Eighties Night

I take the dogs on the park this morning for a frolic through the virgin snow. Well it’s not actually much of a frolic; it’s a bit heavy going for a game of football. It wears me out more than the dogs.

Meanwhile L is down at our post office depot picking up a parcel and she is stunned when they hand her a pile of our post, which they hadn’t been delivering. We hadn’t noticed they hadn’t delivered, because our deliveries are terribly hit and miss anyway but if the post has reached the depot, why aren’t they delivering it? We’ve not had much snow at all in Nottingham; even most of the schools are open and postmen deliver on foot, so the snow’s not going to bother them is it.

Then as I get the bus over to Derby for the match it starts to rain. Great. The typical British winter has arrived at last. Well at least that'll shut the moaners, who don’t like the snow, up. However, looking at the forecast I'm hopeful the nice white stuff will be back with us soon.

I get the same bus driver who went the wrong way the other week and he does it again. Unbelievable. We sit in traffic getting nowhere. At 2.30 I attempt to jump off explaining that I would like to be at the match for kick off at 3.00 and at the rate he’s moving (or not moving) we won’t even be in the bus station by then. Reluctantly he lets me off.

Derby’s bubble has somewhat burst and they are totally outplayed by Norwich City, losing 2-1. I’m actually happy with that. I don’t want us to flirt with promotion this season.

Afterwards L drives over and we head over to Wolverhampton for a bit of an 80’s night. The Human League at the Civic Hall.

Support comes from ‘(We Are) Performance’, a three piece from Manchester, who make a great sound. Although I keep looking around for their fourth member, the one who is bashing out all the amazing synth tunes. This is because they consist only of a suave looking singer, who’s good; a girl with a guitar who only strums about three notes (not that that’s a criticism, many a successful career has been founded on less) and an electronics whizz complete his MacBook but even he only seems to play a few electric drum gadgets. That's it. Music is so easy-peasy. When you have it all taped or sequenced.



Still, as I said, they’re very good, well they sound good. They’re also very in keeping with The Human League, who have pulled a sizeable crowd tonight. Rather worryingly though, I might be the youngest one here. Possibly. The combined age of the front row is terrifying. No crowd surfing please gents, not with those walking sticks.

The League take the stage and open with a new track from their forthcoming album ‘Credo’. The track ‘Electric Shock’ seems very well received. Perhaps it’s the hooded monk on vocals that swings it for them. Then the monk removes his hood and blimey, it’s Phil Oakey. The winner of the prize for the most dubious outfit worn on stage at a Human League gig and it’s not an easy one to win, competition is fierce.



Then we’re straight into a run of classics. I can happily report that Phil still can’t hit those high notes in ‘Open Your Heart’ but he never has been able to and it's never bothered him or us. ‘Mirror Man’ follows and then ‘Heart Like A Wheel’ introduced as one of former member Jo Callis’s anti-war songs and that is aptly followed by something in a similar refrain, ‘The Lebanon’. Which brings their frustrated guitarist, Nic Burke, to the fore. It’s good to see he’s still with them and hasn't jumped ship to AC-DC, where I think possibly his heart lies.

As the hits keep coming, ‘Louise’ followed by a couple from Dare, ‘Love Action’ and ‘Sound Of The Crowd’, it’s all very good but I do feel a bit duped. I was intrigued to come because this tour was supposed to be in support of their new album but that is not now out until March. So again tonight we generally get a greatest hits set, which is obviously what the masses want to hear but I wanted to hear what they’d been up to in the studio. Their last album ‘Secrets’ was very good indeed and hugely underrated.



Then came two old oldies. No disrespect to the girls, who went for a breather at this point (we're all getting to that sort of age), but ‘Being Boiled’ was absolutely ace, it sounded great and had the best light show of the night. ‘Empire State Human’, which followed, wasn’t too far behind either, with Phil playing a guitar strap keyboard.



