[special kid]

went to this as a warm up to the sankeys soap hacienda reunion the week after.

thought it'd be good, but jesus! how great were the band? the line up, far as i could tell was shaun, bez, gaz and a load of new dudes. shauns obviously kept his skill of finding talented musos to back im up, cos what they'd done to them tunes was mega. they were kind of housed-up, slinky, mellow, and once they hit a groove, they rode it to death. every time. seriously!

normally, you get a bit of a shambolic effort with the mondays - and they didn't disappoint - when they came on they must have been arsing around findin wires and plugging in and shit for at least 10 minutes between the huge roar when they came out, and the first note. funny. then shaun comes out and goes 'FUCKIN ELL I'M SHITTIN MESELF!'.

don't ask me what order they played stuff, it was all going woozy by then, but stand-outs were 'donovan' 'bobs yer uncle' and 'wfl'. we were in the crowd looking at each other going 'fuckin ell' beautiful, rhythmic music coming over.

these great arrangements, all working to drum machines and pulses were only interupted by shaun after each of the first 5 or so songs: 'FUCKIN 'ELL WE GOT ONE RIGHT!' then 'FUCKIN TWOOOOO RIGHT!' and 'THREE IN A ROW!' like some demented bingo caller.

anyway, hopefuly since it wasn't a nostalgia show, shaun, bez n gaz are gonna keep it goin on.. it was nothing like the last time they reformed when they'd obviously just got tax bills and did it for the bread (not that there's anything wrong with that). these guys sounded hungry and up for it!

laters!