Gaze With The Beautiful South (The Beautiful South - Live)

Member Name: t4mof

Product:	The Beautiful South - Live
Date:	28/12/04 (346 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic night out, Professional performance

Disadvantages: Set only lasted 1 1/2 hours

In 2000 the Beautiful South played to an almost capacity Nottingham Arena. In 2003 the venue was smaller – The Royal Concert Hall – and it was a sell out. Once again, it was a top class performance from the band who have been gracing our charts with their individual style for the past 15 years.

At the time of this tour The Beautiful South had just released a new album, “Gaze” and this show was as part of their Gaze tour taking place throughout November 2003 up and down the country.

For me, it was the third time I had seen the band live and not once have they disappointed.

To get proceedings kicked off was an interesting warm-up act going by the name of Magnet. When this was announced in the foyer, we assumed this would be a group. What we actually got was one youngish looking lad, playing a beat box. And at the end he informed us that somebody else was involved in this collaboration too. Not that he wasn’t good. There is clearly some up and coming talent trying to shine through here and he explained that the reason behind the beat box was because they couldn’t afford a band. But beat box and guitar were all that was needed to create the mellow sound of this artist’s music. I remarked to Paul that it would be a good CD to have on the background if you had friends over for dinner but I’m still not sure about “warm-up”. Most of the audience around me looked quite sleepy by the end of the half hour set.

Just after 9pm, the main act came on stage to rapturous applause. Paul Heaton stood in the middle of the other two vocalists, newest member Alison Wheeler, and Dave Hemingway. Now bearing in mind that Paul and I commented during our pre-show drink on how we felt young (a rarity these days!) compared to the rest of the audience, this was a lively bunch we found ourselves surrounded by. From the minute the lights dimmed to the final encore everyone was up on their feet, singing at the top of their voices and waving their arms, creating a great atmosphere.

The set began with a track from Gaze, “Life versus the Lifeless”, and as I have only listened to the new album once it wasn’t one of the songs I knew best. But I had no need to worry as the Beautiful South don’t just concentrate on the latest album when performing live. They give you a piece of everything that they are known for.

Alison Wheeler was introduced fairly early on and received a warm reception from the crowd. Paul Heaton left the stage as Alison and Dave performed “A Little Time”, surprisingly Beautiful South’s only number one hit from the late 80s. After each of her solo verses the audience cheered which was a nice touch. Alison takes her place in the Beautiful South as the third female vocalist and I think when replacing Jackie, who left the band three years ago, the rest of the group were looking for someone with a similar sounding voice. If that is the case then they’ve found her. When singing songs such as “Rotterdam” and “Perfect 10”, it was difficult to remember that she hadn’t sung on the tracks when they were hits.

Throughout the set, we were treated to new tracks, “Just a few things that I ain’t”, “Pretty”, “Let go with the flow” and “101% man” mixed in with a variety of their old stuff.

“Just a few things that I ain’t” was the first single to be released from the Gaze album and probably due to lack of airplay and lack of publicity from the band themselves, didn’t chart as high as the song deserved. However, it went down very well on the night to an appreciative crowd.

Other songs performed were the great singalongable tunes of “Song For Whoever”, “Carry On Regardless” and a slower pace was introduced with “One Last Love Song.” One thing you do notice from the order of the songs, is that most of the band members get to leave the stage for a break. Not all 3 vocalists sing on every track and so every now and then, one of them disappears for a quick breather. Although this is noticeable, it doesn’t detract from the show as a whole since the people still left on stage are professional to the last.

Before we knew it, 75 minutes had passed and the whole band left the stage to more deafening applause. This continued for a minute or so until they all returned for the encore. At this point we were treated to “Don’t Stop Movin’” by S Club 7 sung in the style of the Beautiful South which was very good and unexpected. Grown men who probably wouldn’t admit to ever have heard of S Club 7 were singing all the words at the top of their voices! One further song and the band left to another enthusuastic response and returned for a second encore. The final song was “Woman In The Wall” and capped yet another enjoyable show.

If you like the music of the Beautiful South, then I would thoroughly recommend seeing them live. They certainly put on a good show and you don’t have to own every album to enjoy it, such is the mixture of old and new they include in their sets. Interesting dancing from Paul Heaton and some good humoured banter between Heaton and members of the audience all added to the entertainmnt. Ticket prices will vary depending on venue but we paid £22.50 (+ booking fee) for our seat and it was well worth every penny.

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