It went so well for you

 

Big Country have, in their time, played some massive venues both in their own right and supporting various other minor artists such as U2, David Bowie and Queen, so they're no strangers to appearing in front of a few people (rabbit hole fact from Wikipedia - they were at Live Aid and appeared on stage at the end, but weren't invited to perform as a band because someone thought they'd split up!).  They are (I think) the band I've seen live most (although it's Billy Bragg if you include the countless times I've seen him ranting about Maggie at Glasto on any stage that will have him).  However, the venues I've seen Big Country at not quite in the stadium league -  a university bar, a couple of pubs and a village hall (and they've had a different line-up each time, but that often happens for bands that hang around for more than a few years).  And for my latest visit, they were at the newly opened Eric Morecambe Centre which is handily tucked away behind the leisure centre in Harpenden (and more on the venue later).  

So my lovely wife and I joined the massive (creative licence permitting) throng of middle-aged (at best!) checked shirts and vintage Big Country teeshirts (I was wearing my Wonderland 30th anniversary tour one from 6 years ago) trekking across from the car park - which took all of a minute.  Which was fortunate because this was immediately followed by a return trip when it became apparent that, although the building is new and looks very impressive, they'd forgotten to include a cloakroom so there was nowhere to put our coats.  Oops.

The support act were better than expected - I'd love to tell you more about them, but we missed the beginning and the lead singer forgot to close off with "Thank you Harpenden, we've been <X> and you've been fantastic" so I've got no idea who they were.  But they managed to drag people away from the bar and they got some applause, so they did better than quite a few support acts I've seen in my time.

A short break before the main event meant it was time to go and see how the queuing system at the bar worked under a bit of pressure.  And I can report it worked impressively - impressively slowly, that is.  Despite there appearing to be sufficient bar staff who were all serving drinks efficiently, I just didn't seem to get any closer to the front of the queue as time progressed.  One of the wonders of some hospitality venues I guess - Tottenham's stadium was another recent-ish endurance example where it took us 30 minutes to reach the front of the food queue only to be told that they ran out of hot dogs 15 minutes ago (and there was nothing else my darling daughter would contemplate, of course).

But I got to my drink in the end (Camden Pale - perfectly drinkable) and returned to the main hall in time to see a roadie frantically waving a torch at the sound guy to tell him the band were ready to appear.  Unfortunately, the sound guy wasn't paying the blindest bit of notice so this went on for slightly longer than it should have done - I bet they don't have these problems at Wembley.  But communication was finally established, the cheesy 80s music was turned down and the band strode on to the stage - HELLO HARPENDEN!!

And, well, I can't say they delivered any surprises but no-one in the audience was there for any surprises (and the one time I saw them that they did deliver surprises, I can assure you it didn't go down well).  The set was mainly songs from The Crossing and Steeltown - personally, I would have been pleased to see something from The Seer but I was very much out of luck.  All the classics were there though - and it was good to hear them, but apart from "Chance", I can't claim they're my favourites.  I was extremely happy for "Lost Patrol", "The Storm", "Just A Shadow" and "Steeltown" to turn up though - all minor classics in my humble opinion.  ("Porrohman" would have been nice to see too, but I can appreciate the eight minute length does put people off).

On stage, they do look somewhat like Status Quo, but the good news is that they sound nothing like the Quo - the guitars obviously drive the sound and the father and son combination of Bruce and Jamie Watson handle this well and appear to be having a lot of fun whilst doing so.  But the bass (Gil Allan - a newbie) and drums (Mark Brzezicki - the other member from the original line-up along with Bruce) do a good job in keeping the guitars in line (although they do get carried away from time to time).  And Simon Hough does a fine job on vocals - much better than Mike Peters did the first time I saw them in terms of bringing across the emotion.

Right - so I enjoyed the gig, but I do have a major, major gripe.  This was the Wonderland 35th Anniversary tour and I happen to particularly enjoy that track and was looking forward to hearing it.  So I was somewhat surprised that they didn't play it - they were having some technical issues, so that might have been the cause but I'd have preferred them to at least give it a bash!

A quick word about the venue for any locals - it's obviously nice because it's new but hopefully they know what they're doing building these things these days so it will last the distance.  However it's a good venue to go and watch music in because the sound is impressive (better towards the back of room, I found) and the floor has a gentle slope to it which greatly aids visibility.  One further word of warning about the bar - it shut at 10, so they weren't keen on anybody hanging about.  However, you really can't complain about how close you're able to get to the band though, as the photos below suggest.

All in all, it was a fine gig at a fine venue and the crowd dispersed happily having been given pretty much exactly what they went for, except for "Wonderland".  But I'll let them off and just have to play it loudly at home - sorry neighbours.