Southampton Guildhall
Three years after the reformation of one of Britpop’s shining stars, Suede finally release the new album that their fans have been longing for after a string of rehashed greatest hits packages designed to keep the band in everybody’s mind.
Tonight the band arrive at Southampton Guildhall for the first night of a much anticipated UK tour-this is the 1st time that they have played this venue since back in the late 90’s. The bands popularity does not seem to have been dented in any way since their hiatus as this great hall tonight is packed with masses of people, including plenty of overseas visitors patiently waiting for Brett Anderson and company to arrive onstage.
Tonight’s support are a band made from former members, Peter Cattermoul, Tommy and Jonny Sanders of Indie band ìPete & The Piratesî who now perform under the name ìTelemanî. They take to the stage receiving a luke warm welcome from the Southampton crowd. The bandís sound is made up of low-fi guitars, coupled with large amounts of cleverly programmed computer generated electronic sounds from synthesizers and keyboards. This creates a soft-centered style of pop which gets a few people moving, though the band are only in the early stages of creation and there is possibly more to come from them as their momentum increases. The band drifted off stage to polite applause and as the roadies dismantled their equipment their was a rise in excitement and atmosphere at the ìSuedeî logo was projected on to the back curtain.
Teleman
The band arrived on stage to an amazing welcome from the elated Southampton crowd who, with a mix of delighted screams and cheers gave front man Brett Anderson every reason to be smiling from ear to ear. Kicking off with the lead track “Barriers” from their brand new album “Bloodsports”, the band showed after all these years they are still in fine form. The band proceed to play the rest of the new album in full, this seems to be quite a risk with many of the new songs not previously played before live. This really works well and with Brett’s endless energy the crowd responds brilliantly right until the last track. The band leave the stage only to return with what can only be described as greatest hits set which takes the atmosphere in this great hall up a notch.
The audience are treated to the band’s best known singles such as The Drowners, Metal Mickey, and New Generation. The star of the show by a country mile is Brett Anderson, who at every opportunity is making contact with the audience, making sure no-one is left out. He is jumping over monitors, climbing on speaker stacks and covering every inch of this large stage, showing every other front man in a band that this is the way to perform. At one point Brett sits down on a monitor with his microphone in his hand to sing a beautiful version of ìStay Togetherî, that has many of his fans in emotional floods of tears such is the intensity of his passionately delivered vocals. A big shout out was given to local venue The Joiners as the band played there back in their early days just as they were about to make it. Suede left the stage after over 90 minutes of one of the most amazing performances I have witnessed at this venue, proving they are back in a very big way.
Set List
Barriers
Snowblind
It Starts and Ends with You
Sabotage
For The Strangers
Hit Me
Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away
What Are You Not Telling Me ?
Always
Faultlines
The Drowners
Metal Mickey
Animal Nitrate
So Young
Stay Together
We Are The Pigs
The Wild Ones
New Generation
Trash
Beautiful Ones
Videos
Band links
http://www.facebook.com/Telemanmusic
http://www.suede.co.uk
Words, Pictures & Videos by Dave Chinery(Chinners)
