I really enjoyed this gig… well, I remember I did once the main act came on. There was a support act, which I only know because I took a picture. The old listing from the Glasshouse website tells me his name is Matt McManoman, but I’m afraid he was most likely doing the kind of acoustic stuff that my memory tends not to retain:
I’m also basing this assumption on the acoustic guitar.
Sorry, Matt. If I see you again I’ll try harder to remember your set!
Onto Holly. Setlist recorded by the good folks at setlist.fm. It was a perfect list as far as I was concerned, with a great mix of Frankie classics and solo highlights. Holly also had some great stories about Newcastle back in the ’80s when he used to come up to record The Tube.
Best photo I could get due to (a) my rubbish camera (b) my nonexistent photography skills (c) the particular stage lighting for this gig.
The encore was one song – ‘The Power of Love’ – which Holly said he believes shouldn’t just be a Christmas song but should be played year-round. I see his point, but seeing this lovely performance of the song in the run-up to Christmas did feel pretty special.
It was getting to the stage at this point where I realised I was starting to ‘collect’ Duran gigs in different cities. Birmingham, Dublin, London and now Leeds. There’ll be at least one more city added to the collection in the upcoming weeks of this gig blog catchup! Leeds was probably the easiest for travelling so far.
A couple of support acts on this tour, the first of which was Lia Lia. I mostly remember this as ‘experimental but quite pleasant to listen to’.
Next up was Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters fame. He mainly performed his band’s classics, which was fine by me – I vaguely remember seeing the Scissor Sisters at some T in the Park or other back in the day, but like the majority of my twenties, it’s a very blurry memory, so it was fab to be able to see these songs played live again.
As mentioned above, this was my fourth time seeing Duran in less than two years so I was quite familiar with the Future Past era setlist by this point. A couple of songs I was delighted to hear live for the first time were ‘Night Boat’ (in hindsight a hint towards the upcoming Danse Macabre album, at that point not yet officially announced) and ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’
I was also intrigued by the mashup of ‘Lonely in Your Nightmare’ and a cover of ‘Super Freak’ – another track that would later become very familiar in the Danse Macabre era! At the time I was a little concerned that this mashup had replaced my old favourite ‘Girls on Film’/’Acceptable in the ’80s’… but I needn’t have worried, as the latter made its appearance later in the evening 😊
I didn’t realise at the time that it would be a while before I saw the band again. 2024 ended up being Duranless because their only UK dates were a couple of festivals down south and the logistics didn’t work out for me. But there were quite a few other gigs, which I’ll be continuing to blog about over the next few weeks!
Still catching up with the gigs from what is now four years ago. What this process is teaching me is that I really need to be more prompt with these reviews. It’s amazing how much you forget.
This was an early anniversary celebration for me and Geth (those who (a) attended our wedding in November 2012 and (b) have a particular niche music awareness may remember that we did our first dance to Carter USM’s ‘And God Created Brixton’).
Berries were the support act. I don’t really remember anything about them, sorry!
As is typical for Jim Bob gigs these days, it was a great mix of Carter classics and solo stuff. Geth and I had really been enjoying the recent solo stuff (‘Battling The Bottle’ and ‘The Summer of No Touching’ are big favourites of mine) so it was a constant vibe. We stood on the balcony platform to the side of the pit (I can’t do pits these days!) so the view was slightly blocked, but that didn’t spoil a thing. (Geth afterwards: ‘that was the best gig I’ve been to all year, and I could only see his feet’.)
I had to crouch down to get this one!
Other than the abovementioned, my highlights were ‘Bloodsport for All’ (though, this being late 2022, my mind did wander to the question of whether the ‘God Save the Queen’ reference should be changed to ‘God Save the King’) and ‘Prince in a Pauper’s Grave’ (my all-time favourite Carter song).
It was a great night and definitely up there with the best of 2022. Jim Bob is playing Newcastle again this spring and I’m sort of tempted!
Shortly after the Dublin gig, I was off to see Duran Duran again!
I was in London on my own for this one so arrived fairly early for the day-long BST event (Duran were headlining) as I didn’t really have anything else to do. None of the music acts during the afternoon caught my interest, and it was a very hot day (one of those days I feel a bit wistful for currently, writing this from the middle of winter!), so I took the opportunity to chill with my picnic blanket under a tree, enjoy food from the festival stalls, read a book and people-watch. (All the girls were in Veja trainers that summer. That is a very strong memory.)
This was my view for most of the day:
I did venture out to catch a bit of Chic and Nile Rodgers, but the sun was still pretty strong so I retreated back to my tree. I knew Nile would be back on stage with Duran later on!
