THOMAS DOLBY + MARTIN MCALOON – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 21.8.24
For only the second time in history this evening, musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher Thomas Morgan Robertson performed live in Brighton. Known to his fans worldwide as one of the legends of electronic music the London born 65 year old genius of Thomas Dolby was making a welcome return to the Concorde 2 for another sold out gig, a mere 6166 days after his debut performance in town, back on 4th October 2007, which I was fortunate to have attended. My memory of which being the sheer excitement of seeing Dolby playing live in my hometown, coupled with discovering the classic ‘I Live In A Suitcase’ from his 1992 ‘Astronauts & Heretics’ album.
This was however not my debut Dolby live experience, as I had ventured up to 90 Wardour Street (London W1) to witness him play an intimate show at the Marquee on either Monday 22nd or 29th November 1982 which cost a mere £2.50 to see. I’m not saying we were excited, but my then girlfriend and I were at the very front of the queue and this was to be my only venture to the famous club. I can recall Dolby being centre stage wearing his white suit and playing a Roland keyboard and being flanked by a couple of other musicians who were also on keys and there was a reel-to-reel tape machine on stage too. These other musicians were I believe Kevin Armstrong and Matthew Seligman (RIP). An interesting fact of note is that in 1985 the trio of Dolby, Armstrong and Seligman appeared as part of David Bowie’s backup band at Live Aid. Armstrong collaborated with Bowie on the soundtrack for the film ‘Absolute Beginners’ and recorded the song ‘Dancing In The Street’ with David Bowie and Mick Jagger. Seligman was also in the Thompson Twins for a while as well before they slimmed down to a three-piece.
I also managed to see Dolby live for the World Premier of ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’, which was billed as Thomas Dolby & the Lost Toy People and took place at the Town & Country Club on the Highgate Road in Kentish Town on Monday 25th April 1988. This sadly wasn’t as exciting as my debut encounter and reflected Dolby’s move to the USA, as some of the classics were delivered in unwanted funky styles.
Amazingly, I do actually remember where it was when my path first crossed with Dolby. I was studying at college in Brighton and we would always go around the record shops several times a week to check out the brand new releases. We had our planned routes around the Brighton record stores that we would visit either at lunchtimes or between lessons. In 1981 I recall entering the Virgin record store that used to be located on the western side of Queens Road – which years earlier had relocated from 126 North Street, which is now Boots – and the counter was immediately ahead of you with the records in the racks to our left, right and by the door. It was in a rack on the left hand side that sat below the stairs that the staff would use to go up to their staff-room, that I spied an intriguing brand 12” single new release that read “Thomas Dolby Europa And The Pirate Twins”, with a retro-style image of a boffin-like fellow who might as well be looking for Galileo Galilei’s Europa moon being the smallest of the four Galilean moons that orbit Jupiter. This cover artwork was nerdy, nostalgic and very intriguing and so without even hearing the music or even knowing who this Thomas Dolby was. I made my purchase and when home, took the vinyl slab out of its jacket and put it on! I was stunned, it was absolutely brilliant! What a result! To this day, this has been the only time I have knowingly purchased a record simply because of its cover artwork!
I eagerly followed Dolby’s rise to fame throughout the 1980’s and his ‘Live Wireless’ video album, along with Japan’s ‘Oil On Canvas’, were my most played Betamax’s. Dolby’s debut long-player ‘The Golden Age of Wireless’ from 1982 was an instant classic and still sounds groundbreaking today! The following album ‘The Flat Earth’ didn’t match the debut, but did contain the classic ‘Hyperactive!’ single. For me, it was a gradual decline after this and I signed off at ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’. However, Dolby is to me and many of my peers, still a legend and so when he announced a return to Brighton, tickets were immediately purchased the moment they went on sale!
We arrived at the Concorde 2 and purchased our liquid refreshments and headed to the front to catch the support artist, who we will come to shortly.
