Speaking of which, the faithful had been lining up outside well before doors were to open for this show at Liverpool’s Kazimier on 24 of May. As I walked up, I spotted my friend Robin, who was waiting to see them for the second of three times on this tour. As he says, they don’t tour that often so you gotta take your chances. As we waited in the dusty Liverpool sunshine, I asked the woman behind me what it was like to be the only lady in amongst maybe 50 blokes, all of them of the age where a polished bonce is an occupational hazard. Her only reply was that she was no lady.
We got inside and enjoyed a vaudeville support set from Edgar Summertyme Jones, St Et’s one time bass player, then gasped when the stage manager fell dramatically down the stairs onto the stage he was supposed to be managing, flinging a can of beer over worrying looking electrics.
Maybe it was just that the blokes are more OCD about gig times, but by the time the support had been and gone and we were heading toward that moment, there was a pretty decent mix of both age and sexes. Apart from the front row of course. I eavesdropped a conversation behind me, where a girl was confessing to having seen Saint Etienne on every tour since since ’98 and being, well, a bit obsessed, even to copying Sarah’s blond bob. The guy she was talking to asked her if she had a cat. Why yes, she did, why do you ask? He enquired in return whether it was called Sarah by any chance? Bingo and gales of laughter. In amongst the Fox Base Alpha tee shirts was a bloke wearing a Saint Etienne football team shirt. Seven quid on eBay apparently. I hardly need explain there’s a French football who have confused everyone by naming themselves after the band.
Eventually we could spot a flash of sparkle at the top of the stairs leading down from the dressing room – Sarah’s silver lame dress catching the light as they readied themselves and then descended like the dove from above.
…I asked the woman behind me what it was like to be the only lady in amongst maybe 50 blokes, all of them of the age where a polished bonce is an occupational hazard. Her only reply was that she was no lady…
– Mike Hughes
Of course this band have always been about yearnings for some past that might or might not have existed. Nostalgia is too simple a word, but even 20 years ago they were harking back to Sandie Shaw and 60′s TV. It’s about personal journeys too, as much as the zeitgeist. It’s not just ‘When I Was Seventeen’ that references that seminal age, ‘Sylvie’ goes the exact same place, while the organ line of ‘You’re In A Bad Way’ sounded cheesy even before it was co-opted as a sample – by the sounds of it, back when TVs still windowed the world in black and white. There are so many loops of recursion it was turning into the sort of fractal you could have programmed for yourself in 1984 on a BBC Model B.
There’s a monstrous back catalogue, so much so that at least every other song could be a crowd favourite. Sarah was all charm and flashing white teeth but was genuinely touched to be to able to push the mic in the direction of the first three rows of the audience and have the songs sung for her. I’m sure someone will pop up to prove me wrong but I don’t think I have ever seen her without calf length black boots on. After two songs, she paused and looked round, explaining that those first couple of numbers are always just a blur and it takes until now for her to settle down and even be able to look properly at the crowd. She does little shimmying dances, and tonight confessed that there are moments when she is mid-step and suddenly imagines herself as the lady at the start of that Tales Of Mystery And Imagination TV show. I wouldn’t worry, you’ve got 300% more self assurance when you dance than me or any of the blokes in the front row. There was some talk, before the gig, that Sarah had been nursing her vocal chords a bit, and that was borne out when she slipped a throat pastille into her mouth under her hand, rather spoiling the stealth of the act by telling us exactly what she’d done. Not that it was any mystery I suppose.
I’m sorry to go on about the front woman as though she was the only person there, to the exclusion of the rest of the musical talent. Bob and Pete, squirrelled away behind their tables of Korgs and Rolands are loved by their audience and are friendly enough and smiley, but seem happy to remain hemmed in and protected by their armoury. Bob didn’t even notice when someone called out for him to give us a thumbs up. Mind you, they have a lot to manage, and kept turning round to make sure they were on track in segueing the music with the Saturday morning TV inspired video projections.
It might have just been the track sequencing, but I found myself thinking that I’d never really noticed how closely they paralleled hi-nrg bands like Bronski Beat. No bad thing, just an observation. Until that is they got to ‘Only Love’, three songs away from the end of the main set. The bass dropped, the air got heavy, and all of a sudden I could have been in Heaven. No, not the celestial space, more like the Charing Cross nightclub, the one with the big sound system. We were on the home run now. Even here, they were willing to stack the new music in amongst the classics – ‘DJ’ second to last in the main set before diving back to Fox Base Alpha days with ‘Nothing Can Stop Us’. Off up those precarious stairs for a brief interlude, then back down to give us a two song encore, consisting of current single ‘I’ve Got Your Music’ and book-ending the whole thing with ‘He’s On The Phone’.
They told us that last time they had played Liverpool was 1993, so by that reckoning we’ll expect them back in 2031 – or maybe a bit before.
For more of Mike’s awesome photos, please visit his Flickr page or his original posting of this article HERE.
These videos were not taken by Mike Hughes, but after seeing them he commented, “I like the vids – you can see me in the first two. I’m in the front next to the guy with the compact camera who shot the second two. They capture the atmosphere of the Kaz rather nicely.”:
http://youtu.be/Mli7hnVD0Ko
http://youtu.be/nE6QfVX-SXI
