Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been out to a couple of live shows in Manchester – the first one was just over a week ago, when I went to see the National Theatre production of ‘The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time‘ at the Opera House.

I first heard about it a while back – I think it debuted about 10 years ago, but it came to my attentions because of its good reviews, and also the fact that it uses projection mapping to use video imagery as part of the set to tell the story, so that had also been a factor in me wanting to see it.

I was also interested in the fact that the lead character has autistic traits, and that the video content was used to reflect what’s going on inside his brain, and wanted to see how that was all handled.

The performances from the entire cast were really outstanding. The role of Christopher Boone, the main character in the play, is pretty much on stage the entire time, and it’s a really physical performance, and because of this I discovered that the part is split between two actors, with them alternating across nights. The guy who was doing it that night, Connor Curren, was really excellent with such a nuanced performance, and I’ve since discovered that he’s actually a neurodivergent actor, and I think that gave his performance of Christopher an intensity and connection that really shone through.

I can’t help it but I did spot a few technical issues (specifically in the first half) – the sound wasn’t 100% for a while… you had to really concentrate to hear properly at the start, so I think there was a problem with the overall volume, but this seemed to be fine after a while. But there was one thing that didn’t go as planned at the end of the first half. During the build up to the end of the act, Christopher had been laying down a load of train-set track across the stage, to illustrate a train journey to London, and at the climax of the scene, all the props around the track light up, and the train actually starts moving… but on this occasion, it derailed within seconds on the first corner! The next day I found a video on YouTube showing the train going along the whole track, so it definitely was a fail on the performance I was at! I reckon I must be a bit of a jinx, because the last show I went to at the Opera House was the Back To The Future musical just before the first lockdown, and at that one, the fire trails when the DeLorean first gets to 88mph didn’t work properly, so they had to ignore the fact the special effect failed!

But aside from those slight technical things (that I’m sure no-one else really noticed!), it was a great night and I’m now glad I’ve finally seen it – if you get the opportunity to catch it on tour anywhere, I’d definitely recommend it! I do actually enjoy going to the theatre so I probably should do more of it!

Then last night, I was at the Manchester Arena to see Stereophonics on their Oochya Tour. They were actually the last band I saw live before Covid – the gig was actually the weekend before everything locked down!

I was in the seated section and not too far from the stage really, and arrived in time to see the support act, Dylan John Thomas, perform with his band. He was pretty good – he did a few covers as well as his own songs, and his Scottish accent really came through in his singing voice which was cool.

And just after quarter to nine, Stereophonics took to the stage, opening with ‘Do Ya Feel My Love’ from the new album, ‘Oochya’. It’s only been out a couple of weeks and I haven’t got it yet, but know a few of the songs from it because they’ve been getting played on Radio X, and I’ve liked what I’ve heard so far.

It was a really cool show – they’re very good live, and Kelly Jones is a really great frontman. And they’ve got so many hits under their belt, so every song they play is a real belter!

I was slightly distracted at times by a bit of aggro going on with some drunk people around me… I’d briefly chatted to a couple sitting in front of me whilst waiting, and I could tell they were a little bit under the effect of alcohol, but seemed friendly enough. But after the gig started, the guy (who was probably late 50s) started getting agitated by people wanting to get past him (which is par for the course at gigs like this), and then had a go at some women who’d decided to stand up when the music started, blocking the view for us behind, but I’d just sat on the back of my seat so I could see over them.

Anyway, this culminated in a situation where one of the women went to go past him to get to the aisle, and rather than let her pass, he stood up and aggressively pushed her back towards his chair, totally unprovoked. It was a really weird situation, and at the time everyone around reacted to it, but it was quite difficult to get involved without it blowing up even more. A member of staff was called over, and then some security got involved, but they didn’t really seem to do anything – the guy and his wife stayed in their seat, and this woman and her friends were quite distressed that he was still there. The couple did eventually leave about halfway through, but I thought it was bad how the security people kind of didn’t really deal with it.

Also, the woman next to me was quite drunk, and she was standing the whole time much to the annoyance of the people behind her (they had a few exchanges of words), and she also kept trying to get me to stand up and dance, and also managed to spill some of her beer on my jeans and top! The guy she was with didn’t seem overly impressed, and they left before the end as well! I don’t understand why people end up being idiots at gigs, especially when they’ve spent so much on the tickets!

Setlist:

Do Ya Feel My Love
C’est la vie
I Wanna Get Lost With You
Hanging On Your Hinges
Geronimo
Maybe Tomorrow
Right Place Right Time
Fly Like an Eagle
All I Have Is You
Leave The Light On / Show Me How
Mr. Writer
Traffic
A Thousand Trees
Billy Davey’s Daughter
Superman
Running Round My Brain
Mr and Mrs Smith
Have a Nice Day
Just Looking
Handbags and Gladrags
The Bartender and the Thief

Encore:
Forever
Make Friends With the Morning
Dakota