June 4th

Both Beth & I slept in a bit this morning as we’d both had a late night and after a wonderful brekkie we took a breath of air along the seafront. Beth wanted to take some pictures of the beach huts and then head along the pier to take more but, as the sun was out and it’s always difficult to do too much exercise in the sun, we didn’t get it all done. In fact we only got as far as a seafood stall on the promenade where we bought cockles and then a ‘99’ on the way back.
We’d had a hankering for roast chicken all week so we indulged ourselves that evening before getting ourselves ready to head off to see Zero 7 in concert at the Brighton Dome.
We needn’t have rushed though as the support act (Fink) didn’t come on ‘till 7 and Zero 7 themselves didn’t show until 9. With both of us fighting to keep our eyes open we could’ve used that extra time in a more productive manner and finished off the wine we’d opened with dinner and maybe squeezed in a wee nap.
Anyhow, Fink were okay but not great. Zero 7 however were brilliant. We’re both big fans of theirs and we’d missed them in concert last year as Beth was ill and we’d had to ditch our tickets. I’ve always thought of them as essentially ‘dinner party’ music with a bit of extra bite and this opinion was reinforced when as the realization slowly danwned on us that there were an awful lot of middle aged couples there. In fact, some were positively old. Their fan base really is young to old and I was really pleased to see a few representatives form the ‘Yute’ hanging about drinking ‘Smirnoff Ice’.
I’d always wondered how an ‘electronic’ band would perform live, would it just be like listening to the album on CD or would it be different? As it happens it’s very different, the very fact that we were able to ‘be with them’ whilst they were making the music makes it more exciting and, despite the fact that they were surrounded by computers and technical equipment, their set still had a very personal feel.
Obviously they mostly played tracks from the new album but they squeezed in a few choice tracks from the older ones, mostly ‘cos Sia was with them. The ever popular Sia voiced track ‘Distractions’ went down very well with the audience and she did manage to sing the entire track without using a single consonant which must be something of a first. She also belted out one of the tracks off her own album, ‘Breathe Me’ I think it was to great applause. She has a cracking voice and she put a hell of a lot of force behind it, which kind of surprised us as ordinarily (on cd anyway) she sings quite softly. I was also taken aback to find that she’s actually Australian and not Scandinavian as I’d previously thought.
She entertained the crowd with her ‘kooky’ dancing (and you know how much I loathe ‘kooky’) and her general high-spirits but she veered dangerously close to ‘stand-up’ territory at points, asking for dance style suggestions from the crowd.
Jose Gonzales on the other hand was in comparison a little dull. His voice is excellent and highly soulful but his demeanour is positively dour. The power of his vocal range and the gentleness of his tone though really shone through the tracks he performed, he also provided the obligatory cock-up when he launched into a song early. There was much merriment. All in all it was a fine old evening.

Tea drunk: 6
Concerts seen: 1
Women I thought were Scandinavian but are actually Australian: 1