With a host of true early classic tunes to hopefully raid, we were rather counting on Dolby offloading a number of these this evening. Would this be the case? Let’s find out shall we…..
Dolby graced us with his presence at 9:06pm and stunned us with a cover version as tune one, this being a track that is solidly locked into my Top 10 tunes of all-time, this being ‘Blue Monday’ by New Order. With so many of his own classics on offer, it seemed a strange way to begin, but after which Dolby informed us that he will be playing songs that he likes, so fair enough. It wasn’t a carbon copy of the original famous tune, but he added in his own trademark vibe throughout the track, including decent vocoder parts. It was just Dolby on stage as a solo act, without the need of friends to assist, which I guess is a sign of how music technology has progressed in the past 40 plus years, since he first started making music. His equipment of choice was a trio of synths (one of which was a mini mobile one), various presets were stored on another unit and there were also two laptops up there as well.
Dolby, who was positioned stage left (our right), was certainly looking the part from the off with his chunky flying jacket and well documented new head of hair. Clearly he wanted to roll back the years and this was evident from the very first image shown on the backing screen, which was the single spectacles image culled from his ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ single, the lovable English boffin was back!
The quality of the sound tonight was terrifically crisp clear from where I was positioned, which was in the centre towards the front, but I suspect it was equally as good elsewhere in the popular venue. The lighting was rather good too and for track two, the dance friendly ‘Evil Twin Brother’, the first of two cuts from 2011’s ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ album, the lazers came into play for the first time, with green mainly being the colour of choice.
Flying jacket removed and it was time for the epic ‘Europa And The Pirate Twins’ from 1982’s ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ album, which witnessed Dolby briefly also on harmonica as well. Suffice to say that this was one of the set highlights for me!
Selection four could have easily been lost in the annals of time with it originally popping up on the B-side of the aforementioned ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, but then added onto the 1983 pressing of the 1982 ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ debut album, the tune in question being the brilliant ‘One Of Our Submarines’, which is the best live track found on the ‘Live Wireless’ video album. It conjures up the mysticism and romance of the underwater warship and I knew the story behind the song’s writing as I’m pretty sure that Dolby told us during a previous live encounter. However, with the new release of historic classified documents, it appears that what Dolby’s family were originally informed regarding the passing of his uncle Steven in a wartime encounter in a submersible was not totally accurate. They believed that his submarine was lost off of the coast of Britain, but now it transpires that it was sunk by a torpedo boat in the Mediterranean and that a wreck was found off the coast of Tunisia. This evening’s rendition of the song incorporated elements of ‘Cars’ by Gary Numan and ‘Lovesong’ by The Cure as a modern reworking mashup. Worked rather well I thought, another set highlight!
The title track from 1984’s ‘The Flat Earth’ album was Dolby’s next choice and I had actually forgotten exactly how good this song is. Up until now Dolby had been standing and playing the various keys, but it was briefly stool time as he performed the only cut from 1992’s ‘Astronauts & Heretics’ album, in the form of ‘I Love You Goodbye’, which to be honest was the weakest composition for me thus far. Things got a tad funked up with the arrival of 2011’s ‘Spice Train’, which can be found on Dolby’s ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ album. After this concluded, Dolby informed us that American singer-songwriter and guitarist Jason Mraz was a fan of Dolby’s work and that he knew all the words to ‘My Brain Is Like A Sieve’. Not wanting to pass up on a duet opportunity, (or as Dolby’s informed us that Americans called it “doot”) Dolby secured Mraz’s vocals and he appeared on the rear screen and sang away to the track whilst Dolby played the bossa nova style song live. Although an interesting idea, I don’t really really think that this totally worked and was arguably a mid set filler.
