Friday 18 March 2011

The Levellers / The Wonder Stuff - Birmingham 17/03/2011

The popularity of bands from yesteryear never ceases to surprise me. These days bands such as The Levellers and The Wonderstuff get very little commercial radio plays with "younger" radio stations not entertaining the idea of playing such bands. And yet The Birmingham O2 was packed for this amazing show last night to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Levellers album "Levelling The Land". In fact I can't remember when I was last in a venue where it was so rammed from the front right to the back. It is a great sign that in spite of the lack of commercial outlets these bands are still thriving on the live circuit with large loyal followings. 6 music is probably the only radio station I have listened to where such bands still get a fair crack. For The Wonderstuff last night it was pretty much a home town show and they got a great reaction mainly because they were as tight as... Their set consisted mainly the crowd pleasing singles, but the energy and enthusiasm in which they were played was a sure winner. The gauntlet was laid down to The Levellers who came on and went straight in to "One Way". They were more than up to the task and blazed their way through the album in its full glory plus some B sides from that era and then the encores was a greatest hits set finishing off with "Beautiful Day". I can't believe that it is about 18 years since I last saw them as they were awesome! It was a late night as I had to get back to Reading afterwards but the 1:15am bed time was a small price to pay for a wonderful show.


1 comment:

  1. Loving your work! i expect at LEAST weekly updates on here please!! :)

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