More than just a wobbly pink dessert

To make good gig;

Ingredients
1 great pre gig pub 
A fabulous venue 
Several beers
A position with a view
2 or 3 brand new friends (choose ones with hats for extra flavour)
Hundreds of passionate people
Mix with some bloody great music

Thursday 13th November had it all!

Kentish Town - an area I got to know well in the guise of one my many alter egos…ballet mum but tonight I was in full on dance happy mode.

 The Forum is a gorgeous 1930s art deco style cinema and in a gin fuelled haze I glibly declared that I had never actually been inside before - this is, of course, complete nonsense because The Forum is, of course, The Town and Country Club of the late 80s and early 90s and I have seen Billy Bragg amongst others perform there.  

Janie and I blagged a position close to the front and before long the masses closed in around us.  At this point it is important to have a landmark for navigating back from the bar and the loo so Janie took it upon herself to befriend the man in the beanie hat which could act as our homing beacon, to be referred to from henceforth as Graeme.  As this is his name.

Blancmange were just great a fusion of mad scientist garb, sad dad dancing, megaphones and that bloody fantastic electronic sound.  The audience really came together to support the maiden arts of electronic music.

• 1. Game Above My Head 
  2. God's Kitchen 
  3. Don't Tell Me 
  4. WDYF 
  5. I Can't Explain 
  6. Waves 
  7. Living on the Ceiling 
  8. Feel Me 
  9. Blind Vision 
     
     
     
     
     But where was it Blancmange - surely you are not trying to draw a veil over your Abba moment?
     It needed to be there so I have included it here.  Please don't leave it out in future.

Heaven 17 followed fast on the heels of Blancmange, a happy relaxed Heaven 17 with more than a nod to The Human League.  Gregory's murdering of the first verse of 'Don't you want me' was, he assured us, performed 'because it really pisses off Phil Oakey' and as music folklore has it that Martyn Ware once chased Oakey down a street throwing milk bottles at him, you can assume that he was happy to have it murdered.  'Crushed' on the other hand, was performed with chutzpah a-plenty and much audience participation "WOO-WOO"

However, it was while I was singing merrily 'Kiss the Boys Goodbye' that I realised for the first time what a creepy song that is.  If a 37 year old man tells my future 17 year old daughter to 'come live with me' he won't be singing for long!  Holy Cow am I destined to listen to all the songs of my youth through a mum's ears these days?

I was thirty-seven

You were seventeen

You were half my age

The youth I'd never seen

Unlikely people meeting in a dream

Heaven only knows the way it should have been 

Here today my tomorrow

Where you lead I will follow

All that kissing

No passion missing

Come live with me

Kiss the boys goodbye 

Have they lost that loving feeling?  Nope.

This was feel good gig at its best.  Aside from a few precocious hand-lowering moments reminiscent of Ross from Friends from Martyn Ware, they didn't take themselves too seriously.  The band boasts the sexiest synth girls in the business, the brilliantly sassy and talented vocalists Billie Godfrey and Rachel Mosieh and men and women alike went a bit ga ga when Berenice Scott stepped up to the front for Being Boiled.  

A tour of synthetic delights?  Oh yes it was.

The setlist 'acquired' by Janie