A friend in need's a friend indeed, a friend who bleeds is better

I went to see Placebo Wednesday night at the Brixton Academy. They were tremendous. Very loud, very energetic. Excellent performance. I was interested to see how well the quieter, more reflective songs such as "Without You I'm Nothing" and some of the quieter stuff on Sleeping With Ghosts like "Something Rotten" and "I'll Be Yours" came across in a live context, where people are unlikely to just listen. In fact they came across extremely well because the crowd treated them with the proper respect. The atmosphere was electric throughout which contributed to the renditions of these songs and much as it did to the energy on display during such tunes as "English Summer Rain", "The Bitter End" and the marvellous "Pure Morning". The closing Pixies cover capped the performance off on an excellent note. An unexpected bonus was finding out that the second support band was the stupendous Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster who gave their customary turbo-charged psychotic rockabilly the full works.

I totally was wrong about the audience, mind you. I thought it was going to be Androgyny Central just as the Marilyn Manson show was, being as Brian Molko is bisexual and somewhat effeminate. This assumption seemed to be borne out by the sight of a guy outside the venue in a babydoll t-shirt which said "I'm the girl your parents warned you about". However we got inside and found ourselves knee-deep in jailbait. Apparently all the little girlies looooove Brian. I suppose there are worse things to endure in Brixton of a Wednesday evening. I spent the first 25 minutes dry humping the 15 year old girl in front of me. This was due to a combination of crowd pressure from behind and the barrier in front that she was leaning against. And that concludes the case for the defence, your honour.

Nick agreed that the presence of all these girls was definitive proof that there is no God. Teenage girls definitely did not look like that when I was a teenager. And I know this not because I am getting old. A glance at the school photos posted by classmates at Friends Reunited confirms this. When I was fourteen the girls at school all wore shapeless jumpers, skirts down below the knees, long socks and sensible shoes. Now they wear tight tops that show off their firm and fabulous tits, skirts that maybe cover their pert little asses (as long as they don't lean forward in any way), sheer black tights and shoes with heels. Life's a bitch.

The long and winding road

I went see Paul McCartney at Earls Court on Monday night. Although I like the Beatles a great deal, I've never been what I'd call a big fan - my total Beatles collection consists of the CD of Please Please Me and a vinyl copy of A Hard Day's Night that I bought in the Soviet Union - and the only McCartney stuff I have is the new CD and an old 45 of "Mull Of Kintyre". I only bought the ticket about three weeks ago when some extra ones were released and I was able to get what I thought would be a good view.

Well, it was wonderful. I was 12 rows from the front and had a tremendous view. The music was fantastic. McCartney is in very fine voice and form and his band is really tight. The sound was extremely good indeed; unusual for Earls Court, famous for terrible sound. He took his time and was on stage for a total of two and three quarter hours. He aired a lot of his best-known solo and Wings stuff - "Band On The Run", "Jet", "Live And Let Die", "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Let 'Em In", "My Love", etc and a pretty respectable smattering of Beatles stuff. He was keen to play songs that the Beatles never performed live, so we got "She's Leaving Home", "Back In The USSR", "Blackbird", "Something", "Getting Better", "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)". "The Fool On The Hill", "Hello Goodbye" and "The Long And Winding Road". "Mother Nature's Son" is on the new live album though he didn't do it last night. We also got "Michelle", "Eleanor Rigby", "Here, There And Everywhere", "Can't Buy Me Love", "We Can Work It Out", "All My Loving", "Lady Madonna", "I Saw Her Standing There" and of course "Yesterday".

Highlights for me were a stunning "Live And Let Die", and the crowd going nuts for "Back In The USSR" and "I Saw Her Standing There". As I said, I'm not a huge fan (though inside Earls Court I ran into someone I know who is and owns everything the Beatles and McCartney ever did and has seen him a number of times, going back at least to Wings in 1976) and I've seen other legendary bands/artists, but there was truly something special and really quite emotional about being that close to one of the Beatles as he sang "Hey Jude", "Eleanor Rigby", "I Saw Her Standing There" and most especially "Let It Be".

Put it this way, there simply no one else who can play so many of the world's best known and best loved songs which he wrote, leave several times as many unplayed, and still pull out an encore containing "The Long And Winding Road", "Lady Madonna", "I Saw Her Standing There", "Yesterday" and "Sgt Peppers".

Absolute magic.