Post by suedehead on Mar 25, 2010 19:15:17 GMT 1
The t-shirts sold on their last tour in 2003 carried the opening words of a song from the debut album - “See you in the next life…” Well, now we’ve reached the next life with Suede re-forming - without Bernard Butler - to play a sell-out gig at the Albert Hall in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Suede’s support for this cause goes back a long way with the band having donated their 1993 Mercury Prize money to cancer charities.
First up though were These New Puritans who have the dubious distinction of coming from Southend. They released their first album last year with the follow-up Hidden released earlier this year. Sadly it lived up to its name and stayed hidden from the top 75 peaking at number 100. To these ears they sounded rather like Depeche Mode with a bit of Soft Cell thrown in. That and the interesting idea of having two drummers for many songs. The sound engineers messed up the very beginning of the set - ensuring the singer’s voiced was as hidden as their album - but once that was sorted out they put in a good performance.
And so on to the main event. The return of the mighty Suede. The first question was “How well had they aged?” Brett has never really been totally out of the public eye so we knew what he looked like but what of the others? Richard and Neil hadn’t changed much and Simon somehow seemed to look exactly the same as he did when I first saw them in 1992. Poor old Matt, on the other hand, now has a very distinct bald patch.
The set was , as you’d expect, a mix of songs from their back catalogue although they performed precisely nothing from their final album A New Morning. That Mercury prize winning debut was well represented with plenty from the classic Dog Man Star as well. It was good to hear songs like Pantomime Horse again as they hadn’t played it very much in their later years. The whole set - as you might expect me to say - was a reminder of just what a brilliant band Suede were. And, after a 6 1/2 year break, they still put on a fantastic show. It all got a bit emotional when Brett dedicated He’s Gone to a friend who had died a few weeks ago and followed it with The Next Life - the song I want played as my coffin enters the furnace.
It was good to see a decent mix of ages in the audience. I suspect quite a lot of them were seeing the band for the first time. Sadly for those of us who were hoping for further dates there was a strong hint that they wouldn’t happen as Brett suggested they might do this again in another seven years. Let’s hope the enthusiasm of the audience throughout the gig and the spped with which tickets sold out lead to a change of heart.
Now the serious bit. Every day six young people are diagnosed with cancer. The Teenage Cancer Trust helps to ensure that they are treated as teenagers rather than young children. They help to establish wards specifically for teenagers with cancer so that they can mix with people of their own age and who are going through the same ordeal thus helping them to support each other. This series of concerts has become well established since Roger Daltrey started them ten years ago. In that time £9 million has been raised. Details of how you can help and more information on the work they do are on their website - www.teenagecancertrust.org/
And the set list...
She
Trash
Filmstar
Animal Nitrate
Heroine
Pantomime Horse
The Drowners
Killing Of A Flashboy
Can't Get Enough
Everything Will Flow
He's Gone
The Next Life
The Asphalt World
So Young
Metal Mickey
The Wild Ones
New Generation
The Beautiful Ones
Encore:
The Living Dead
The 2 Of Us
Saturday Night
First up though were These New Puritans who have the dubious distinction of coming from Southend. They released their first album last year with the follow-up Hidden released earlier this year. Sadly it lived up to its name and stayed hidden from the top 75 peaking at number 100. To these ears they sounded rather like Depeche Mode with a bit of Soft Cell thrown in. That and the interesting idea of having two drummers for many songs. The sound engineers messed up the very beginning of the set - ensuring the singer’s voiced was as hidden as their album - but once that was sorted out they put in a good performance.
And so on to the main event. The return of the mighty Suede. The first question was “How well had they aged?” Brett has never really been totally out of the public eye so we knew what he looked like but what of the others? Richard and Neil hadn’t changed much and Simon somehow seemed to look exactly the same as he did when I first saw them in 1992. Poor old Matt, on the other hand, now has a very distinct bald patch.
The set was , as you’d expect, a mix of songs from their back catalogue although they performed precisely nothing from their final album A New Morning. That Mercury prize winning debut was well represented with plenty from the classic Dog Man Star as well. It was good to hear songs like Pantomime Horse again as they hadn’t played it very much in their later years. The whole set - as you might expect me to say - was a reminder of just what a brilliant band Suede were. And, after a 6 1/2 year break, they still put on a fantastic show. It all got a bit emotional when Brett dedicated He’s Gone to a friend who had died a few weeks ago and followed it with The Next Life - the song I want played as my coffin enters the furnace.
It was good to see a decent mix of ages in the audience. I suspect quite a lot of them were seeing the band for the first time. Sadly for those of us who were hoping for further dates there was a strong hint that they wouldn’t happen as Brett suggested they might do this again in another seven years. Let’s hope the enthusiasm of the audience throughout the gig and the spped with which tickets sold out lead to a change of heart.
Now the serious bit. Every day six young people are diagnosed with cancer. The Teenage Cancer Trust helps to ensure that they are treated as teenagers rather than young children. They help to establish wards specifically for teenagers with cancer so that they can mix with people of their own age and who are going through the same ordeal thus helping them to support each other. This series of concerts has become well established since Roger Daltrey started them ten years ago. In that time £9 million has been raised. Details of how you can help and more information on the work they do are on their website - www.teenagecancertrust.org/
And the set list...
She
Trash
Filmstar
Animal Nitrate
Heroine
Pantomime Horse
The Drowners
Killing Of A Flashboy
Can't Get Enough
Everything Will Flow
He's Gone
The Next Life
The Asphalt World
So Young
Metal Mickey
The Wild Ones
New Generation
The Beautiful Ones
Encore:
The Living Dead
The 2 Of Us
Saturday Night
