I know I said a while back that I need to post more everyday stuff because it makes it seem like I’m just going out all the time, but this last week has been pretty busy with two gigs that had been postponed by Covid taking place, plus an impromptu trip to the Lowry last Sunday night for some comedy!

So first off, last Saturday I spotted a tweet about Bill Bailey having played at the Lowry the previous night, and there was also mention of him playing a second show on the Sunday night. So on Sunday morning, I bought a ticket for that night’s performance!

I’d previously seen Bill Bailey live a few years ago at the Apollo, and it was really good, although I had seen some bits of that show on various video clips, so parts of it didn’t have quite the impact they would’ve done having seen them for the first time. But with this new show – ‘En Route To Normal’ – it was pretty much all new stuff, and it was hilarious. And the guy is such a top-class musician, and I really love the way he incorporates it so well with the comedy.

There was a bit of a crazy moment that was equally cringy and funny where someone in the audience heckled to say that he’d got the lyrics to Toto’s Africa wrong when he was doing a joke about how non-sensical they are. The woman in the audience wouldn’t let it go, saying that she know she’s right because she’s a massive fan of theirs. Spoiler alert – turns out she was wrong and Bill had (unsurprisingly) been totally correct with his version of the lyrics! It was at pretty much the end of the first half, and led to him crawling off the stage into the interval, and then when he came back out of the break, he had had a load of sheets printed out with the song’s lyrics which he handed out around the section of the audience in front of him!

Then on Tuesday, I was at the Manchester Albert Hall to see Travis – a gig delayed by two years due to various factors!

I’d not been to the Albert Hall before – it’s somewhere I’ve passed many times when in the city centre, but didn’t really know it was there. I think it must have been a chapel or something in the past because of the layout and architecture, and it’s a really nice intimate space to see a live band. The only negative really was it was so ridiculously hot in there – I don’t think they have any air-con! Even the band were struggling on stage with the crazy heat! If it’s like that in May, I can’t imagine what it’d like in there in the middle of summer!

Great show though, really enjoyed it, and lots of singing along from behind my mask!

Setlist:

Sing
Dear Diary
Side
Pipe Dreams
Flowers In The Window
The Cage
Safe
Follow the Light
Last Train
Afterglow
Indefinitely
The Humpty Dumpty Love Song
A Ghost
Re-Offender
Driftwood
Closer
Turn
Why Does It Always Rain on Me?

And then on Friday night, another show where I’d bought the tickets in 2019 – the Pet Shop Boys at the Manchester Arena! They basically played pretty much all their hits from their extensive back catalogue, and played for a decent amount of time – there was no support and they were on stage by 8.30pm.

I was quite a way from the the stage, sitting up in the nosebleed seats! Personally I do much prefer being pretty close to the stage, but these were the only places left when I booked! Luckily, even though I was a fair bit away, the staging meant that it was still very visual, with great use of lighting and video screens.

I was remembering afterwards that ‘Always On My Mind’ was the very first 7″ single I bought way back in 1987, so they a band that I very much associate with my younger days… and 35 years later I finally got to see them perform live!

Setlist:

Suburbia
Can You Forgive Her?
Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)
Where the Streets Have No Name
Rent
I Don’t Know What You Want but I Can’t Give It Any More
So Hard
Left to My Own Devices
Single-Bilingual / Se a vida é (That’s the Way Life Is)
Domino Dancing
Monkey Business
New York City Boy
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk
Jealousy
Love Comes Quickly
Losing My Mind
You Were Always on My Mind
Dreamland
Heart
It’s Alright
Vocal
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Go West
It’s a Sin

Encore:
West End Girls
Being Boring