I went to a gig at the weekend. I didn't have to go far to get there, but the wind and rain dampened my enthusiasm, to the point that I almost didn't bother. But a bought ticket is a bought ticket and, since it wasn't the cheapest, I ventured out into the squally night.
Support was from The Inspiral Carpets, can you believe, or the current iteration thereof, at least. Since Tom Hingley got off the reunion bus in 2011, the band have re-recruited their original, pre-fame vocalist, Stephen Holt. He tries his best, and I don't like to be critical, but it was like watching a competition winner where the prize was getting to sing lead vocals. He wasn't terrible, far from, but he lacked stage presence. Still, it was nice to hear Saturn 5 and This Is How It Feels get live run-outs.
The headline act was The Wonder Stuff. Talk about a contrast in front men: Miles Hunt remains opinionated, energised and totally unfiltered, even after all these years. It's been a while (checks Songkick - 32 years! Impossible!) since I last saw the band live and, like The Inspirals, they've had lots of line-up changes since: indeed, only Hunt and his "brother from another mother" Malcolm Treece remain from the classic line-up. But the songs... oh, how the songs endure. And oh, how so many of them remain lodged in some recess of my brain, just needing a live setting to trigger recall.
A lot of bands would close with Mission Drive, if not the whole set then at least the bit before the encore, such is its four-minute elegy-into-anthem transition. But The Wonder Stuff opened with it at the weekend, and built up from there. It was quite the show, and I came away glad to have braved the wind, the rain and, worst of all, my own pre-gig malaise.
Because I had forgotten just how many songs of theirs I knew and loved, you might have done too. Take a peak at the setlist:
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