I shan't rest til we get Aged, Lippy and Acrylic.

OK, just for the sake of some fun (read: anal retentiveness)... three shows in, let's compare the sets to the 2011 reunion, at the same point.

There will be spoilers for this tour, BTW.

So far, they've played 20 songs. This is similar territory to the last tour; after three shows last time, they'd played 21. 

Both tours follow the pattern of a longer, more fan-oriented first gig, then a couple of shorter ones - there were 19 songs at Bridlington, and 20 at Toulouse. 

However, this time round, the subsequent gigs have been longer - well, so far, anyway. At Warrington's Neighbourhood Weekender, there were 16 songs, with 17 at Dublin. In 2011, they played 15 at Primavera, and only 12 at the Isle of Wight festival. (Worth noting that while these were festival gigs, so was Warrington).

As for the songs they've played - well, they know which are the hits! After three shows, they've played all these songs, both this time and in 2011.

Spoiler

Babies, Razzmatazz; Do You Remember the First Time?, Pink Glove; Underwear, Common People, Sorted, Mis-Shapes, I Spy, Something Changed, FEELING, Hardcore, Sunrise.

In 2011, there was one Mis-Shapes, one Razzmatazz, and al the others from that list have been played all three times.
In 2023, we've had two Mis-Shapes, one Razzmatazz, and all the others from that list have been played all three times.

It's a pretty clear list of hits, with the only real absentees being 'Lipgloss' (which they feel they can't get right live), and 'Help the Aged' (which is a bit of a downer). 

In terms of song choices, it's all quite similar to last time so far - so what's different? The answer is, of course, the other stuff:

Spoiler

SONGS PLAYED IN FIRST 3 SHOWS OF 2011
Pencil Skirt, Bar Italia (twice)
Acrylic Afternoons, Countdown, OU, His 'n' Hers, Joyriders (all once)

SONGS PLAYED IN FIRST 3 SHOWS OF 2023
Like a Friend, Weeds, Weeds II (three times)
Dishes (twice)
Glory Days, After You (once)

The ones that they sometimes played last time, from 1990-1995, aren't there - but ones from 1997-2001 (and 'After You', which is rooted in that time period) are. I wonder if this is a conscious decision - when you actually look at it, it seems they've swapped it out very cleanly. Of course we have only a small sample of shows - it's still early days, and they might come out next time and play 'Pencil Skirt' and 'Monday Morning'.

They're not going for the singles, either. 'Weeds' over 'Bad Cover Version', 'Dishes' over 'A Little Soul', 'Glory Days' over 'Party Hard'. It's nice to see the band opting to play some less-vaunted songs this time round, introducing new members of the public (and casual fans) to the deeper corners of their discography. 'Weeds' is a good singalong if you know the words, and 'Dishes' has a refrain it's easy to follow along with - they're good choices.

 

 

So, basically, to round up.

- This time, the gigs might be slightly longer
- The same core of hits and live favourites are being played
- Other than these obvious hits, they're tending to play songs from TiH and WLL over Intro, H&H and DC

 Hmm, so what are we still waiting for, then? Hawley by all accounts didn't join them today - but will he do so in Sheffield (I mean, he didn't have much time to rehearse with them, if they wanted to, what with being in Holmfirth on Thursday night), leading to maybe a couple of others? Will they play any stuff from pre-Different Class apart from Razz, Babies, Pink Glove and First Time? Hell, will they go earlier than that? Might we hear anything else - apart from 'After You' - that we haven't heard live before? (I'm looking at you, Revolution and Miners' Strike)

-- Edited by lipglossed on Saturday 10th of June 2023 12:26:49 AM

Richard did lap steel guitar on Sunrise and joined in on rhythm guitar for CommPeeps.

