I’ve always wondered why they called this place Stereo and now I know. Purchase a bottle of beer at the bar and they will pour it into not one but two plastic glasses. As in most things in life, enlightenment is just a matter of asking the right question but, with my thirst for knowledge now quenched, it was time to turn my attention to the stage.
On that stage were The Ninth Wave and with energetically performed songs that showed them to be grandsons – perhaps even great grandsons given their tender years – of British blues rock, they did duly and unequivocally make their musical mark.
The Lapelles, again looking young enough to be denied a driving licence, similarly plugged themselves into the mains to provide the locomotive force necessary to drive their lightweight power pop songs further down the train track towards a publishing deal.
Waiting in the sidings, however, were Holy Esque. It has been a couple of years since they last caused me to put pen to paper and, in the intervening period, their shoegaze tendencies have been replaced by a more muscular sound that, to use an Americanism, suggested that they had paid the extra dollar to go large and make the move towards filling stadiums. That is, as it was for Simple Minds before them, surely now a matter of destiny and nothing in their powerhouse performance tonight would suggest it was anything other than possible.
Duly enlightened and inspired, I heard the night call out to me once more. “I used to be blonde,” she said. I still wish I knew what she means by that.