Cuttings

Time for another double header, my third. Three of us got a lift to Bradford with a work colleague of mine who'd been to university there and at whose girlfriend's house we would be staying. We went to Italia Cafe to eat first (my colleague said "It's not Italian, but it is cheap") and it does seem to have some musical history (it's not there any more). A subsequent pub visit and a slip in the icy conditions meant that by the time we arrived at St George's Hall (which *is* still there, unlike some of the other venues where I've seen New Order) we'd already missed Life. I was at the stage for this gig, which was fairly quiet, but I don't recall much about the show itself. State of the Nation opened, which seemed to be quite common in this spate of gigs, and was followed by 586 and Broken Promise . Bizarre Love Triangle, Lonesome Tonight, Sooner Than You Think and Love Vigilantes all followed, with good solid renditions of each. Next were...

As with the show the night before, this was another where an attempt to get tickets in advance (in this case by calling the Fulcrum Centre on November 28) proved fruitless, so again it was a case of chancing it on the night.   It was a chance that paid off. Three of us got in for £28 (strange amount), which as can be seen from below, was not massively above face value in £ terms.   Support was Quando Quango. They played Genius and Love Tempo at least, but I'm not sure of the rest of their set.   For New Order, State of the Nation was followed by Blue Monday , which included some nice guitar improvisation at the end.    An excellent version of The Village preceded Hooky complaining about someone touching his mic stand, before launching into Sub-culture.   After This Time of Night , Barney asked the audience to " Please be quiet I'm trying to concentrate ".   Thieves Like Us had added cowbell in the opening section, as well as Barney sta...