10/10/99 - BOURNEMOUTH CENTRE

Review by Gareth Hope:
Bournemouth was my 7th BA concert of this year. Having being very impressed by his summer shows (despite my initial concern for the thought of the 3 member band) I thought perhaps he might return to the 5 man band for the continuation of the tour. But having said that I wasn’t surprised when that wasn’t the case.

Newcastle and the 2nd Wembley shows were both very good, you could tell he was just warming up in Newcastle and by Wembley he was really into it.

Lisa (my girlfriend) and I got seating tickets through the fan club for Bournemouth and the bastard security would not let us stand up (we eventually stood for the encores), having had front row for Newcastle and 2nd row for Wembley this felt a little strange at first, but it then gave me the chance after 6 gigs to properly examine the show.

By actually sitting down and watching it you notice the presence of the light show; it really is brilliant. It’s harder in the summer when your doing outdoor gigs, but inside and arena, gigs can look visually stunning. Bryan has always said that he’s never going to make his shows look like Pink Floyd, but you can definetly see elements of that creeping into his show. This is definetly evident in the chorus of C’mon, C’mon, C’mon where the dreamy feel of the song is recreated on stage. Or at the end of ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever’ where the manic rush of the song is captured with some wicked lights on stage.

The other main factor is the sound. It is very raw. You notice how many sounds Keith Scott (who by the way was on fire tonight, like a mad man on heat!) gets out of his pedal board, and with only the bass and drums to back him, it sounds almost mean. But that’s not a bad thing as this is also the loudest his shows have been for some time. I remember back in '96, he was nowhere near as loud as he is now.

And all this adds up towards a very exciting show.

Bryan’s voice is as always, brilliant, and the backing vocals very impressive from Keith and Mickey.

My only real complaint is the song selection. Perhaps it’s because it’s only the 3 of them, and he feels that certain songs will just not cut it without the other members, but hearing the exact same set every night can get a little boring at times. He’s still for example playing 6 songs off Reckless, while only 2 of ‘…neighbours’ and 3 off ’18 till I Die’, I feel that these albums could still be explored a little more in his live set. And what about ‘Into The Fire’??? – I would give anything to hear the title track or ‘Another Day’ live – but there you go, perhaps some things weren’t meant to be.

Having said that though, it still is a great show. ‘Back To You’ still sounds amazing, ‘Summer of ‘69’ will always be a classic live, and of the new tracks, ‘When You’re Gone’ (accompanied by the Mel C wannabee’s from the audience) and ‘Cloud#9’ sound the best.

A mention must go out to ‘The Best Of Me’ (why the album is being released I’ll never know?? – what about live songs and b-sides to replace the old one’s????), the song is an instant classic, I almost know all the words already! – Bryan joked that it might not be heard outside of Bournemouth ever again, but I get the feeling that if radio pick this up, that he could be heading for another big hit with this one.

And so it’s on to Cardiff for me now this Friday – July 23rd was fantastic, I’m sure October 15th in my home town will be exactly the same.

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