These open doors

 Another trip to the mothership, this time for spot of early '00s nostalgia 

In the summer of '00, you really couldn't avoid Moby's Play album - not only did it spend five weeks at #1 but the tracks popped up in countless other random places as well. I bought it and quite liked it, but always thought it was a curious collection of tracks and I rarely made it all the way to the end of the album. And I'd not listened to it in ages, but when work offered a freebie to go and see the 25th anniversary tour at The O2, I was intrigued enough to make the trip in to see what it sounded like - I was slightly concerned it would just turn out to be him pressing "play" on a tape recorder (see what I did there?) but I hoped for better...

First up though, we had support in the form of Lady Blackbird who I knew nothing about but was immediately intrigued as she strode onto the stage with the most fantastic hair and outfit - which you could barely see because the lighting was so low. This was to give the required atmosphere to reflect her great (and very strong) gospel/jazz voice over some nice low-key backing. It all sounded great but would have worked much better in a small club - the very slowly filling-up cavernous space really didn't do her any favours. She also massively confused me by shouting "we're home!" as part of her intra-song banter because she comes from New Mexico which, last time I checked, isn't all that close to Greenwich. I enjoyed her performance and am tempted to check out her album, but it certainly didn't quite hit the spot with the wider audience.

Before Moby appeared, I had time to pop out and try the new self-service bars - which were incredibly less exciting than they sound! It's a bit like McDonalds - touch screen ordering and then you take your ticket over to the bar where your drinks are poured for you. Or, in my case, the barman flicks a tap which does nothing so he has to sheepishly announce "the stout's a bit off - do you want something else?". I can see the system generally works well for the venue though because it avoids staff being delayed by customers unable to make up their mind and it doesn't feel like it makes things any worse for the customers. It was really quiet when I was there last night though so I'd be interested to see how it copes during busy times - I also imagine entering a large round with a variety of drinks on a touch screen would be really annoying.

And so, back for Moby and I'm pleased to announce that he didn't pull a David Byrne Stop Making Sense move and bring out the tape player - he had quite the band with him! And they made much more of a "live" sound than I was expecting - there was certainly no danger of the sound being lost amongst the (now pretty much full) crowd.

There was also more musical variety than I was expecting - yes, Play is quite an eclectic album but it's mostly ambient electronic stuff whereas everything here had been pushed in a slightly (for me) unexpected direction. "We Are All Made Of Stars" sounded exactly like a Hot Chip cover version (and worked well), whereas other tracks were taken much more in a Chemical Brothers beat-heavy direction and others were given more of a Talking Heads feel.

He also made excellent use of his two female vocalists (Choklate and someone I've been unable to track down - sorry) who have superb voices - their harmonies on "Almost Home" were beautiful (but unfortunately because it was a quieter number the crowd decided it was time to chat). We also had Lady Blackbird back on for a bit who did a very good job on "Walk With Me" and (particularly) "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?". The band were all very capable but I feel I have to call out the cellist and violinist who made some absolutely gorgeous noises throughout the evening.

All of which brings us to an interesting question - what did Moby actually do here? Well, he certainly looked like he was having fun as he wandered around with a guitar and played keyboards or bongos every so often (and at least you could hear the bongos!). But there were certainly times he could have left the stage for 10 mins and I’m not sure anyone would have noticed - and, if I was feeling harsh, I could suggest there were times when he was singing that maybe he should have left the stage. He did a reasonable job with his banter though and he was very complimentary about his band, noting at one point "it’s ironic being the headliner and the least talented person on stage". He also said "thank you" a LOT!

I imagine hardcore Moby fans probably loved it but I suspect that people who popped along because they loved Play might have left feeling a bit disappointed. It certainly looked like those who were in the standing area were having a great time - the atmosphere looked funner down there than up in the gods with me and the other grumpy old men (although there were also a surprising number of young people there). But even though I wasn't jumping out of my seat to dance around the place, I enjoyed the gig - it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but that's no bad thing!