Coming shortly…[cool]
Well as promised here’s the Toots review…i was off yesterday and as i had to travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow for this gig i thought it’d be best to have an early dinner of scampi at 4:30 so i could enjoy my ritual of red wine, steinlager and playing loud records while Mrs Toots got ready…so some Nick Cave, Selecter, Goth Trad, Godflesh’s Us And Them and Ministry’s ICYDFLSU records later we jumped on a train…which was a fuckin rip off at £10.80 one way!!! (We got the bus back)
Got to Glasgow and the Toots gang met up with another pal (Daniel) before Mrs Toots got sticky date pudding, her friend indulged in scampi and i began my booze binge which Scotland is infamous for while my pal Daniel tried to recover from a large pizza he’d nailed for dinner.
8pm comes so we head down to Stereo where Saul is playing…when we get there there’s already a rather large line of Hip Hop heads, Metal heads, Techno heads and older poshy poetry looking types with “Chomski All-Stars” hoodies on!!!
We hand our tickets in and make our way downstairs where i come across the merch stand i’d been much looking forward to! There were two different types of shirts (both came in blue or green), the cd of classical music with Saul reading excerpts of “Said The Shotgun To The Head” over and a cd which was the new release of Saul’s keyboard player. The U.S tour seemed to have a bit more merch but from what i’ve read but they didn’t have the shirt which featured 3 hyenas and a two headed horse on it…although i maybe wrong? Anyway i picked up the shirt with Saul holding the kitten with the eye patch, stuffed it in Mrs Toots handbag and made way for the bar…
Stereo is a great venue…it’s not very big and is absolutely filthy…it’s the kind of place Boba Fett would go to breakdance to intergalactic Hip Hop as it’s all beaten up and manky. The side part has lots of bean bags which i though was pretty cool. The bar was very busy (gig sold out) but although they only had 3 or 4 staff they managed to serve extremely quickly compared to 99% of other clubs i visit.
The opener was just a dude spinning records who had the tackiest shirt i’d ever seen a DJ wear…i was very impressed…it was one of those dodgey one’s with a picture of a wolf with forest and moon etc in the backround. Usually old panzy bikers and westy grandma’s wear them. Anyway he was playing good stuff ranging from really old school sounding Industrial instrumentals to Bass Heavy Technoy stuff to minimal Hip Hop etc etc…
Eventually Saul and band came on. Saul had the fluffy caveman boots on along with a singlet that had a picture of bullet belts running up and down it. He was also sporting the colourful feathers in his hair which seems to be very much part of the Niggy Tardust character. CX Kid Tronix was like a cyber punk biker in black leather. The keyboard player had a badass Dracula cape on with big black sunglasses and the guitarist looked normal with his plain shirt and jeans?!
The crowd was hyped and excited and were more than ready to jump up and down like looney toons. I can’t remember the whole setlist, in fact i can’t even remember what the first song was as i have a bad habit of getting as battered as possible before the gig so i can jump with the toons and not have to waste time going to bars during the set.
What i do remember though is the set begining with the intro to “Break” before going into something different? “Grippo” was about the 2nd or 3rd song and if the crowd wasn’t jumping before then they were now. I had my merry band of moshers (or jumpers) to give me license to act like a lunatic and although they were shirtless tatted looking clowns they won my respect due to knowing all the lyrics and knowing when to shut up and let Saul do his thing.
There was plenty of stage diving/crowd surfing by Saul, his keyboardist and some of the toons which was very arena rockish and fun. At one stage the keyboardist came close to us and motioned for us we could have his badass alien sun glasses (i think him guessing we couldn’t reach?)…anyway i was more than up for it and the Toot launched himself and grabbed them off his head! Stunned and with a sheepish smile he pleaded with me for them back…of cause the gentleman i am i handed them straight back and was awarded with a “yoyoyo ma honky” handshake.
This was a very different show from last time i saw Saul in Edinburgh 2005. The last one Saul did alot more spoken word and obviously more stuff from the first two albums. The crowd was excited and danced in Edinburgh, but tonight Saul was like a fully fledged rock star (Amethyst?) who had the crowd dancing, moshing and generally jumping up and down like my mum when the police brought me home after i was caught stealing Star Wars toys when i was about 7yrs old.
The songs that really caused mayhem tonight were “Grippo”, “Convict Colony”, “List Of Demands”, “Control Freak” and of course the encore U2 anthem “Sunday Bloody Sunday” which everyone was singing along to.
The gig finished and i was soaked. On the way out my pal Daniel bought the Hyena Tardust shirt for me as i’d run out of money due to my stupid pre Saul binge…what a fucking cool guy!
On the way to the bus station Daniel was a bit dejected as someone had told him Chelsea beat Man U in the Euro Cup Final…he got a pleasant surprise when he got home to find the guy on the street was bullshitting…a Chelsea fan no doubt.