Talking of which, the almost nine minute ‘Budapest By Blimp’ song from 1988’s ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’ album came up next, much to the irritation of the woman stood next to me, who clearly hadn’t heard the tune before and labelled it “self indulgent w*nk” or as I would put it in the words of ‘Not The Nine O’Clock News’ Lufthansa Terminal New Romantic skit ‘Nice Video, Shame About The Song!’. Although I did enjoy the video this evening, I’ve never really been a fan of the tune and Dolby could have easily dropped it in favour of both ‘Flying North’ and ‘Radio Silence’, which are found on his debut long-player.
After an arguable four tune mid-set lull, things seriously picked up with the homage to David Bowie and the greatest concert ever staged, namely ‘Live Aid’. Dolby was there with Bowie, as in fact was my partner Jordan Mooney RIP who was actually backstage with Adam Ant, nope not envious at all, he said lying! This homage was a reworking of my favourite Bowie tune, namely ‘“Heroes”’ which this evening was complete with Bowie vocal samples and accompanying video of that very special day back on Saturday 13th July 1985. It’s fair to say that this was a special moment for us this evening and as Dolby had hinted prior to playing it that “there won’t be a dry eye in the house”.
Well, where do you go from there? ‘Hyperactive!’ of course! For this Dolby built up the samples and loops etc which afforded him some time away from his keys as he walked about the front of the stage and sang through the vocoder. Although enjoyable, this wasn’t quite as great as the recorded tune. This was also the case for the following number, ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, the original video of which was intercut with celebrities mainly saying the word “science”. I don’t think it quite worked and maybe was a way for Dolby to seek approval from higher powers, which to be honest he doesn’t actually require. Although having said that, to some, he may come across as being successful in an Americanized way or others may even mute that he’s a tad smug.
The main set was now finished and the loud applause was awarded for his work and Dolby strolled off stage, but shortly returned in order to give us two more tunes, these being the funky dance selection of ‘Hot Sauce’, which is found on 1988’s ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’ album, followed by a chilled laid back version of ‘Airwaves’ from 1982’s ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ album. ‘Hot Sauce’ was OK but again ‘Airwaves’ wasn’t as good as the recorded version. I understand that he was trying to not replicate the recorded material and to offer fans a new perspective on some of his tunes, but is this what the fans actually want or is it him being a tad over-indulgent? Those that were in attendance can decide for themselves. Myself and my mate had been buzzing ever since the gig was announced and we snapped up our tickets the very moment they went on sale, in our heads this was to be the “Gig Of The Year!”, but unfortunately it wasn’t. Were we expecting too much?….Possibly, but immensely happy that we went and at 10:29pm that was our lot!
Thomas Dolby:
Thomas Dolby – vocals, keyboards, harmonica
Thomas Dolby setlist:
‘Blue Monday’ (New Order cover)
‘Evil Twin Brother’ (from 2011 ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ album)
‘Europa And The Pirate Twins’ (from 1982 ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ album)
‘One Of Our Submarines’ (including ‘Cars’ by Gary Numan and ‘Lovesong’ by The Cure) (from 1983 version of 1982 ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ album)
‘The Flat Earth’ (from 1984 ‘The Flat Earth’ album)
‘I Love You Goodbye’ (from 1992 ‘Astronauts & Heretics’ album)
‘Spice Train’ (from 2011 ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ album)
‘My Brain Is Like A Sieve’ (duet with Jason Mraz on pre-recorded vocals)
‘Budapest By Blimp’ (from 1988 ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’ album)
‘”Heroes”’ (David Bowie cover including samples of David Bowie’s vocal)
‘Hyperactive!’ (from 1984 ‘The Flat Earth’ album)
‘She Blinded Me With Science’ (from 1983 version of 1982 ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ album)
(encore)
‘Hot Sauce’ (from 1988 ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’ album)
‘Airwaves’ (from 1982 ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ album)
The idea to form a band was rife throughout Britain during 1977 with thousands of punk and punk sounding bands popping up the length and breadth of the country. Trying to put Witton Gilbert on the map – “Witton where?” I hear you say! It’s a mediaeval town of Saxon origin located 3.7 miles to the north-west of Durham – were brothers Paddy and Martin McAloon who formed The Dick Diver Band. Nope, I hadn’t heard of them either! But by 1978, the name had changed to Prefab Sprout and eventually in 1982 the brothers were joined by vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Wendy Smith and they released their debut album ‘Swoon’ to critical acclaim in 1984.
