July’s penultimate Wednesday saw me return to Brighton for another date on the Human League’s summer outdoor tour. Initially, I was gonna forgo this, having purchased a ticket for their return to Kew Gardens a fortnight prior. However, a combo of the support bill—featuring Marc Almond and Toyah, the latter I’d long been waiting to see live—the convenient travel links to Brighton, and the fact I’d failed to snag a tour shirt at Kew ultimately turned me around.
Come the day, however, my entry to the location—deep along the pebble beach—was met with an unexpected delay, courtesy of an emergency evacuation of all on site, staff and performers alike.
After that wait-extending fuckery, however, things pretty much hit the ground running, with openers A Thousand Mad Things taking to the stage within ten minutes of the gates eventually opening (and ten minutes was enough time to grab the Human League shirt I failed to get at Kew and make the barriers). The London young-gun duo showcased a set of songs very much informed by the output of artists further up on the bill, with surging synths and storytelling bordering on the sordid. Standout tracks such as the infectiously pulsating ‘On the Run’ and ‘Wide Awake’ left me wanting to keep up with their studio output.
Next up came someone who I’d waited years to see, having missed several opportunities since getting back into gigging—TOYAH! I’d actually gotten tickets to see her headline London in October, but my eleventh-hour decision to attend this made it my first live encounter with the artist the bloke next to me termed a “goddess”. Opening with her excellent cover of Martha and the Muffins’ ‘Echo Beach’ (repurposed ‘Brighton Beach’ for the closing refrain), Mrs Willcox offered a showcase of familiar and more recent numbers for the assembled to enjoy, and for the most part, I very much did. Oldies like ‘It’s a Mystery’ sat well with closer-in-time bangers such as ‘Space Dance’, the well-maintained Toyah knocking out both with finesse. Her choice to “update” the sound of ‘Rebel Run’, one of my favourite songs of hers (and throw atop a dud explanation of its theme counter to the richer take on it on her channel), sat less well, even if it was far from the worst live update of an ’80s track I’ve heard. On top of that, the shortening of her set on account of the earlier emergency meant that ‘I Want to Be Free’, her other big old-school hit, went unplayed. Still, there’s always October, plus her recently announced November support of Adam Ant.
Next came Marc Almond, last seen singing covers at a theatre last September. This set was much better, not only because he played some of his original solo hits such as the superb ‘Tears Run Rings’, ‘Adored and Explored’, ‘The Days of Pearly Spencer’, and ‘Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart’ (okay, that one’s a cover) but also because he gave a substantial amount of the set over to Soft Cell material, with ‘Torch’, ‘Bedsitter’, ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, and ‘Tainted Love’ (okay, that one was also a cover!) making a much-welcome appearance. Once again, he and his band, this time including Heaven 17 live regular Kelly Barnes, last seen providing vocal backup for Go West in May, did a sterling job, keeping fidelity with that old-school synthpop sound for the Soft Cell numbers and the soaring symphonies of Almond’s standalones. Cracking set.
That last evaluation, as ever, also applied to the League’s headline set, on which I have not much to say that differs from my assessment of them at Kew. Phil’s pipes sparkled, this time with none of the hiccups he encountered at Kew, Sue provided her customary between-song praise for those attending, and Jo provided appropriate backup on vox whilst looking voluptuous (though seemingly meeting eyes with the crowd more often than at previous shows). Their instrumentalists, doing their usual bang-up job, had their moments to shine. Setlist and wardrobe choices remained the same as last time, hardly surprising given that both dates took place on the same tour. Phil stepped out in his rather striking retro-futurist ensemble for the first two songs, Sue and Jo assumed dual vox duties for ‘One Man in My Life’, later swapping benchwarming duties with Phil for ‘Being Boiled’, and the three of them upped the ante garmwise for closer ‘Together in Electric Dreams’, Jo’s tour garms once again, in contrast to those of the others, doing her something of a disservice. There was the bird who tried bribing me a fiver to get the spot next to me, which was perplexing given there was space enough for her slender self (which she ultimately took without fuss).
Despite the sense of deja vu with the main act, and the pebbling beneath (and within) my boots, I walked away with more in the way of satisfaction than its opposite. Had this been the only time I’d seen the League in the preceding twelve I might have left Brighton with more of a sense of awe. As it stands, twas the supports who largely claimed the day on that score, with the League, through no fault of their own, putting on another polished yet overly familiar performance.
~MRDA~
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