bravecaptain @ joiners

[paulwhite]

Well on tuesday I saw the mighty BC at Soton.

First on was some kid with a backing track playing guitar and singing, which i pathetically thought was 'her space holiday' as I was expecting something like that from 'Marc Bianchi'. Alas I was wrong. It was probably some local kid. There was about 20 people in the venue, then.

Soon after he left the stage to a nice electronic/feedback guitary mess, Weevil came on. They were not all that great in my humble opinion. It was third-rate indie songs but with an electonic backing, and their insistance on dual singing every word with no harmonies got on my nerves. They went on unnoticed, and soon were gone.

Once they left, BC came up on stage and started setting up, and then started playing. There was probably 10 (maybe less) people in the venue at this point, and i almost left myself thinking it was a soundcheck, not wanting to spoil the set later on as I presumed he was the headliner. Luckily I never, as he continued playing at his laptops. It wasn't until he started singing that the venue started filling up a bit, but not to a great amount of people.
All the songs merged into one, with very little vocals, to begin with. He sang a bit of 'All watched over.......' on the first song, but the rest of it was pretty much indistinguisable to the original song. Then came another song, all electronicy, with him sitting at two laptops. This time there was a bit of 'I am a lion....' but again there was not much vocals.
I can't remember much about the set, to be honest. With me not knowing any of the songs, it's hard to recall anything other than the sublime 'Good Life' with Martin letting the laptops play themselves, and sitting and singing at a Korg (i think) keyboard thing, which sounded great and gave it a lovely ambience. He used this for the previous song as well.
There was also lots of talking a la 'corporation man' in the songs, about politics and things.
I enjoyed the set but it seemed very surreal to see him up there, and it was also very very short, unfortunately.

My brother and sister and I went to talk to him afterwards. My brother did all the talking, while I really didn't know what to say. My shyness taking over again. I wanted to compliment him on 'Good Life' but didn't get around to saying it, I also wanted to see if I could get my pre-ordered CD then, but that would take a very confident PD to do that. He seemed a sound guy, which is to be expected, listening to my brothers ramblings about Paul Weller, and 'Wallpaper' being his favourite boos song, whilst he put away his mountain of leads. It must of took him more time to set up and dis mantle than it did to do his set.

Last but certainly not least came 'Her Space Holiday'. Marc was accompined with a bassist and a drummer who really really complimented his songs well. All the strings and things that are on the album were there on his laptop while Marc himself played guitar on some, and sang (or rapped) on all. The songs sounded even better than the album versions, really tight with slight fluxtations to the originals to keep it interesting. The vocals sadly were much too low in the mix, but maybe that was more of a help than a hindrance on Mr Bianchi who will no dount agree that his vocals aren't the strongest. In all it was a very refreshing and enjoyable set, and personally I enjoyed it more than BC, simply because I knew most of the songs.

The whole evening was certainly worth £5, it was good to see something different with new musical boundaries being explored. The shortness of the sets were a shame (bar Weevil) and the absent and less than enthusiastic crowd was saddening, but still it was an excellent evening.

whitex

[mrfiresky]

i thought her space holiday were astonishng in brighton last night and want to see them gain.

[Dave w.]

[Setareh Juventina]

[Dave w.]

[paulwhite]

[ciaranm]

Lads, you shouldn't put people way up on pedestals, whether somebody is good at what they do or 'famous' or whatever doesn't make them any more intimidating to talk to (or it shouldn't at any rate) I personally don't know Martin, but I reckon if I got a chance to have a pint with him, he'd be as sound and easy-going a guy you could meet (on the basis of what I know of him from this board) and that should be the same for everybody, even if it's Jimi Hendrix that sitting next to you in the pub.

I'm gonna go out and get the album pretty soon sounds class

[Dave w.]

that's fine in principle, but harder to put into practice. (that probably goes for buying the album as well, no sign of it in birkenhead today...)

i'm bad at talking to anyone i don't know, cos i never know what to say. when the "relationship" with the person you're trying to talk to is basically one-way hero-worship, finding something meaningful and not sycophantic to say is even harder. and i didn't. maybe another time.

[paulwhite]

well i don't put anyone on pedestals. People are people. We're all the same inside .etc.

I'm just useless at talking, always have been, always will be. I can write, I can sing and play guitar in front of as many people as i like, but when it comes to actually holding a conversation with someone, count me out. What is there to say?

and the new album is class

whitex