The Lightning Seeds 35

Last night it was Ian Broudie’s The Lightning Seeds taking to the stage at the 1865 in Southampton, I was lucky enough to be front row seeing them at Victorious Festival earlier this year but was not going to miss them on the 35 Years of Tour as well. Having been a fan since ‘Life of Riley’ was released back in 1992 from the album ‘Sense’.

A delayed start of about thirty minutes didn’t damper the crowd, if anything it filled up even quicker than normal. Security telling the queue it was due to late setup. This possibly justified by Ian Broudie saying early on that he was happy to be in Southampton, but that it was hard to get to? There was no show from what I can see online and if coming from Liverpool, that would be a yes, not that easy. They’ll enjoy the trip to Bristol next as that’s not direct either but is still quicker.

Support came from Casino; I was unaware of them before the gig and a search pulled up this as an explanation:

“Casino are the b*stard sons of Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. A riot of classic Motown and Stax mixed with a liberal dash of northern soul, funk and a strong streak of fresh, danceable, irresistible Liverpool melody” and “Surrender to the rhythm of classic R n’ B southern style, rock n roll with class.” (www.soundcity.uk.com/).

They were great, an inspired choice for a support act for The Lightning Seeds and a real crowd pleaser. (Clips on the We Will Trampoline Tik Tok)

The Lightning Seeds came on as I said a bit later than expected but certainly to no less applause. The backing track of ‘Change’ starting off to accompany them. The band working through the set in their own relaxed way, Ian Broudie at one point between songs pausing, laughing and saying “I’ve got nothing to say?” although he did comment that there was a silence between tracks, the audience applauding then going quiet which is odd behaviour, maybe it was the average age of the attendees, a number of which I heard say it was ages since their last concert, the draw of the band was obviously too much which I fully understand.

I will add usually the audience there and at most other venues is a fluid thing, you can get through it if you need to for the bar or other needs, this one was like concrete, everyone clinging onto their footing, their spot for dear life, nobody was getting past, and it was packed right back to the door. A lot of conversations going on while the bands were playing as well, enough said on that!

The night was great, there seemed to be a few sound issues on stage, but it was hard to hear any from where we were. A great band to see live, always has been, always will be, no bells and whistles just great, songs, rock, alternative rock, pop rock or indie pop, however you define them the tracks speak for themselves, and everyone has their favourites. For most of that audience and the guessed age range, the nineties and especially the album ‘Jollification’ would have fallen smack bang in the middle of their twenties so a defining time for music based on age. And I could tell that These songs were a big part of that.