The girls returned after a wardrobe change for the new single ‘Night People’ with its incredibly cheesy lyrics. The song isn’t bad but it seemed a lot of the crowd were perplexed by it and what it was doing ruining their night of nostalgia.

Then another one they probably didn’t know, ‘All I Ever Wanted’, from 'Secrets'. There was no doubting that everyone knew the closing threesome of ‘(Keep Feeling) Fascination’, ‘Tell Me When’ and ‘Don't You Want Me’ though.



‘Seconds’ was a bit of a surprise as the encore with Phil back in monk mode and again no girls. It was also stupendously good. No offence girls. Then they’re back, with another outfit for the closing ‘cover’ of ‘Together In Electric Dreams’.

All good stuff. I would have preferred to hear more songs from ‘Credo’, but that would have upset the masses. Maybe next time.

(Saturday 4th December)

A Lot To Cram In

Due to today’s football match being moved to a 1pm kick off, not for television but on police advice, because there was some skirmish between Sheffield United and Derby supporters a few decades back, I have a lot to cram in this morning.

Such as waking up early, so that I can get as long a lay as long as usual on a Saturday! Then I still need to find time to take the boys for a session on the park. When we get there, we are momentarily distracted by one of those ‘military fitness’ sessions, that seem to be so popular at the moment. This instructor had his group, of predominantly young women, crawling around on all fours for, what seemed, far longer than necessary. That is, if it was necessary at all. Hmmmm.

The 1pm kick off makes no difference to the result. Derby lose again and the sole highlight of the game was the ironic cheers for their first and only shot on target after 76 minutes. The ‘no strikers’ strategy, a kind of lopped Christmas tree formation, clearly isn’t going to be prolific.

In the interests of an alcohol free evening, we have the half marathon tomorrow, we take in a play tonight, ‘She Stoops To Conquer’, a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith dating back to something like 1773.



The plot concerns a wealthy country squire called Hardcastle who arranges a blind date of sorts between his daughter, Kate and the son of an aristocrat called Charles Marlow, hoping the pair will get it on together, marry and therefore he’ll find someone else to fund his presumably high maintenance daughter. Unfortunately, whilst Marlow apparently flirts with ease with ladies of a lower social standing, he becomes tongue tied and awkward around posher totty. The resourceful Kate though is willing to ‘stoop’ to the any level it takes and decides to pose as a barmaid. Presumably on the premise that a man will always notice a lass serving beer.

That all sounds quite promising, which I guess is why we’re here but... I don’t know, it does little for me but then perhaps I’m just not in the mood tonight. It is a play of slightly dubious comic appeal based upon multiple misunderstandings and mistaken identity. Sound familiar? Very Shakespearean. It also launches off into various sub-plots, again ala Shakespeare. I love a bit of Shakespeare but I much prefer his tragedies and histories to his unconvincing comedies but then I don’t really do comedy.

Kate’s disguise consists of just a mere cord that she ties around her waist. Instantly making herself unrecognisable as the daughter of a country toff and becomes a simple barmaid... but then she picks up a feather duster. I’m already confused, and I’m sure she could have been more resourceful and come up with a more effective approach if she’d thought about it but I guess this was the 18th century.

The most confusing bit though is when Marlow and his mate, who on the way to the Hardcastles' manor for his blind date, get lost and stop off at the Three Pigeons pub. There they are played a joke on and are told that they are a long way from the manor and will therefore have to stay overnight at an inn. Then they are told that the Hardcastles' house is an inn, so they turn up there, get drunk and treat Hardcastle himself like a landlord... but it’s supposed to be a country manor house... that’s too far fetched for my logical mind.

Everything of course sorts itself out in the end. Kate's plan succeeds and she gets her man. The acting is good, as it usually is at the Playhouse house, but personally I thought they were all upstaged by the oversized animals, particularly what I think was a dog.



(Photo - Robert Day)

(Saturday 11th September)