This is my one and only blog page. It's about my discovery of new bands through Spotify, and my mission to see as many of them live as I possibly can! I've never been a huge gig-goer, so this is new and exciting for me. I want to share my experiences with anyone who is interested enough to read about it. Maybe I can find some musically like-minded people along the way.
After making my way to London and finding my way to The Royal Festival Hall via the 'Location' app on my HTC with relative ease, I was surprised at how middle class the place was, with a typically over-priced restaurant and art gallery. It was also a sit down gig - my first! which is something I wasn't expecting. It was Neil Hannon's 42nd birthday bash, so everyone, except myself, were handed party hats and kazoos on entry. Not sure why I missed out on that honour. I think I was just too eager and rushed past the party hat and kazoo ushers to find my seat!
I've always been a fan of The Divine Comedy aka Neil Hannon's most popular songs, but it wasn't until I began using Spotify that I really discovered how good his music was. I found that he had recorded so many albums over the years. So much genius and varied style. Fellow Irish band Pugwash were supporting with their familiar Hannon-like sound. A fitting introdution. The highlight of their performance was Meeting Mr. Miandad from the Duckworth Lewis Method album, in which Neil actually made an appearance for that one song, and then quickly rushed off stage again.
Neil Hannon @ The Festival Hall, London. 7th November 2012
Many of the Divine Comedy favourites were included and I just wanted to sing along. But the audience were quiet and retiring. The tongue-in-cheek performance from Neil was fantastic though, with songs like The Complete Banker, Assume the Permendicular, The Indie Disco and the ever haunting, and my personal favourite, A Lady of a Certain Age. Part way through the performance, as it was Neil's birthday, a giant 42 was wheeled on stage along with a cake, presented by Neil's daughter. He then, after the appearance of his string quartet, proceeded to perform the Promanade album in it's entirety, which, although not my favourite album, made for a magical performance. He even (barely) pulled off Book Lovers! Oh, he also did Songs of Love, in which everyone, EXCEPT ME, played the chorus on their kazoos! I knew they had a purpose! I should have gone back and got one!
There were also two special guests. Tom Chaplin from Keane made an appearance and sang Love What You Do, and Alison Moyet then did a performance of Don't Go from her Yazoo days. Then she sang Neil's The Certainty of Chance. All in all it was fantastic, although I was disappointed that such classics as Come Home Billy Bird, Generation Sex and Commuter Love didn't make it into the set list, but you can't expect everything from a guy with such a big back catalogue of great songs! Even with two encores, it all ended in time for me to catch the 23:05 train home. I was back by 2am, which, even by my regular standards, isn't bad going.
Below is a rough video I took of Alison Moyet performing Don't Go.
