Bridgewater Hall Review
Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 4:58 pm
Paul Hartnoll - Bridgewater Hall 5th September 2007
For anyone that did not manage to attend last night...
So Paul Hartnoll decided to take his new album out 'live' with an enjoyable but strange gig at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
After managing to stay awake during DJ Steve White's (I think that was his name) hour long set, me and my wife (plus all the other 30 something males there with their wives) waited with bated breath.
What transpired was a very unusual gig with highs and lows but overall was reasonably enjoyable. First things first, the amount of people there was disappointing (the venue was barely half full) whether this was down to poor publicity or orbital fans being put off by Paul's new direction I'm not sure, and the venue itself seemed rather lacking in any atmosphere.
As for the band, this was made up of aroud 8 people (including two ladies with bright pink hair) who chopped and changed between various instruments (violin, flute, clarinet etc). Paul stood behind a couple of keyboards and strayed from behind for a couple of tracks playing a guitar (yes that's right). To say he looked like a rabbit stuck in headlights was an understatement (Paul Hartnoll plays MMT8's not guitars) and he only looked comfortable on a couple of tracks.
As for the music itself, the instrumentals ie Dust Motes, Haven't we met before etc were pretty good and were pretty close to the album versions, however to suddenly hear the ghost of Robert Smith singing on Please (he wasn't there) and female singer (either Lianne Hall or Akayzia Parker) trying to add backing vocals on top was poor. The same happened on the Jospeh Arthur track.
However their were brilliant bits ie the 'live' version of the Box (the drummer I have to say was exceptional as were the other performers) playing most parts live. You could visibly see people itching to stand up and dance however this would have been totaly out of place in the venue. Also the encore of 'Belfast' was very good.
Overall the feel of the gig alternated between a group of people who looked like an uncomfortable mish-mash to a very tight unit playing some beautiful music.
Final conclusions - I hope Paul and Phil have now got this out of their systems and realise that they should be playing to thousands of people at festivals and world tours again and should reform.
As with most band's that split up, the individual components are not usually as good as the sum of their parts as is the current situation.
There should be some second-hand MMT8's, 909's, 303's on ebay etc so go out and get them and get back to what you do best - sublime ELECTRONIC music.
For anyone that did not manage to attend last night...
So Paul Hartnoll decided to take his new album out 'live' with an enjoyable but strange gig at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
After managing to stay awake during DJ Steve White's (I think that was his name) hour long set, me and my wife (plus all the other 30 something males there with their wives) waited with bated breath.
What transpired was a very unusual gig with highs and lows but overall was reasonably enjoyable. First things first, the amount of people there was disappointing (the venue was barely half full) whether this was down to poor publicity or orbital fans being put off by Paul's new direction I'm not sure, and the venue itself seemed rather lacking in any atmosphere.
As for the band, this was made up of aroud 8 people (including two ladies with bright pink hair) who chopped and changed between various instruments (violin, flute, clarinet etc). Paul stood behind a couple of keyboards and strayed from behind for a couple of tracks playing a guitar (yes that's right). To say he looked like a rabbit stuck in headlights was an understatement (Paul Hartnoll plays MMT8's not guitars) and he only looked comfortable on a couple of tracks.
As for the music itself, the instrumentals ie Dust Motes, Haven't we met before etc were pretty good and were pretty close to the album versions, however to suddenly hear the ghost of Robert Smith singing on Please (he wasn't there) and female singer (either Lianne Hall or Akayzia Parker) trying to add backing vocals on top was poor. The same happened on the Jospeh Arthur track.
However their were brilliant bits ie the 'live' version of the Box (the drummer I have to say was exceptional as were the other performers) playing most parts live. You could visibly see people itching to stand up and dance however this would have been totaly out of place in the venue. Also the encore of 'Belfast' was very good.
Overall the feel of the gig alternated between a group of people who looked like an uncomfortable mish-mash to a very tight unit playing some beautiful music.
Final conclusions - I hope Paul and Phil have now got this out of their systems and realise that they should be playing to thousands of people at festivals and world tours again and should reform.
As with most band's that split up, the individual components are not usually as good as the sum of their parts as is the current situation.
There should be some second-hand MMT8's, 909's, 303's on ebay etc so go out and get them and get back to what you do best - sublime ELECTRONIC music.