Next stop is Ministry tommorow week at Carling Academy in Glasgow.
cool, thanks for the review. I missed him last month because I was broke, really wanted to see him.
What a bummer!
Saul was really cheap here at £7.00. Sadly the rip-off train made up for that. Regardless this was a supreme gig and i’d have been happy to fork out a hell of a lot more for it. Saul is definately one of my fav artists out there at the momment…has been since 99.
Oh yeah during one of the songs Saul came into the crowd and jumped up and down with us while singing! Good tymez! I knew he’d been doing that in the North American tour but wasn’t sure if he was going to do it here in Glasgow as it was pretty crazy…respect to the man though as he did.
Anyone here in the UK or Europe should definately get along to one of his shows if you get the chance…there’s also a few more U.S shows at the end of Europe…
May 22 2008 8:00P
The Plug Sheffield
May 23 2008 8:00P
Hi-Fi Club Leeds
May 24 2008 8:00P
Rock City Nottingham
May 25 2008 8:00P
Academy Bristol
May 26 2008 8:00P
Academy Oxford
May 27 2008 8:00P
Scala London, London and South East
May 29 2008 8:00P
Docks Lausanne
May 30 2008 8:00P
Posthof Linz
May 31 2008 8:00P
WUK Vienna
Jun 2 2008 8:00P
Sportpaleis Antwerp
Jun 3 2008 8:00P
Helling Utrecht, Utrecht
Jun 4 2008 8:00P
Bercy Paris
Jun 5 2008 8:00P
Aeronef Lille
Jun 6 2008 8:00P
Rock am Ring Nurburgring
Jun 7 2008 8:00P
Rock im Park Nurnberg
Jun 8 2008 8:00P
La Cigalle Paris
Jul 3 2008 8:00P
02 Wireless Festival London, London and South East
Jul 4 2008 8:00P
Arvika Festival Arvika
Jul 5 2008 8:00P
Quart Festival Kristiansand
Jul 6 2008 8:00P
Klubi Turku
Jul 7 2008 8:00P
Klubi Tampere
Jul 8 2008 8:00P
Tavastia Helsinki
Jul 10 2008 8:00P
Poolbar Festival Feldkirch
Jul 11 2008 8:00P
La Rote Fabrik, Club Raum Zurich, Zurich
Jul 12 2008 8:00P
Cactus Festival Bruges
Jul 13 2008 8:00P
Chauffer dans la Noirceur Montmarin sur Mer
Aug 3 2008 5:00P
Lollapalooza, Grant Park Chicago, Illinois
Aug 30 2008 8:00P
Bumbershoot Festival Seattle, Washington
Aug 31 2008 8:00P
Bumbershoot Festival Seattle, Washington
in the future, buy return tickets online…
they can be quite a bit cheaper.
I actually tried days in advance to find out online how much tickets were and to see if i could book before hand to save some pingers. But for the life of me i couldn’t find any info at all??? I think they make it virtually impossible so we just pay up the ass on the day.
Usually i just catch the 900 bus and that’s only £6-£7 return…but for some reason we got the train??? It won 't happen again that’s for sure!
Has anyone else here caught Saul live for this Niggy Tardust tour??? I know Bear has…
Here’s a few photo’s…
The t-shirts…
niceee
don’t know the music, but like the shirts and the sly stone look.
thanks.
btw, reading some of the lyrics, i’m reminded of the last poets.
Would love to see Williams, shots from the show look awesome. Hope he comes through town at some point or another. “Niggy” is a sweet album.
btw, reading some of the lyrics, i’m reminded of the last poets.
Yeah there’s a definate Last Poets influence amongst other things in Saul’s music. In fact on the 180gm “This Is Madness” reissue Saul does the liner notes for them.
Saul’s music is superb stuff…his first two are the best imo…his new one is spectacular stuff too though. His second selftitled album is the most badass!
damn, i want that green shirt’s front with the blue shirts back - ‘scared money don’t make none’ was one of my favorite lines on tardust.
that said the review convinced me to pick up the 2nd lp he did and it’s quite good. a lot more ‘rock’ than i expected actually.
That 2nd one is his best by far as far as i’m concerned. Nothing on Tardust comes close to tracks like “Grippo”, “Control Freak”, “Black Stacey”, “PG”, “Talk To Strangers”, “African Student Movement” and “List Of Demands”.
Amythest is great too with beasts like “Penny For A Thought”, “Robeson” and “Our Father”.
As for shirts…they’re awesome but i’d have especially have liked a black one with the actual photo from the Niggy Tardust image with the kitten and bling ring as i think the colours are great.
yeah, really hope he sells those shirts off his website. if i had the money I’d order them in a heartbeat.
THANKS for the review/pics, missed this gig cos i’m here in Pakistan!
Pakistan?
Hard-core!