time I'd seen it played live since my very first gig way back in 1997. And I wasn't alone in my excitement, as this b-side was greeted with utter chaos, as the crowd pushed forwards and we finally had a crush and a genuine moshpit. It may have been around this point when we also had our first crowdsurfer, and it serves him right that he fell flat on his back. It's deeply inconsiderate and any injuries are well deserved! It woke the security up though and they took up proper crowd control positions after hanging around in the sidelines for the first half of the set. To be fair security had been pretty good, especially for handing out plenty of cups of water at regular intervals throughout the show.

The quality continued with Something 4 The Weekend then the short but sweet Drygioni. I'd thought that Mwng had already been over-represented so was initially unfussed to hear Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion, although once it got going - building up to an incredible volume before segueing into a brief recording of Best Mindfuck Yet - there was nowhere else I'd rather be. The last fifteen seconds was the first video of the night I recorded, which has excellent sound quality despite the high angle of the stage. But what else could I do, I'm far too considerate to hold my camera in the air! The band left the stage briefly as the classic Juxtapozed with U desk was hoisted onstage by Kliph and the rest of the crew. Then Slow Life started up and I recalled that the classic Power Rangers sequence was to follow. The build-up of the song remains brilliant and it's a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, but at the same time we'd heard it many times before. At the end the old school Applause, Louder and Ape Shit signs were held up and the instructions were adhered to by the crowd. I shot a video of the intro which featured the harmonica and ended with Gruff putting on the battered helmet. The sound quality wasn't great as you could hear just how loud it was, but the extent of the laser show was extraordinary! One song I never do tire of though is the supremely sugary Juxtapozed With U, and when it's followed by the awesome The International Language Of Screaming it makes for the strongest part of the set. I'd almost forgotten about Golden Retriever and I don't understand how that's possible, as the sound seemingly went up from 11 to 15 or even louder, and just when you thought things couldn't get better this was followed by Receptacle For The Respectable. The video was showed on the screen but sadly the videos had been deeply underwhelming compared to the days of old. It just didn't seem that there was much going on, and visually the show was nothing compared to the classic time in 1999 when the stage had been filled with TV screens.

Receptacle however always works a treat, and Gruff even ate half a bag of crisps to fill in for Paul McCartney, before throwing the remainder into the crowd. The ending will always be a high point of any SFA show, where the band hold their guitars aloft before rubbing them together. I got a pretty cool photo of this, and this song is one of those moments that I feel could convert anyone and everyone to the band. Fire In My Heart was quite an anomaly amongst all the big loud tunes but it appears to have taken on the status of a mass festival singalong, with the band taking a step back to let us sing large portions of it. Next up was Mountain People featuring a new ending, but sadly not the classic orangely out of its head rendition. I hadn't expected to hear it and it wasn't ideal as The Man Don't Give A Fuck makes it an unnecessary double-climax, and I felt that these two plus Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion led to end song wig out overkill. I should have been thrilled to hear the start of The Man Don't Give A Fuck but I was distracted by the lack of Calimero. I thought that the band had promised to never ever drop it from the set, so it was sorely missed. There were a good few moments tonight of old that I wanted to be dropped but this absolutely was not one of them!! Gruff forgot a few vocals and then the chorus failed to kick in - Cian!! - but this only served to heighten the suspense and chaos that TMDGAF leads to, and I was grateful that the band hadn't contemplated dropping it from the set. It's a moment that will never grow old and nothing could ever replace it.

The breakdown in the middle almost seemed to be a stoppage, as the song nearly went silent before building up again. The rest of the band had vacated the stage before returning in - amazingly - the classic yeti costumes! I thought that they'd been killed off circa 2004, so I can only presume that these were zombie yetis! One criticism that can reasonably be leveled at the band is their lack of movement or apparent enjoyment onstage. Gruff certainly appeared happier than he'd looked on previous tours but it was only in the yeti costumes that Guto and Bunf really came alive, as the video I shot confirmed. Also I was pleasantly surprised to see that the red furry trumpet player reappeared to hang onstage for a bit, and guitars and hands were triumphantly held in the air, as you can see from the photo above. This crowd had been amazingly enthusiastic even though the moshpit had taken a while to warm up, and it was clear that SFA had won everyone over. It's probably just me with my impossibly high expectations who wanted a lot more! Gruff returned to his signs, firstly Thank You and then leaving The End onstage as the band left. I thought that after four hours at the front I well-deserved a setlist and had my hands out but as usual I was over-looked, although at least I was able to take a photo of one that the Japanese girls next to me managed to grab. It was hugely frustrating to see the final setlist being casually tossed into the crowd to my left, and after fifteen shows at the front I think I am long overdue one. My reluctance to snatch and fight for it sadly works against me! The setlist as far as I can gather was adhered to, although it made no mention of the snippet of Best Mindfuck Yet.

On my way out someone said to me that they were the best band in the world but sadly I was too distracted over the setlist debacle to enthuse with his statement as much as it deserved, and after feeling unimpressed with the £20 t-shirts and £5 badges on sale at the official stand I headed outside. T-shirt touts seem to be resistant to inflation, still flogging tops for the same £5 that I used to pay back in 1999! And the double-sided t-shirt I got was beautiful, almost as good as the real thing, making me wonder if I was just getting incredible value for money or if it had been stolen or something? My ears were whistling worse than they'd done in a long time and I embarked on the long walk back to the hotel, made a little lengthier as I stopped a few times to take some night photos of Manchester's buildings. I'd originally contemplated going to Wetherspoons to chill out for an hour before closing time but didn't have the energy and figured it to be a waste of money. In fact I was so drained that I went straight to bed, not even writing down any notes, so I do fear I've lost some of the detail for this review. The next day was dry and sunny after a little morning rain and so I decided to walk over to Salford Cathedral and also visited the church next door. Salford is a very strange place, somehow qualifying as a city but in my eyes being no more worthy of city status than any other suburb of Manchester. It was just a few minutes away from Manchester centre so its city status is a strange quirk of history.

