i went to see the bright lights last night

beeswinging. 

The Bridgewater Hall is a bit like the QE2 turned inside out. Also, it's nice to see an artist who turns up on time. A little respect for his employer. 8.30 on the button RT strolled on and he was everything he should have been. Cool, strong, witty and absolutely on top of his craft. Beeswing, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Withered and Died, I Feel So Good, they kept coming. His encore style was good too. Went off to applause. Stood stage side for about a minute. Came back on.

Most bands disappear to

a) smoke a fag
b) ingest alcohol/narcotics
c) fondle groupies
d) have a wee

before returning to the stage and a falsely hyped up audience forgetting to stamp their feet and shout 'More'. Not Thompson though.

I once saw New Order at Tiffanies in Leeds. They came back to do Blue Monday after forty minutes!! Mind you, at that time, they rarely came back on at all, so the cleaners and three remaining drunks were honoured. How does it feel?

Worse, I saw the Cocteau Twins at Leeds Uni who kept an already comatose audience (they'd just stood through Dif Juz) waiting for almost two hours before they deigned to appear. Even then Liz Fraser irritatingly introduced EVERY song with 'this one's for Ivo'. They just weren't pretentious enough for me.

By the way, why does somebody always do the Wigan Walk at gigs. Thompson walked off leaving his guitar, obviously planning to return to the stage for more and some nerdy bloke in a cardigan gets up and leaves having paid good money for a ticket. I used to think people had to get the last bus and were leaving somewhat crestfallen that they'd made the decision to sleep in their own bed rather than walk 18 miles to Darwen in the pissing rain out of respect for their favourite artist. This, however, was no student crowd. Everyone in the place was well turned out and with a Volkswagen Passat tucked into the GMex carpark ready to take them home in comfort to the sound of aircon humming and Shoot Out The Lights. So where was this guy going? Maybe he hadn't enjoyed the show. Certainly he missed Thompson doing a note perfect cover of The Who's Substitute on a whim. Maybe he thought he was going to see Richard Digance. Or Richard Dimbleby. Or Emma Thompson.