At this time I was commuting to Goring on the train as part of the daily rat race and my Sony Walkman always accompanied me. Quite possibly the album that I played the most through my headphones was the aforementioned ‘Swoon’ album which was released on the Kitchenware label in March 1984. I have vivid memories of my many train journeys with the sun beaming on my face as we chugged Westwards and the sounds of ‘Don’t Sing’, ‘Cue Fanfare’, ‘Green Isaac’, ‘Here On The Eerie’, ‘Cruel’, ‘Couldn’t Bear To Be Special’, ‘I Never Play Basketball Now’, ‘Ghost Town Blues’, ‘Elegance’, ‘Technique’ and ‘Green Isaac II’ seeping into my brain. By the end of the following year I was working in central Brighton and Prefab Sprout performed one of two of their Brighton concerts, which took place on 11th November 1985 at the Top Rank Suite. I believe that I went, but sadly do not have my ticket stub. Although I thought that this was at Brighton Polytechnic, maybe someone out there can confirm?
The Prefab Sprout songs were written by Paddy McAloon and further classic albums came in the form of 1985’s ‘Steve McQueen’, 1988’s ‘From Langley Park to Memphis’, 1989’s ‘Protest Songs’ and 1990’s ‘Jordan: The Comeback’. After a seven year gap, ‘Andromeda Heights’ dropped in 1997 and this was the last of the six Prefab Sprout albums in my collection, and from thereon the band dropped off my radar, but did in fact release a further four albums: ‘The Gunman And Other Stories’ (2001), ‘I Trawl The Megahertz’ (2003), ‘Let’s Change The World With Music’ (2009) and ‘Crimson/Red’ (2013).
Prefab Sprout haven’t toured for 25 years and sadly Paddy McAloon suffers from a detached retina and tinnitus, so the chance of witnessing the band live is quite honestly nil. However supporting Thomas Dolby this evening (and for the whole tour) is Martin McAloon who is known as the co-founding member and bassist of Prefab Sprout and tonight is flying the flag as a solo artist is playing eleven choice cuts of Prefab Sprout material. Martin and Thomas Dolby have known each other for decades and when Prefab Sprout’s debut album, ‘Swoon’ dropped in 1984 and it came to the attention of Dolby who then produced the band’s second album, 1985’s ‘Steve McQueen’ and also 1990’s ‘Jordan: The Comeback’ album plus he also produced four tracks on 1988’s ‘From Langley Park To Memphis’ album as well.
Martin takes to the stage at bang on 8pm, or as he pointed out 35 seconds early and says “Brighton, thanks for coming” and then kicks off with ‘Cowboy Dreams’ which is the only selection performed from 2001’s ‘The Gunman And Other Stories’ album. He honestly points out that he isn’t his brother, Paddy, who wrote all the Prefab Sprout material, but jokingly added that there won’t be any refunds. It’s simply Martin and his trio of guitars, which he says do the exact same thing. He’s a jolly fellow and throughout the set is taken aback by the warmth of the crowd, many of which were no doubt in attendance in order to primarily top up their dose of forgotten Sprout’s.
Tune two is ‘Looking For Atlantis’ which is the first of two tunes found on 1990’s ‘Jordan: The Comeback’ album, the other being selection five ‘Carnival 2000’. Martin makes his first guitar swap for ‘Life Of Surprises’ which is the lone selection from 1989’s ‘Protest Songs’ album. In between each tune there is a little Northern banter from Martin, which possibly masks his slight nerves. The big hitting ‘When Love Breaks Down’ is choice four and is the first of a handful from 1985 ‘Steve McQueen’ album, with the others being ‘Bonny’, ‘Goodbye Lucille #1’ ‘Appetite’ and ‘Faron Young’. The remaining two songs from his 46 minute set are to be found on 1988’s ‘From Langley Park To Memphis’ album, these being the audience participating “Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” ‘The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ classic and ‘Cars And Girls’.
