Tonight
we have in Birmingham one of the 90’s most beloved indie acts, an act that had major
chart success with numerous songs and albums, a band that took the world by
storm and then slowly faded away into obscurity. Well this band is Space and
their back, they’ve dusted off their guitars and have decided to ‘begin again’.
Now
as Space are now almost 20 years old with their main hits coming 17 years ago, so
our younger readers might not know who they are(and our older readers might not
know what happened to them), but I can tell you that you couldn’t move for
indie music or brit rock back in 1996 with bands like Catatonia, Suede, The
Lighting Seeds and Space all being at the forefront of a new music wave that
was kicked off with a bang by Blur and Oasis, this new style of rock was
accessible to the public and made us all have a break from the normal pop bands
that we are still bombarded with today. It was a refreshing music scene and
Space’s debut album ‘Spiders’ and subsequent album ‘Tin Planet’ where received
with great success, they toured heavily and had planned a follow up album to be
released in 2000, but unfortunately this never happened, they released a single
called ‘Dairy Of A Wimp’ which didn’t enter the top 40 and as such the album
was pushed back and eventually never released by the label and Space had to
wait until there contract ended to release new material. They eventually
released a new album ‘Suburban Rock ‘N ‘Roll’ in 2004 6 years after their last
album, and as such, all of their hype and press had gone leaving them playing
small gigs and feeling pretty deflated after being “screwed over” by their
record label. The band decided to call it a day, that is until 2011, when they
reformed to play a special homecoming gig in Liverpool, in which they announced
they would be touring more and making a new album. They are due to release their new album
‘Attack Of The Mutant 50ft Kebab’ this year and are doing a UK tour to promote
the album and to show the UK that they are back and are starting a-fresh, but
the big question is; should I go and see them? And the answer is a definite YES!
Space
take their time with setting up their stage, as they have a mass of
instruments, including 3 keyboards, a double bass, a video mixer and all the
normal drums, guitar, mics and bass. This set up time is fine though as the
room full of a mainly people in their mid 30’s settle in at the bar and calmly
sway to the 60’s hits that blast through the pa system. Eventually the lights go dark and the band
slowly enter the stage on by one as the starting sample of ‘Charlie M’ plays
over and over until singer Tommy Scott enters the stage to great applause and
the “ooga chacka’s” kick in and they blast into the song, all moving back and
forth as they play the song giving a creepy carnival look to the stage. The
have aged, but 3 members are not from the original line up so you can only tell
by looking at Tommy and keyboardist/sampler Franny Griffiths, who both still
look good but with Tommy now looking like a weird version of Garry Oldman.
Space
sound good as they rattle out across the room, their sound is unique and this
comes from the distinct vocals of Tommy and the wonderful samples and organs
that add to the typical instruments.
They continue their set by playing an old song then a new one, going;
‘Mr Pyscho’ ‘She’s In Love With a Boy In a Body Bag’ ‘Money’ before playing the
title track from their new album ‘Attack Of The Mutant 50ft Kebab’ to which
Tommy tells the crowd how he loves coming to Birmingham and how their accent is
the best, before pointing out a sign that’s on the ceiling showing the name of
their new album “which you can’t really see in this light, but it’s
there”. There new songs are quite
different from their older ones with them having a psychobilly feel to them, a
kind of demented reggae that when you hear it for the first time you don’t
quite get what your hearing so you concentrate on the words, and the words are
rather basic in meaning as they spell out the song to you, but this doesn’t
detract from the song as you find yourself singing along. Their stage set up
adds to the creepiness of the music, with a black maniquin with a white mask
coving its face, along with a screen in the back which on certain songs plays
videos to accompany the music. They continue the set with ‘Avenging Angels’ ‘Crying
On The Webcam’ which shows a girl on the screen, holding up cards with things
she’s feeling on them, ‘A Liddle Biddy Help From Elvis’ ‘Begin Again’ ‘Fortune
Teller’ ‘The Ballad Of Tom Jones’ before which Tommy tells the crowd how he
hates but loves this song, as Cerys Matthews appears on screen behind him to do
her parts pre-recorded , as he keeps getting older yet she still looks just as
young as she used to. After this the second keyboardist Ryan Clarke comes out
from behind the keyboard to sing a song and as Tommy puts it “To Steal The
Show”, which he doesn’t as his voice sounds like Johnny Rotten on helium as he
sings a song called Happy Clowns to which a clown appears on the screen behind
and creepy carnival music is actually played, this is a low point in the gig
for me and it doesn’t get better straight away as Tommy sings a new song called,
‘Burn Down The School’ which he informs the crowd is about a kid called Jimmy
Rodaway who burnt down his school as a teacher was shagging his missus The song
is awful, its allot noise with no real progression throughout, and I wasn’t the
only one as I overheard someone in the crowd say “I bet I could write a better
song than this, before this song ends”.
The
mini detour is forgot though as they continue with classic ‘Female Of The
Species’ which sounds as good now as it did 17 years ago, ‘Armageddon’
‘Neighbourhood’ and ‘Me and You Vs. The World’ wrap up the set with a high and
allows Tommy to come into the crowd passing the mic to fans to sing along with
the chorus, after which he climbs back over the barrier and passes a few people
a drink and the band exit the stage. They re-appear a few moments later to play
a more chilled out version of ‘Dark Clouds’ which morphs into La Bamba before
finishing the set with a relatively odd choice of ‘Drop Dead’ which has a nice
homemade movie on in the background about a stalker, whilst the band turn up
all the instruments to make it the most distorted and loud song of the night,
they leave the stage with a bang and the band come out into the crowd to shake
people’s hands and thank them for coming out.
Tonight
has been great overall, Space played a total of 19 songs with 12 of them being
from the first two albums with no songs played from albums 3 and 4 and with 7
tracks being played from their new album. It is a good mix and there new album,
does seem quite different from their older tracks, but it does have its highs
(and a few lows), which when all rounded off makes for a great gig, with allot of
nostalgia and fun. If you ever listened to Space back in the day then go to one
of their gigs, you’ll not be disappointed, and if you’re a fan of pyshobilly or
creepy carnival music and have never heard of space then go check them out, as
their new stuff will be write up your street.
Space
4/5
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