I followed this up with a Boots meal deal before heading to Filmworks to watch Avengers: Age Of Ultron, figuring that as I was already out and about I may as well watch it now. The ticket seemed hugely expensive until I realised that it was an IMAX showing, so at least I saw it in the best possible way, and as an added bonus I received no hassle for the large backpack I took inside, although in this case I did smuggle in some Coke. Although - at £14ish a ticket - I think that they'd made quite enough money from me. By this point I'd decided to hang around a bit before going out in Wolverhampton, figuring that this would free up the weekend to unpack and do other things. I used the power of Wi-Fi and Google to locate a decent Belgian beer pub in the Northern Quarter and enjoyed two drinks, before remembering that I had to go home at least briefly to vote. I sacrificed a glorious hour in Manchester to do this, making the idiocy of the electorate voting the Tory scum in again even more frustrating! In an ideal world it would be the people who vote for their evil policies who suffer from it, but I fear it will be people like me who suffer, as I'm not a billionaire banker. I made only a few notes on the train back and enjoyed a pint of Erdinger at my local pub after voting so the excursion wasn't completely wasted, then I had a great first night out back in Wolverhampton. Sadly this SFA gig marked my return to reality and the need to search for a job, although I decided to follow it with a week and a half of catching up with photos and TV first.

I was surprised to compare this show to others on the tour and to learn that the setlist had remained relatively static. SFA had originally indicated that they were going to mix things up, so this was disappointing. The night before this in Glasgow they'd played God! Show Me Magic in place of Something 4 The Weekend and Drygioni, which I guess wasn't too terrible an exchange even if I'd had loved to hear both, and the following night in Manchester they played Neo Consumer and If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You in place of Drygioni and Something 4 The Weekend, so I do feel that I got the best deal. But why didn't SFA vary it a bit more, surely it would be more fun for them too? Other songs played were Bad Behaviour (good) and Bleed Forever (bad) early in the tour, then Earth (unnecessary) later in London. There had been an annoying number of omissions but the lack of Calimero hurt the most as I'd thought it would be a dead cert until the end of time. And okay, maybe I shouldn't complain as the band openly petitioned fans to send them setlists, and I didn't. My excuse was that I was busy travelling, but anyway, now I've got more time on my hands I can offer a setlist that I feel combines the greatest of the greatest hits with plenty of interesting surprises, and which would go down a storm with the hardcore fan base -

Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home)
Bad Behaviour
Play It Cool
Ice Hockey Hair
Mrs Spector
Chupacabras
Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir
Ymaelodi Â'r Ymylon
Ysbeidiau Heulog
Organ Yn Dy Geg
Arnofio/Glô In The Dark
Focus Pocus/Debiel
Lazy Life (Of No Fixed Identity)
Hangin' With Howard Marks
Guacamole
Juxtapozed With U
Frisbee
Do Or Die
God! Show Me Magic
Golden Retriever
Receptacle For The Respectable
The Citizens Band
Hello Sunshine
Hit And Run
Waiting To Happen
The International Language Of Screaming
Calimero
Night Vision
The Man Don't Give A Fuck/Best Mindfuck Yet

SFA had played 26 songs - plus that snippet of Best Mindfuck Yet - and only ten of them appear on my suggested setlist, which I think proves that there are many songs that SFA feel they can't drop which they can and should omit. Also there's a good half-dozen tunes there that I've never heard them play live. As stated before, Ysbeidiau Heulog is a baffling omission, but there's also a good few b-sides that deserve to be heard. SFA however are one band who are "better" than the heritage bands, and are oozing with so much talent that it would seem a waste for them to tour again without new material. Although at the time of writing there's no hint of a new album I hope very much that they get it together and release a defining masterpiece to finally earn the number 1 hits and acclaim that they deserve. They really can do it. This show had gone a long way to show people how great the band are and how much sheer talent they have. I just feel that the one time that SFA were looking backwards rather than forwards that they could have played a much stronger mix of songs. But I think a good few hundred people came away from this tour with the idea that SFA are the greatest band in the world. I'm still one of them, so on that level it was mission accomplished!
Setlist (The Magic Numbers)
Wake Up
You Know
Forever Lost
Roy Orbison
The Pulse
Shot In The Dark
Thought I Wasn't Ready
Love Me Like You
Setlist (Super Furry Animals)
[A] Touch Sensitive
(Drawing) Rings Around The World
Do Or Die
Ice Hockey Hair
Demons
Northern Lites
Ymaelodi Â'r Ymylon
Y Gwyneb Iau
Nythod Cacwn
Pan Ddaw'r Wawr
Run! Christian, Run!
Hello Sunshine
Hometown Unicorn
Zoom!
Arnofio/Glô In The Dark
Something 4 The Weekend
Drygioni
Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion
Best Mindfuck Yet [snippet]
Slow Life
Juxtapozed With U
The International Language Of Screaming
Golden Retriever
Receptacle For The Respectable
Fire In My Heart
Mountain People
The Man Don't Give A Fuck

Mark: 9.0/10