overyourhead

Soft Cell at the Shepherd's Bush Empire...
Sometimes you are just blown away by a gig. It happened to me in 2001 with Goldfrapp (I've just booked tickets for their show in May BTW) and it happened to me again on Friday night with Soft Cell. Everything was right: great company (Paul my ex who is a big early Soft Cell and Marc fan), great venue (the SBE manages to be big yet strangely intimate), great band (did I mention I'm a Soft Cell fan?), great performances from the dynamic duo and to top it off a great set-list.

Sometimes a set-list can get forgotten in the reviews of gigs you read in magazines and on the web. Not that you want to spoil it for people who haven't seen they perofrm but the actual songs and their order in which a band plays them are often critical as to whether you enjoy a gig. It's not just a matter of "did they play the hits?" but how they played them, in what order, was there a B-side, an obscure or little known track or was there a cover that surprises and delights?

Well the set-list last Friday was magnificent.

Darker Times
Monoculture
Le Grand Guignol
Divided Soul
Surrender to a Stranger
Last Chance
Barriers
Youth
Loving You, Hating Me
Mr. Self-Destruct
The Best Way to Kill
Together Alone
Caligula Syndrome
The Night
Soul Inside
Torch
Bedsitter
Art of Falling Apart
(encore #1)
Memorabilia
Insecure Me
(encore #2)
Tainted Love
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
Sex Dwarf

(Any omissions or mistakes in this list are because I was three sheets to the wind - so all corrections gratefully received!)