Which paper said we couldn't sell any tickets?

Another trip to the mothership, this time for an 80stastiic evening

I can't claim to be a huge OMD fan, but they've released a few decent tracks over the years and when I recently visited their (somewhat surprising) #2 album, I quite enjoyed it - so when tickets came up through work to see them, I felt there were worse ways I could spend my Sunday evening.  And then I saw they were supported by Howard Jones, who I've always liked and it would be a first time visit for both of them - so count me in!

Howard mostly rattled through the hits, making the most of his pretty generous support slot which enabled him to play eight songs which included "Pearl In The Shell", "New Song", "Like To Get To Know You Well", "Hide And Seek", "What Is Love?" and "Things Can Only Get Better" - there are more than you expect when you see them written down.  He did a good job in playing live versions of them though - they were different, but not so different as to annoy people (although I'm not sure everyone appreciated his very dance-musiced up second half of TCOGB).  

He was backed by a four(?) other musicians, one of who was Nick Beggs, ex of Kajagoogoo so they also played "Too Shy" and did a very decent job of it (ironing out some of the cheese, if you know what I mean).  I knew Nick was highly regarded (he plays with Steven Wilson and you ain't getting on that ticket unless you are a very serious muso) but I was very impressed by his contributions throughout the set.  For completeness, I should also mention they also played another track which fitted in nicely but I didn't recognise it in the slightest!

I'd struggle to say Howard and his mates fully owned the stage, but his voice was a lot stronger than I was expecting and they produced a nice full sound which went down very well with an audience which was very well populated for a support act.  The couple next to me were quite annoyed he didn't play for longer - and they were obviously only there for him because they didn't bother hanging around for OMD.  I was expecting to like him, but I'd say he comfortably exceeded expectations - I think a Glastonbury slot would go down pretty well as long as they pick the right stage.  Finally, for those of you worried about such things, I can put your mind to rest and confirm that he's still got very silly hair...

...unlike OMD, who have very sensible haircuts these days, but they did have slightly shiny shirts on for their big night out.  And boy were they were determined to have a good time - there was a lot more (surprisingly camp) inter-song banter than I was expecting!

As you'd expect, they played all the hits (and again there were more than I was expecting) - "Tesla Girls", "Souvenir", "Enola Gay" and "Maid Of Orleans" were my favourites, with the latter being particularly well received by the audience.  As with Howard, they were all well done as live versions - other similarities with his sets were that their voices were considerably stronger than I was expecting and they managed to create a very full sound with only four musicians.  The less well known (by me, at least) tracks all slotted in to the set very nicely as well - there was no obvious "dead zone" in the evening.  They also had much better visuals to go along with the show than I was expecting - there were some cool videos on display back there.

They were also having an absolute blast up there - having started touring 45 years ago, this was their biggest ever crowd in London (there were approx 7,500 people in) and they obviously loved it.  And the audience loved them and joined in with all the singing along, jumping, dancing, clapping and hand-waving as instructed - and they were surprisingly mobile considering the number of people of advanced years present (yes, some of them were even older than me). 

All in all, this was a great night out - enjoyable music played with enthusiasm and skill and warmly received by an appreciative audience and I'm very glad I got the opportunity to be part of it.