Oh we do like to be beside the Seaside.
Bridlington. Once upon a time a bustling resort, packed out all summer with good folk from West and South Yorkshire, huge trains bringing trippers into the town for sea, sand, and John Bull rock. Nowadays the tourist trade has declined somewhat, though the place in nowhere as grim as some people would make out. Even in December the bay can regain a bit of splendour, when viewed across the great sandy expanse of the superb South Beach, with the morning sun shimmering over the water. OK its not Bondi, but still one of the finest in the north of England. And in recent years a new kind of invader is heading into the town – Gig goers. The old theatre or Spa to give it its proper name has undergone a full and expensive refurbishment and with its makeover has come a new policy on booking the sort of bands normally at home in much bigger venues. Kasabian, Paul Weller and even Oasis have played here in the last few months. Now its the turn of Placebo, playing big arenas on the rest of the tour but happy to roll up at a more intimate venue once in a while (Capacity here is 3500). Given that Bridlington is miles away from any city, and its a wet Friday night there is an impressive crowd in, and we seek a little look around before awaiting entertainment.
The first thing that strikes you about the venue is how white everything is. Remember its main line of business is as a theatre, so i suppose painting the walls black and putting up loads of fly posters would be out of the question. There is a lot of glass, new wooden doors and brass handrails about and I’m glad to say a choice of bars (The old venue had a terrible bar policy). One nice touch is an outdoor veranda area where smokers could go. The main hall is mightily impressive with its huge circular ornate ceiling and decorations. It is not hard to visualise the splendour of the old venue in days gone by, but the new one is suitably jaw dropping. As it is theatre normally, the stage area ia also pretty grand and large enough to give a decent view and it is to this we now turn (Literally).
Main support for the night are The Horrors, now well into their touring schedule backing up the brilliant Primary Colours, one of the albums of the year. Live its pretty much a run through most of this with nothing at all played from their debut, the patchy Strange House. Frontman Faris Rotter is a compelling presence with a funny habit of walking round in circles very fast as he spits out the lyrics. His powerful voice reaches out into the spaces at the back and compliments the intense bass driven sounds coming from the rest of the band. In truth the sound is perhaps a bit too bass muffled and they do rush through the set as well. That said I am always happy to hear this album played live and in set closer ‘Sea within a Sea’ they have a true classic song. They seem to go down well with an audience many of which seem unfamiliar with the tunes and by the end of the eight minute epic have won over a fair few new fans.
There’s a pretty short gap between bands tonight and its just after nine Placebo take to the stage after a very nice bit of intro music. They open with recent single ‘For what its worth’ and then proceed to play five tunes from the new album Battle for the Sun, broken only by the beautiful ‘Soulmates’, the B side alternative version of ‘Sleeping with Ghosts’. The new album is pretty good and I’m happy to hear quite a lot of this, though others seem to want the old stuff. They indulge them with ‘Every you, every Me’ but its the only truly old song played tonight. Instead they play a decent chunk of Meds, an album I have grown to really like (’Follow the cops back Home’ is a particular highlight), as well as even more off the current record. This seems to cause a bit of a split in the audience as some clearly are expecting a lot more oldies, but Placebo’s recent form is to play the bulk of the newest album with selected older ones from the last couple of albums. In any case there are also quite a few in the audience, like me, who have heard the old stuff lots of times and are happy to hear the newer songs.
The manic Stefan Ordsal
One strange thing tonight is that possibly due to all the aforementioned white walls, it never gets properly dark, as the band use a lot of yellow and white stage lights, as well as an excellent video backdrop and side screens and its clear they have brought the full arena show to Brid tonight. It’s a bit like watching a band in the afternoon at a festival and I never quite get used to it. Still it helps us to see the band and nonetheless the band are enjoying themselves, especially bassist Stefan Oldsal who is all over the stage. If there is a criticism they seem to rush through the set as if they have to go somewhere afterwards (Perhaps getting the hell out of Brid completely) and also miss a song out of the encores. Speaking of encores, the band at last break out a few more old tunes, including a stunning ‘Special K’ and customary set closer ‘Taste in Men’, as well as playing my favourite Placebo tune, ‘Infra Red’. So a good plug for the new record (10 out of 13 tracks aired tonight), the lack of old stuff may have hacked off a few, though the long term fans would have expected this kind of setlist. After nearly fifteen years in the business they are becoming one of British rock’s most dependable bands, always making decent if not classic records and playing regularly live. It will be interesting to see how many of the NME’s current darlings (The Horrors included) will be around still doing the business in 2024.
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