Birmingham Symphony Hall.Where to start.
Whose idea was it Schedule Aston Villa v Sunderland the same night?
Getting there was a nightmare.
Anyway I arrived slightly late & went over the Tap & Spile for quick pint of Hobgoblin & to meet my brother & his wife only to receive a text half way through my pint saying he was going to meet me in the
Bar in the Symphony Hall instead. Oh well at least I got a decent pint
.
On entering I bumped into photographer friend and forum member Ken Harrison & had a quick chat just before I spotted my brother.
Whilst sitting with Kerry he thought he’d spotted Rob Harris disappearing into the distance so I went to investigate to find that it was so we also had a catch-up.
I managed to acquire a new Evidence T-shirt form the merchandise store before we went upstairs.
We were seated at the rear of the 2nd level and so were quite a few other Foxx fans who I recognised.
The show started just before 8pm.
On stage were the 3 of them in front of a dark drape which was covering up OMD’s gear.
They kicked off with Evidence.
Hannah was on keyboards & Violin, John was on his usual contraption & Benge was on Drum Pad duty.
Lighting was very minimal which meant that along with the dark drape & the distance from stage that taking decent pictures was a challenge.
So apologies for my grainier than normal images.
Sound was loud but really good quality where I was sitting.
It was quite a good set that started off slow & gradually moved more up tempo.
The perfect warm up for OMD.
Set list Evidence,
He's a liquid,
Evergreen,
No One Driving,
Summerland,
Running Man,
Burning Car,
Catwalk,
Underpass
Positives were the sound was loud but clear. Great acoustics as you would expect for the venue.
The only negative was the lack of lighting and darkness.
Usual lighting man Chris Curran being away in Hawaii may have impacted on this or it could be a limitation of being the support band I don’t know.
I very much enjoyed my 10th Live outing seeing John Foxx in concert.
Then it was time for OMD.
This was my first time seeing OMD
OMD came on & started with the intro track from English Electric which segued straight into Metroland.
It was a good looking stage set surrounded by the same Black/Yellow safety stripes that are found on the album artwork.
And the lighting was amazing,strobes,bright multi coloured spots & what looked like a mirror ball drum thing that projected it’s speckles onto the back wall of the set.
Andy M was very energetic doing his 80s style dancing and succeeded in getting the audience dancing and clapping along to almost every song from the very start.
He was like the energiser bunny and would not stand still.
OMD set listMetroland
Messages
Tesla Girls
Dresden
History of the Modern (Part 1)
(Forever) Live and Die
If You Leave
Souvenir
Night Cafe
Joan of Arc
Maid of Orleans
Our System
Kissing the Machine
So In Love
Sister Marie Says
Locomotion
Sailing the Seven Seas
Enola Gay
Encore
Walking on the Milky Way
Secret
Electricity
Overall I was very impressed by my first outing to see OMD.
You forget how many hits that have actually had.
I really enjoyed the evening.Nice to meet up with some old friends as well.
Slideshow with more images:-
http://s293.photobucket.com/user/mateybloke/slideshow/FoxxOMDBrum2013Brian
