Just been having a look at the setlist. We have songs that featured him on guitar on track 1, track 2, track 3 and track 4, then track 5 and track 6 would have had him on violin. Then there's four tracks that featured no Russell involvement, followed by Sunrise, which he generally came back on to. Then Bar Italia (guitar), Common People (violin). The encore consisted of two songs he played guitars on and My Lighthouse which he may or may not have wanted to be on.
But that four song non-Russell gap in the middle. It's almost as if the setlist was written with his involvement in mind...
Do You Remember the First Time? (R guit) Mis-Shapes (R guit) Razzmatazz (R guit) Something Changed (R guit) Sorted for E's and Wizz (R violin) I Spy (R violin) The Birds in Your Garden (no R) Bad Cover Version (no R) Like A Friend (no R) This is Hardcore (no R) Sunrise (R guit part) Bar Italia (R guit) Common People (R violin)
==encore== My Lighthouse (R guit?) Babies (R guit) Disco 2000 (R guit)
He didn't play the christmas party, he didn't play NME awards. He was in the paper ages and ages ago about concentrating on his play. He quite clearly was never going to play that gig. I thought the setlist was notable by the absence of Russell era stuff.
I agree that there wasn't a huge amount of Russell stuff there, but no worse than the Greek festival (two days after a gig with Russell) or the Sydney / Melbourne ones or something.
I don't know how long setlists have to be made out in advance of a big gig like this re: lighting, film backdrops, PRS payments, etc. but maybe it was from back in a time when he was meant to be doing it...?
I can't imagine they'd ever expected him to do the Damien Hirst thing, but the NME Awards did come as a bit of a sad surprise...
I agree that there wasn't a huge amount of Russell stuff there, but no worse than the Greek festival (two days after a gig with Russell) or the Sydney / Melbourne ones or something.
I don't know how long setlists have to be made out in advance of a big gig like this re: lighting, film backdrops, PRS payments, etc. but maybe it was from back in a time when he was meant to be doing it...?
I can't imagine they'd ever expected him to do the Damien Hirst thing, but the NME Awards did come as a bit of a sad surprise...
I reckon they would have finalised the setlist a little while previously... I dunno how much notice they have for lighting etc but all the lighting/video stuff would have been the same as last year anyway, and PRS is always sorted out afterwards.
You could work out the set list on the day if you wanted. All the lighting programs and videos are already done and it's just a case of pressing play. You'll notice some of the more obscure stuff there is no light show or video back drops.
Jarvis said on stage that they were playing Birds In Your Garden as they'd heard Paul McCartney playing Blackbird 2 day previously. So there's at least one song that was a late addition.
I don't think Russell was ever going to play this gig and it just so happens that the different era songs ended up in that particular order.