Thankfully it was a lot cooler by the time the main set started. We were very much in the Future Past era at this point, so the setlist was similar to Dublin (London setlist available on setlist.fm here), but the vibe was very different – equally lovely, but somehow more energetic. I was a long way back in the crowd (BST had a large VIP section so unless you were paying through the nose you couldn’t get anywhere near to the stage) but everyone around me was there to dance. It was a great atmosphere. (And Nile came out as expected to join the band for ‘Notorious’ and ‘Pressure Off’!)
It was dark by the time the band finished and a big crush to get out of Hyde Park… but such a buzz and so worth the trip down to London!
This was another COVID-postponed gig, and turned into a bit of a nightmare with the postponed logistics, especially as at some point Geth decided to come along for his birthday weekend. It was a flying visit to Dublin in the end but I really enjoyed it!
It was a bit of a festival atmosphere in St Anne’s Park – love an outdoor gig in the summer. The first support act was Sinead O’Brien. Simon came out to introduce her (something, he claimed, that he’d never done for a support act before). I recall her music being fairly chilled out and a good way to start the show.
A return to blurry gig photography, sorry. Hopefully this will improve over the next few gig review catchups as our phone cameras get better.
The middle act was Goldfrapp, a band that I always quite enjoyed in their hit days, so it was good to have the opportunity to see them.
I think this picture might have been taken of the big screen rather than the band themselves!
In between the acts, it rained a lot 😒 and we made good use of the various plastic bags we’d brought with us.
I tweeted about this gig at the time, so here are a couple of links to my contemporary thoughts:
Amazing @duranduran gig in Dublin tonight. So different from Birmingham last year but so special in a different way. Will post more thoughts tomorrow when I'm not falling asleep 😄😴
TLDR: as a gig experience, I probably enjoyed it even more than Birmingham the year before (although that was special in a different way!). Duran played some unexpected songs, and it was a really fun atmosphere, with Geth getting a lot of love from fellow gig-goers as it was his birthday, and lots of dancing in the crowd.
It’s fun to look back at the Future Past era gigs now that I’m used to the band’s Danse Macabre look!
They finished with ‘Rio’, which is fairly standard. Geth was dragging me to the exit during that one as the train back to Dublin city centre was due… and then the train driver waited for everyone anyway, for about an extra 20 minutes!
This was one of the many rescheduled gigs post-COVID. 2021-2022 ended up being a bit unplanned and manic with all the rescheduled events falling where they fell! As such, I’d been looking forward to this gig for a long time, having originally booked it in 2019. I love Pet Shop Boys and I’d never seen them live before.
Minimalist stage setup, which is what you expect with PSB.
There was no support band for this one. This meant more time for more hits! My main memory is that they played absolutely everything – all the hits from the ’80s and ’90s – and there was very little more I could have asked for. Some of the less known ’90s stuff like ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ and ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ maybe? Or some of the more recent stuff with which I’m familiar? But I didn’t miss it. This was a bit of a bucket list gig for me, so the hits were what I was there for.
One of the recent songs they didn’t play was that ‘Purple Zone’ song that they’d done with Soft Cell (see the Soft Cell review)!
Afterwards, we bumped into our neighbour Mandy walking back from the metro – she’d been to the gig too, so it was great to chat about it on the way home.
Another super late gig review! Making an effort to get them done so hopefully I’ll be caught up in a few weeks’ time…
I had remembered differently, but my photo history informs me that Paul Young was actually on first and Go West closed the show. This is why I really need to be more prompt with my gig reviews!
Great band on this tour!
Paul Young gave a great performance and his two backup singers were very memorable. Highlights for me were ‘Love of the Common People’ and ‘Come Back and Stay’ (the latter being one of my favourite songs of all time!).
Good to see this lot again.
Go West were pretty much the same as when I previously saw them with Cutting Crew – it was Paul Young I was really there for. Nevertheless I enjoyed the show, ‘King of Wishful Thinking’ being my favourite track.
The setlist from this exact concert is not available, but here’s the same one from a few days later on the tour.
Importantly, I’m back to ticking off artists on my Band Aid baby bucket list! Paul Young sings the first line of the song, so he’s a good one to collect.
I cannot believe this was four years ago. I have been procrastinating so badly when it comes to these gig blogs.
Leeds is always a vibe though! And we bumped into Geth’s mate Sam and her husband Wayne in the queue. This was for the best because the queue was HORRIBLE. We’d arrived in plenty of time but it took hours and we didn’t get inside until they’d already started ‘Torch’. Thankfully it was the first track, which wasn’t clear from outside!
Marc and Dave! What a duo.
Full setlist was posted by a lovely setlist.fm user here! My highlights:
‘Sex Dwarf’ – this is Geth’s favourite Soft Cell track and we finally got to see it live. Marc Almond doesn’t perform it at his solo gigs as far as I’m aware, so it hadn’t been in the set when we saw him at Electric Dreams.
