Bitter frontman not so Splendid etc

I went to see Richard Ashcroft at the Enmore Theatre on Saturday night, he was down here to play the Splendor in the Grass festival, which he was doing so the next night, and had played a gig in Melbourne on the Friday night.

He was decent. The crowd was mainly made up of ex pats and Micks (some of whom were dressed like Boyzone circa 1995, workboots and denim dungarees etc, very weird), and he played a decent mix of new (average guff) and old ('the classics'). Though in a place not much bigger than the Shep's Bush Empire (Enmore holds 2200, the Empire 2000), it was only about two thirds full, which I was surprised at given the amount of Brits over here and the fact that he hadn't been over here for at least a couple of years. In the classic sign that things haven't gone to plan, touts were punting out tickets outside for significantly less than face value.

Like that first Shed 7 'comeback' gig we went to, he spaced out the hits so there was a rush on at the bar and the bogs every time he played a new one, but there was still goose bumps when he played Lucky Man, Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Drugs Don't Work, Lonely Soul, Sonnett etc. Half the gig's on youtube already, here's Bitter Sweet Symphony.

He looked liked he was going to make my night by saying something like "What one do you wanna hear next?" before playing about a minute of History, then stopping and going, "There's that one, or..." then a minute of On Your Own, "or that one..." which was annoying.

But not as annoying as it would have been for any punters who decided to watch him headline a tent at Splendor on the Sunday night, up against The Pixies and Aussie heroes Empire Of The Sun, who were headlining the two main stages at the same time. There's various reports (here and here), but essentially he stormed off one song in, apparently fucked off with being put up against big names and getting a small draw as a result, or because he got tonked on the head with a bottle and waded in to the crowd to try and show the thrower the error of his ways. Either way, there's nothing the Aussies love more than someone who loves himself and gives it the big I am, so he's getting a bit of a shoeing now, as the comments underneath that Daily Telegraph article show.