Current Setlist

I Spy - I think that this is going to be the opening song for all gigs

Sorted for E's and Wizz / Babies / Do You Remember the First Time? - I guess we're getting these whether we like it or not. I personally would swap them out for songs like "Live Bed Show", "The Fear" and "Party Hard" but I can't see it happening

Something Changed - I would include this above but I feel a bit more motivated by the string section

Like a Friend - this seems to be a regular live song now and deservedly so

After You / Glory Days - I have watched the Bridlington performances on YouTube and I really hope that these are played more often. They sound like hit singles from a parallel universe.


Likely contenders for future appearances

His 'n' Hers / My Legendary Girlfriend - they were played by Jarv Is so may still be fresh in his mind

Help the Aged - the only top 10 single that they haven't played so I think that it may be in with a chance

The Trees - it's a nice song but nothing else. At least "Help the Aged" has a soaring chorus. I think it is in with a chance but hardly the biggest loss if it isn't played

Bad Cover Version - more like it

Joyriders / Acrylic Afternoons / Have You Seen Her Lately? / Laughing Boy / I Want You / Sheffield: Sex City - seemed to make random appearances on previous tours

The Fear - they opened at Finsbury with this 25 years ago...

Hoping for

It's a Dirty World, Deep Fried in Kelvin (I can dream), Party Hard, Sylvia, Live Bed Show (as per V96), The Fear

-- Edited by Ian on Thursday 15th of June 2023 06:43:25 PM

-- Edited by Ian on Thursday 15th of June 2023 06:43:43 PM

Sheffield needs sex city

Eamonn wrote:

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Sheffield needs sex city

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 Or Wickerman. 

Personally I prefer the latter.

Seeing as The Sisters EP is going up on streaming today...

His 'n' Hers tonight? Or maybe even Seconds, seeing as it's such a fan favourite?

Well, looks like a standardised setlist from now on. They'll probably tinker from show-to-show (Mis-Shapes/Razzmatazz/Dishes either before or after Something Changed), but seems like they might've picked a standardised set with the aim of representing the band's different eras through Island, with a slight bias towards DC.

It's a great setlist, to be fair. Expecting a couple of variations at Sheffield (Sex City or Wickerman, plus maybe After You or Glory Days) and at Finsbury Park (a bit more from TIH).

superchob wrote:

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Trying not to get my hopes up too much for deep-cuts at Sheffield, but theyre up up up for the homecoming. Wickerman, I reckon, simply because S:SC got its airing last time. I missed it in London, sadly, because someone in the crowd threw on an envelope requesting Underwear, which they proceeded to play instead

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 I remember reading about that! People weren't happy!

I thought - and highly likely I'm wrong here - that Live Bed Show was the song that they dropped for Underwear, and they simply ran out of time for S:SC... Apparently there was upset in the dressing room afterwards, largely because Jarvis had behaved really knobbishly to Mark (as Russell's book documents), but also I think someone (it may have been Steve?) felt Jarvis had rabbited on a bit too much and they consequently hadn't played enough fan-favourites at a fan gig, after all the trouble of rehearsing and soundchecking the song. I must admit I can't remember where I read this, so feel free to call bullshit on this, but it certainly is true that S:SC was listed as part of the encore for the first night, and then was suddenly bumped up to midway through the setlist on the second, effectively swapping places with Wickerman - almost as if they decided they were definitely, definitely playing it rather than losing it to time.

Fran wrote:

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lipglossed wrote:

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 but also I think someone (it may have been Steve?) felt Jarvis had rabbited on a bit too much and they consequently hadn't played enough fan-favourites at a fan gig, after all the trouble of rehearsing and soundchecking the song. I must admit I can't remember where I read this, so feel free to call bullshit on this, 

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 Jarvis seemed to talk a lot less this time than I've ever seen before, still plenty to engage the crowd, but maybe he has had a bit of a lecture about not getting enough songs in.

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I think I remember you mentioning that at the pub after Brid! Yeah he seems to be reining it in a bit, at least given the festival setlists so far have been a bit longer than they were in 2011... 16 songs or so rather than 14.

-- Edited by lipglossed on Saturday 17th of June 2023 07:09:54 PM