Back from Beautiful Days - thought I'd post up my thoughts about it.
Bit of context:
I've been a poppies fan for a very, very long time, they are my fave band, and i have many happy memories of seeing them in the past - including in 96 without Graham. I supported the Vileevils stuff (though didn't think that much of the album - it was ok, with the odd really good track), and fell foul of the unmentionable goings on last year. I also got caught up in the disappointment of "poppies are back, oh no they're not" last autumn - so I was feeling quite cynical about this line up for PWEI, with only one original member, but wanted to at least try and be open minded.
They came o stage, and teh crowd wasn't particularly massive...PWEI V's the Moral Majority blared out and then....I was blown away by the sound - they sounded awesome - really, really good. By the end of England's Finest, my fears were ebbing away, and after the first track, they were gone completely. It was great to hear old tracks being blasted out with a bit of a metal-y kick up the arse from the new members. Don't get me wrong I loved them in their orignal form, and always thought of messing with them as some sort of heresy, but in this case it worked and it worked really well (the 'new' version of babylon was great). (Maybe not surprisingly) like how Gary Numan's classic tracks have been given a boot up the arse by his band. Mary Byker did a good job of being co-vocalist (and like Clint, managed to forget a few of teh words - but it wouldn't be a poppies gig without that). They poppies energy of old was still there, and by mid way throgh the set, the crowd had grown tons, and most people were dancing about.. Even the 'old' vileevils (now PWEI) tracks sounded so much better than in their previous incarnation. Graham's picked some very talented musicians.
From memory they played (not necessarily in this order):
PWEi V's the Moral Majority
England's Finest
Wise Up! Sucker!
Everything's Cool?
Cape Connection
Babylon
RSVP
Old skool cool
Chaos & Mayhem
Preaching to the Perverted
Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Get the Girl, Kill the Baddies
Their Law
They may have played some other tracks, but the sunburn is making thinking even harder than usual.
The only possible criticisms: they forgot a few of teh words (but that always used to happen anyway) & the merch was just the 'product' t-shirts again. But those aren't anything for anyone to get their knickers in a twist about. Maybe I have been coloured by having low expectedtations, so it would be easy to surpass them, but my mate's girlfriend (who doesn't know any poppies track - the scandal of it) thought they sounded brilliant. As I said, I wasn't expecting much - and in spite of other bands that I really love playing BD, PWEI were easily band of the festival.
I think my mate (anotther v long term fan) put it best: "Did we got to see poppies to see Clint? Did we go to see Graham? Or Adam, Or Richard or Fuzz? No. We didn't go because of any one particular member - or even several of them. We went cos the music was f-ing briliant and we all had a briliant time". I think he's right. If you judge this performance by those standards, then the poppies are back. And they most definately say grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. If you couldn't make it to BD, get a ticket for the tour, I don't think you'll be disappointed See you in October.
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