SOMETIMES a gig’s about something other than the music and however great the music and the songs in the set, it’s about the interplay between the musicians up onstage.
THE SOUTH’s Ironworks gig on Monday night was one of those.
But the reward at the end of it was that you felt you’d been on an emotional rollercoaster that took us to a happy place in the end.
Looking back to the start of the band’s set, it’s possible one of the two lead singers Dave Hemingway wasn’t that happy from the start.
But it takes a big man to come onstage and apologise for letting a couple of people talking make him angry.
That’s what Dave did, told off, he told us, by big sax player Gaz Birtles.
And so instant was the change in mood after this that the whole gig suddenly became a joyous singalong.
It was only afterwards you realised it had taken 16 songs to get there! And that the fantastic sense of relief and happy communal singing might have been something to do with one of the songs of the night – number two hit single from 1994 Perfect 10 and Don’t Marry Her with it’s naughty “F*** me!” refrain for us to sing.
Musically, those two songs into first encore You Keep It All In, was the sweetest spot in the show.
But the whole set with its rake of fantastic songs from The Beautiful South’s nine studio album career (so far!) was a reminder of days when bands with a lot of talent were allowed to get on and develop by record labels back in the 80s and 90s if they could keep delivering the goods.
But the three new songs from inheritors The South impressed too.
Though on a first listen, Stick It In and If I Laugh don’t seem to have the lyric wit of old Beautiful days, The Entertainer has the makings of a new classic with its weary “I’m tired of being the entertainer … fed up trying to put a smile on your face”.
It’s also where Dave Hemingway may have started getting wound up after his guitar strap fell off and he obviously felt daft and angry with himself.
But it was Ali Wheeler’s role in the band that started to seem odd. Beautiful South always had its honorary female singer. But there were times on Monday when you couldn’t help feeling that apart from her solos on Dream A Little Dream and Rotterdam, it was a wicked waste to limit her role to backing vocals, “hold on-ing” in Hold On To What, reeling off the list of names in Song For Whoever before a rare blissful moment when she and Dave actually duetted. But strangely separate most of the time they sang at the same time, it wasn’t till Rotterdam that the two finally sang looking at each other.
There were some lovely moments from the rest of the band, as you’d expect given all the years playing the music. The muted trumpet from Tony Robinson in Dream A Little Dream, the signature piano rumble in Perfect 10, the big front of the stage guitar solo in Song To Whoever.
The gig was a great advert for checking out old Beautiful South albums, looking out for the track by track release of new stuff on the South’s website – and hearing that the missing Paul Heaton is heading our way for a few dates in his solo guise in May.
Paul Heaton’s 50:50 tour – where he celebrates his 50th birthday by cycling 50 miles for each year during the tour (that’s a total of 2500 miles!) – takes him to May 22 Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore, The Arch Inn, Ullapool on May 23, The Clachaig, Glencoe, on May 25. For ticket information you can go to http://gigsandtours.com/?a=paul&heaton&site=paulheaton