The audience were surprisingly very much behind Martin’s set and it’s fair to say that for them, that he in the main went down an absolute storm, but I’m afraid for this Prefab Sprout fan it was akin to some random bloke busking his way through their material. It was also disappointing that Martin omitted every tune found on the ‘Swoon’ album. But maybe you can decide for yourselves as Martin informed us that this evening’s set was a taster of his forthcoming 2 hour set in Brighton on Sunday 10th November, where he will be performing a large selection of hit songs from Prefab Sprout’s extensive archive celebrating over 40 years of the band and his brother Paddy’s writing. This will be taking place at Komedia Brighton and tickets are on sale now and can be purchased HERE.
Martin McAloon
Martin McAloon – vocals, guitars
Martin McAloon setlist:
‘Cowboy Dreams’ (from 2001 ‘The Gunman And Other Stories’ album)
‘Looking For Atlantis’ (from 1990 ‘Jordan: The Comeback’ album)
‘Life Of Surprises’ (from 1989 ‘Protest Songs’ album)
‘When Love Breaks Down’ (from 1985 ‘Steve McQueen’ album)
‘Carnival 2000’ (from 1990 ‘Jordan: The Comeback’ album)
‘Bonny’ (from 1985 ‘Steve McQueen’ album)
‘Goodbye Lucille #1’ (from 1985 ‘Steve McQueen’ album)
‘Appetite’ (from 1985 ‘Steve McQueen’ album)
‘The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (from 1988 ‘From Langley Park To Memphis’ album)
‘Faron Young’ (from 1985 ‘Steve McQueen’ album)
‘Cars And Girls’ (from 1988 ‘From Langley Park To Memphis’ album)
(All Prefab Sprout songs)
www.instagram.com/prefabsproutofficial
The most self indulgent and ridiculous overly pompous gig review I have ever read and seems to be more about the writer trying to show off their knowledge than writing a captivating summary of the event. The guy from Prefab Sprout was out of tune and awful, one of the worst warm up acts or musical acts my partner and I had ever seen, the music was a dirge of nonsense. As for Thomas Dolby, some good tunes and My Brain is Like a Sieve totally worked and was one of the better songs of the night, however, just when the songs started picking up he let the crowd down with some flat less interesting tunes, in particular the We can be Heroes song which was boring, and the Airwaves song at the end which felt totally flat and devoid of anything, leaving the crowd disappointed, where as ending on a high energy tune would have been better. Overall Dolby did well, he was enjoyable to watch when you could see past the pillars and too many people crammed into the Concorde 2, the vocals were good in general and the sound was pitched right, the electronic sounds were at times had a Blade Runner, electro synth vibe, but just when it started getting good the less interesting, flatter, less feel good tunes got played, such as Budapest by Blimp which is not the greatest song for a gig leaving it all feeling a bit up and down. Dolby’s vocals were for the main part good and kind of sexy. However, the biggest let down for me was that some of the more funkier tunes in particular The Key to Her Ferrari was not played.
Thanks for your comment and further review of the gig Rose.
I too was a bit underwhelmed sadly. A few highlights but a generally forgettable headline show. I enjoyed Martin McAloons set more than you clearly but was with my friend Louise who didn’t know Prefab Sprout at all. It made no sense to her.
The Sprout gig Nov ‘85 was at Top Rank – it was the autumn I moved to Brighton. Vividly remember running down west street in the pouring rain en route.
Still – glad I went. Last saw Thomas Dolby on tour circa 1983. And the highlights made it worthwhile.
But then I went to The The warm up show in Norwich the next night. Now that was electrifying.
Thanks for your comment Mike.