December 14, 2000 Victoria Community Center, Crewe

Report by Sali

set list: I’ll do my best to remember but I can’t promise it’s accurate: A House Is Not A Motel / Lazy Me / Bluebird / If I Were A Carpenter / Darkness Darkness / As Long As I Have You / Hey Joe / Flames / GLORIA / Baby Please Don’t Go / If 6 was 9
encore: Season Of The Witch / Chevrolet
2nd encore: Thank You / Song To The Siren

Live music doesn’t come much better than this. This band just gets better and better. The musicianship was so good, responsive to each other and to the crowd, intuitive, creative, powerful, sexy, and so much fun.

Robert was smiling and playful. His hair is longer, he seemed slimmer, the voice was mighty fine, totally in control and going wherever he wanted it to. He made passing reference to the huge stadiums…”Been there, done that…………” Kevyn was incredibly animated in what he described as ‘Dennis the Menace mode’. Everyone on the stage appeared relaxed, confident and happy. The R&B has moved over to make room for something more demanding and exciting - and it works. They seem to be developing the art of the dramatic pause and this was demonstrated superbly in Darkness Darkness, at the end of which Robert knelt to receive a spray of red roses. OK OK I’ll admit it - it was me with the roses.

As Long As I Have You was the best I have heard it because of the excited, dramatic collective frame of mind. Baby Please Don’t Go was very fast, led by an inspired and unrelenting intensity by Andy on the drums. While the main set had an intoxicating atmosphere of excitement and anticipation. The encore was positively electrifying. Robert went to the side and got his guitar, Kevyn leapt up by the drums to encourage the audience and Robert prodeeded to play some very confident, flowing improvisation. He was having so much fun the number had three false endings. Chevrolet, a new number, one of those Northern Missippi songs that ‘everyone’ did, took my breath away when Robert turned his back on us only to swing round with a harmonica to his lips playing classic Robert Plant blues licks. This was wonderful and received a fantastic response.

I think the crowd felt it had experienced a full evening’s entertainment by now and were surprised by the band’s reappearance for a second encore. Robert called back the people who had drifted towards the exits virtually over the top of the ‘Old Man River’ type track with which the management had tried to bring things to a close. Thank You was very well received - I don’t think the audience could believe their luck. Song To The Siren demonstrated that Robert’s voice is still the best with a long passage of Egyptian style singing alongside Tim on keyboards. They held the audience beautifully.

This was a perfect Priory Of Brion evening during which every member of the band contributed to the whole which was magically more than the sum of its parts. I can’t end without mentioning Andy’s percussion which had an extra edge this evening including an intricate passage using the rim and shell of the drum. Another memorable moment was when Tim took Paul’s bass stepped back and really got into the groove while Paul took Robert’s black Gibson and, looking totally cool, played an overdriven solo alongside the manic Kevyn.

We were lucky enough to talk to the band after the show and they told us some interesting facts:
Chevrolet was notably (for Robert!) performed by Donovan.
English audiences, with the exception of a few nutters at the front, are the least responsive. (We should do something about this shouldn’t we?)

article courtesy Sali, who allowed the contents of her Calling to You website to be added to ManicNirvana.com.