A different crew to the intended gigging group tonight as both Bevan boys dropped out for various reasons. Clive was drafted in late and ended up driving! A pleasant jaunt down to Southsea, to a venue right on the seafront. Quite a posh - and large - place. Went for a beer before the Cranberries set, and promptly ended up being "carded" by a barmaid young enough to be my... erm, young sister! Also bumped into Miki from Lush at the bar, and gave her a copy of a pic I took of her down the front at Belly's Mean Fiddler gig last year, during The Cranberries uninspiring and overlong set.
Belly came on at 10 and eased into their set with 3 slow numbers, to a crowd who definitely wanted to dance. The new bass player, an L7 reject lookalike called Gail, flailed around and seemed somewhat out of place amongst Belly's lush, pristine finer moments. The set certainly had a number of special moments - "Angel" and "Feed The Tree" were corking, as were both encores, but somehow, despite my being in the moshpit with a good view, for me the performance didn't really scale the highest heights that I know Tanya to be capable of, from the previous Belly gig and her time with the always brilliant "live" Throwing Muses. Maybe a slight illness, alluded to by Gail in a brief post-gig chat, affected Tanya. Maybe I'm setting my expectations too high, or maybe they're just not ready for the success that being number 4 in the album charts gives.
Still, it's good, I guess, that they're successful - Tanya deserves it!
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