A strange evening, this! Drove down with Ady and got into the very well-attended Trout after having to queue (normally unheard of in this place), and just had time to get the beers in, before Pale Saints, my main reason for attending tonight, took the stage on the stroke of 9. Talk about timing!
Pale Saints, the 1994 incarnation, with Meriel Graham taking over vocal chores from departed founder member Ian Masters, and former Heart Throbs/ Parachute Men bassist and my favourite Canadian Colleen Browne taking over the bass duties, are a different beast than before; more ethereal and less rough and hard-edged, but no less timeless and totally absorbing. Recent, rockier yet still splendidly haunting number "Angel" got me rocking out, and the surprising but no less welcome "Sight Of You" (their debut, and still finest hour), with perfectly understated vocals delivered by Colleen (good work, girl!). However, I was the only one to do so - bloody indifferent Windsor Goth audience! Nevertheless, tonight Pale Saints were majestic, and I chatted to Colleen afterwards (who I'm glad to say remembered me from those old Paras/ Heart Throbs days), congratulating her not only on the superb set, but also on the fact that tonight she became the first person I'd seen play live in 3 different bands!
Retreated to the bar while The Cranes were on; their Gothy (no doubt pierced) navel-gazing introspection is not my cup of tea, I find vocalist Alison's little girl lost vocal style irritating, and tonight their set was also beset with technical problems. I had a far more interesting time standing at the bar; firstly I was chatted up by a hyperactive helium-voiced barman, who alleged I made the Chippendales look like scarecrows (his words, not mine!) and simply said, "what a waste," when I informed him both of my heterosexuality and marital status! Then I witnessed some serious hero-worship (I mean serious - fainting, screaming, the lot) by some Goth girls for a bemused chap standing next to me at the bar, whom I was later informed by some German punter was Simon Gallup of The Cure! As I said, a strange old evening!
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