THE SIGNAL

Our trip was initiated by the prospect of seeing Belle & Sebastian at the Hollywood Bowl, which turned out to be one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to, certainly one of my best ever Belle & Sebastian experiences.  They played with LA Philharmonic Orchestra and the sound was stunning – perfect for a long lazy summer evening.  The setlist reflected the special occasion: a wonderful summation of the past ten years with songs from Tigermilk right up to The Life Pursuit.  Particular highlights for me were Lord Anthony and I’m Waking Up To Us, both of which really raised the hairs on the back of the neck.  Plus Stuart seemed to enjoy flirting with the girls in audience (as always!) and even had a crazy run through the seats and benches during the last couple of songs!
Sadly it seems there wasn’t any official recording of the gig for a CD or DVD so over the next few days I’ll post some of the pics we took on the night.

When we got home we went to see the ever fantastic Teenage Fanclub at the Forum in London.  They were playing the whole of Bandwagonesque as part of Foundation’s Don’t Look Back Series of gigs.  Absolutely awesome – from the opening riff of The Concept to the never-played-live-before Is This Music? which is just classic shoegazing!  As a special bonus the original band (including drummer Brendan O’Hare) played the album, even joined by Joe Superstar on violin for a few tunes.  Then the Fannies came back to do a few more classics from the archive – can’t ever get enough of I Need Direction and of course, appropriately enough, Don’t Look Back.