‘Bedsitter’ – a personal favourite. Great to hear this one again.
‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ – other than the fact that the blimmin’ inflatable pink flamingoes were everywhere again! Put them away, they’re too silly for this lovely song!
After the gig we met up with Sam and Wayne again and went for a debrief in the pub, which was lovely!
Debriefing!
Having not got around to posting this until December 2025, I will finish with this: RIP Dave Ball. What a legend. When the news broke, Geth and I were just so glad that we’d had the opportunity to see them play together.
It has taken me a long time to get round to posting all my gig reviews from the last few years. This one is from 2021 – at the time I reviewed the gig for both Cherry Lipstick and Daily Duranie. The latter is no longer online so I will post a modified version of that review here!
While the Duran gig on Tuesday 14th September was more fabulous than I could ever have expected, I had a very good reason for being unable to stick around for the second night – I already had tickets for another exciting show! I made a quick train journey from Birmingham back home to Newcastle, ready for the long-awaited return of Andy Taylor to the North East of England. Duran one night and Andy the next… quite possibly the closest I’ll ever get to seeing the classic lineup! Wonderful that they were both hometown gigs too.
Andy’s gig was a charity show titled ‘Rock ‘N’ Raise’, with the aim of raising money for charities including the Sir Graham Wylie Foundation and Teenage Cancer Trust. As such, it was a bit of a festival atmosphere with various support acts, all with links to the area. My favourite was North East singer Lorraine Crosby, who is most well-known for singing the female vocal on Meat Loaf’s ‘I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’ and these days performs a Queen tribute act. She has a brilliant voice and would later join Andy for his big finale.
She was also wearing the event t-shirt! I bought one and still wear it regularly.
There was also a charity raffle and auction just before Andy came on, with the auctioned items being a bracelet made specially out of the guitar strings Andy was using that night (to be made after the gig, obviously!) and a signed poster. The two items went for £1,000 each, and I believe were bought by the same person! Great news for the charity and I hope the buyer enjoys them – the bracelet especially would be a very special souvenir!
Andy and the band played a brilliant mix of Duran tracks (including ‘What Happens Tomorrow’, which Andy described as ‘the Duran song that got away’, and ‘Careless Memories’, which I adored), Power Station tracks, tracks off the 1987 Thunder album, and a few Robert Palmer and Rod Stewart tracks with which Andy had originally been involved. It occurs to me that seeing an Andy Taylor gig must be the only way now to see Power Station songs performed by a Power Station member, unless John and the rest of Duran ever decide to throw a few into a set! There were no tracks played from Andy’s new album, so it felt like quite a different show to his last gig at the 100 Club, but that also felt right for the type of show it was. There’ll be plenty of time to hear the new stuff when Andy’s ready for us to hear it. (Note from 2025: and we now can!)
In the stage fog!
Just like Duran the night before, Andy closed his finale with ‘Rio’. Andy’s version was a bit of a party, with support acts joining him on stage and the glorious surprise of Si King from the Hairy Bikers playing the bongos!
Because it was a local-to-me gig I dragged Geth out with me. He really enjoyed it and was able to share my excitement when Andy played ‘What Happens Tomorrow’ as I’d recently been playing Astronaut a lot in the car! He said he’d like to see Andy again so I’ll be buying two tickets for the Cullercoats gig if/when that COVID-cancelled UK tour finally gets rescheduled… Fingers crossed that Andy will eventually make it out there to see all the international fans too – because everybody deserves to see this show. It was a cracker!
(Note from 2025 – no more Andy gigs as of yet due to his ongoing cancer treatment. This Classic Pop interview from earlier this year is a great, positive read!)
As was my habit in those days, I livetweeted during the gig: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Like many other things in my life post-pandemic, going to gigs is not as frequent an occurrence as it used to be. I like my evenings at home on my sofa and it has to be something special for me to buy tickets these days. However, I have been to a few since the world started returning to normal (nine, by my calculations) and have one or two lined up for the future. It’s probably time I start catching up with some reviews again.
It was, of course, highly appropriate that my first post-pandemic gig back was my first time getting to see Duran Duran. They’ve been my favourite band for years now but for various reasons I just hadn’t had the chance to see them. When a couple of surprise dates were announced in September 2021, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
I reviewed this gig for both Daily Duranie and Cherry Lipstick at the time, so my much fresher thoughts are out there already and I won’t repeat those. Really it’s just nice to look back, in hindsight, at a really special experience – the suddenness of the announcement, heading down to Birmingham for the evening, the incredible atmosphere at the O2 Academy (a much smaller venue than the arenas Duran usually play) and the overwhelming feeling of experiencing something for which I’d waited a long time. Not to mention excitedly livetweeting the gig (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) 😀
Now, for the first time in nearly four years, I shall update my Band Aid baby bucket list:
