Part 2: 2xManchester & Glasgow Monday, 6th December 2004: Manchester Apollo by neko: I am flying out to Manchester early early morning, which is quite difficult as I'm still knackered from the weekend. My company has offices in Manchester, so I'm actually working up there for 2 days so I can do work as well as the shows. I'm not really having the best day ever, but at least manage to make it to the Manchester Apollo for just about 8pm. This is when I realize that it's a Clor night tonight. Everyone's deserves a 2nd chance, so here we go ... Doesn't work. I am still less than impressed. Maybe they work better in a small pub? They're not really terrible, but just a quite boring band. Before Prodigy the DJ, Eddie Temple Morris, is on again. Tonight he's playing some New Order as this is their hometown. Brings back nice memories from the Big Day Out tour in '02 when they played before Prodigy at all the festival shows. Just after 9pm Prodigy are to come on. Manchester is such a student city and you can really tell that there are a lot of 'casual' Prodigy fans here. Nothing wrong with this, but it just seems quite different from Brixton where you had a feeling that most people had a bit an idea about what's going on. The Wake Up Intro kicks it all off as usual, Liam walks on stage and then turns on his new little 'sex' lamp in front of his keyboards. The girls in front of me erupt in hysterical screaming as they've spotted Keith at the side of the stage, almost to a stage where it's rather irritating really. The set list then goes something like this: Wake Up Call So it's all similar to the nights before. I am not sure whether I am being a bit subjective here, but the audience is a bit lamer than at previous shows. It might just be the fact that it's a Monday, but it takes a while for this show to really hit off. I have to say as well, the new Hotride remix here works very well live now, especially the beginning. It's much harder than the El Batori remix and definitely flows better, so nice one! Tuesday, 7th December 2004: Manchester Apollo by neko: I'm getting a good night of sleep for a change (feels like I haven't had one since Iceland) and yet another day at work. As things go, this has turned out to be exactly the week where I've got all these deadlines and everything is a bit shite and stressful. So not such a great day again. I really want to make it for 8pm again though, as it's Vatican DC supporting tonight. After having missed them at the first Brixton show, I really want to see them now. Based on reviews and from what I've read they seem to be exactly my kind of band, with their 70s kind of punk vibe. I have to say, i'm feeling quite stressed, the 'straight-from-work-to-gig' thing is a bit shite (i prefer the 'straight-from-pub' one!) so unfortunately Vatican DC don't get me in my best mood. IF I had been in a better mood or IF they had been amazing I would have maybe liked them, but since neither was the case I thought they were just slightly average. I totally like their style and am usually all for this kind of band, but apart from one or two they just haven't got enough strong tracks. There's nothing much memorable in their tunes. And as a live band they still need to learn a lot. But still, I'd probably go to see them again, but I'm not hugely impressed. Bring back Y.O.B.! No further comments needed about the DJ Eddie Temple Morris, he's playing his usual set, a bit of Blur, a bit of Nirvana and of course that Out Of Space remix. I really like him though, he's a great warmup DJ to have, really good to get the crowd going, adding his own little dances to the set. Again after 9pm then the Wake Up intro and Wake Up. Maxim shouts: "Is this a better crowd than last night? Because tonight, I am on fire!". I'm not sure whether it was just me, but again it does take a while for the gig to kick off properly. Definitely not anything to do with the band, Maxim seems to be on Fire indeed, and so is Keith. With the amount of dancing he's doing now, he must have built up quite an amazing stamina now. And I don't know how Kieron does it, drumming along to Liam's beats for 90 min! Now I don't remember details, but there are definitely some new beats, either after Wake Up or Their Law. The next track, Warning, has a new ending as well, with Liam replaying some of the ending sounds and Keith echoing them. Next then the
New Track (Amsterdam),
Girls / More Girls,
Action Radar fill and I am pretty sure now a new remix of Firestarter gets played. It is definitely a different version to the ones played the night before and in Brixton, but from what I can remember probably also different to Birmingham. Cool! Good two shows in Manchester but from my personal point of view not quite up there with Brixton. I love the variety within the sets, there's definitely more variety than I can usually remember to report. [discuss the Manchester shows] Wednesday, 8th December 2004: Glasgow by neko: I'm not too sad about leaving Manchester really and I'm flying out to Glasgow around midday (that's £10 well spent on BMI) and after some more work (ugh) head out for some retail therapy. I quite like Scotland and the Scots actually, worked in Edinburgh for a while once, so it's all definitely better than Manchester so far already. I get to the venue about 7.30pm and it's still rather empty. My friend Yuki (all the way from Japan for these shows!) has reserved me a space at the front, so that's where we stay for now. Great news is that this is a Y.O.B night, so Youth of Britain will be supporting. YOB kick of ftheir set at about 8pm and I really really like it. Definitely the best of the 3 support bands touring with Prodigy here in the UK. Prodigy then on after 9 again. The venue here is pretty cool, similar look and fele to Brixton Acedemy, just smaller. We're down at the front and it's going quite crazy. The audience here definitely much better than in Manchester, much better sound and performance wise it's top. Halfway through teh set I go and watch the rest from the balcony for a change, which gives the thing a whole new perspective. The whole venue is full of people jumping up and down, and upstairs there's actually sweat dripping down from the ceiling because it is so hot! Wake Up Call Setlist-wise not much new here, but it's all working fine ... I later find out that the 'new track' from Amsterdam is called Dead Ken Beats indeed, and it samples a Dead Kennedys track. Apparently Liam wrote part of it already 1 or 2 years ago, but decided to bring it back and make it work live now! Some fotos from the gig by Francesco DeGiorgio: www.ciccilleju.it/foto/prodigy/index.html I get to have a few drinks after the show, which is of course good, but also bad, as it's a 4am wake up call for me and a 6am flight to Stansted, and then straight to work!
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