This is what I just posted on the Human League board ‘Secrets’ about last night’s gig:
Well that was a storming night!
We were up in the circle at the corner where the back met the left-hand side, with room to dance all night and a good view too.
Funny, I remember the crowd at the Anvil in the Secrets tour being much better than the one last night – they were in the aisles dancing for half the night whereas this year almost no-one in the circle was.
Highlight of the night for me was All I Ever Wanted, bathroom break was Human (but I never liked that song anyway).
We saw you lot in the front row – rowdy bunch!
Afterwards we waited at the stage door with maybe 20 others for autographs and Phil, Susan, Jo, Nic and Neil came down at midnight. (We heard they were with ‘special guests’ with backstage passes until then.) They were really friendly, saw us inside (out of the cold) in batches of four or five and signed everything everyone brought.
It was a bit of a mutual thanking session – we kept thanking them for seeing us, they kept thanking us for staying in the cold.
Susan wasn’t talking – we’d been warned she’d stay silent because her voice was almost gone – but she mimed vigorously in response to questions and seemed to be enjoying the absurdity of her situation. Jo looked quite nervous when they first came down but that quickly passed and she was very chatty. Phil was really relaxed – he signed the sleeve of my copy of Secrets and said lots of people, both here and in the States, brought it to be signed and he couldn’t see how that fitted with what he’d been told about no-one buying it: “I think we’re actually quite popular really.” Nic, I have to say, looked quite rough but was obviously enjoying himself, while Neil was surprised when I asked him for his autograph.
Incidentally, the word in the queue about Sound of the Crowd was that they’d dropped it from the set after it fell a bit flat in Wolverhampton because they hadn’t properly rehearsed it. But I don’t know what the source of the information was, so there may be no truth in it.
I think if we’re being honest I enjoyed the set from the Secrets tour better – I seem to remember there being more songs, although that could be my imagination – but last night was a better show overall. The presentation was so much professional, the equipment worked (!) and there was John Foxx in support instead of what sounded like something scraped together from the local sixth form college.
Great night!
Couldn’t be bothered to re-write it ;o)