Much of Sheffield was shut when we arrived - the football earlier had meant all the pubs were shut except the local cinema. I saw Graham outside, who was meeting a friend, and we all headed inside. He met Sal, sound engineer for the Poppies for pretty much all of their time, who had come along to the gig. I asked him bits and pieces about the tour, and also plans for the future. Talk of a new single in the new year sounded promising, and the three month break he intends to have when his new baby arrives in the new year may be a time for writing new songs. It was sounding good news!
We headed into the venue.
The intro - "Music is a gift of God..." and suddenly this was it.
Back to Business went straight into Wise Up! Sucker, and I knew it was ok. Strobes, megaphones, fast rapping, buzzing guitars. I carefully ticked off each box in my "Eye Spy PWEI" booklet that I had taken to the gig.
Things were moving fast now. Mary was excellent. At no point did he seem like he was a helper, someone to back up Gra. He was equal all the time - talking, singing, rapping and bouncing crazily round the stage. He introduced songs, chatted and was very much a co singer. IHe bounced off Gra, literally, and the two were excellent together.
Any worries had were pretty much gone now. Old songs sounded excellent, vibrant and very much fresh, and the newer ones slotted very nicely in to the set. One worry remained however. Pop Will Eat Itself have always been funny. Banter, silliness and general nonsense always made them so much better than those intense, difficult bands. Would this have changed? Of course not. I don't really know why I worried really.
I was really impressed with the new band members. Davey played bass. It was strangely reassuring to see someone on stage at a Pop Will Eat Itself gig with dreadlocks. He was really really friendly after the gig, chatting away to everyone outside the venue.
Tim seemed to know the score with his guitar. It seemed a long way away from when Rich used to have to do the difficult bits on the guitar live instead of Adam. At least that is what I used to think happened! (Adam apparently is popping along to a couple of gigs)
This is Jason. He was really impressive (two snares fact fans). He even did a little drum solo, much to the bemusement of Mary. He looked so happy throughout the whole gig. I was a bit worried (maybe too much worrying had been done before) that the band would be too tight, if that makes sense? Yes, they were spot on, but instead of sounding clinical and boring, they really gave the songs a strong, driving and powerful feel, which with the backing tracks, samples and rapping really sounded excellent.
The set list? Pretty much the same as the previous gigs I think.
Couple of final shots.
[/url]It was pretty busy - lots of PWEI shirts (I was the portly character in the two Ronnies glasses and the Coca -Cola Poppies football shirt on) and what was really good to see that there were quite a few younger folk enjoying it too.
What about Sal? You remember, the original Poppies Sound Engineer? He'd headed over to the mixing desk for the gig (Did you have a go on it Sal? I asked. He hadn't) . He was really impressed and said he like it a lot.
This wasn't a tribute, or a fakereunion, or a pantomime. Pop Will Eat Itself never did what you thought they would do, never sounded like you thought they would. Some of the people might be different, but the songs very much remain the same. Viva la Poppies. (See what I did there?)
