Murray's Bar, Scarborough (Warm-up gig)
8th March 2002
After
what Toby described as ‘a seven year blink’ – the man is finally back on
stage where he belongs. New
musicians support him and what better place to open a new tour than his
hometown? OK, so it’s
a warm-up gig, but try telling anyone in the audience that and see if
they believe you.
New
track ‘Breakdown’ opens the show – a great
introduction rock song which generally sets the theme and pace for the night. Angels’ track ‘All Roads Lead To
You’ is next and is greeted by a huge cheer from the small but packed
Scarborough bar.
‘Some
People Are More Equal Than Others’, a track from Toby’s first solo
album, Ignorance Is Bliss, is next, followed by another monster Angels’ track;
'Young Gods'.
This is a slightly different arrangement and has a full electric intro
instead of the simple acoustic guitar as heard on the album version.
Another Toby and The Whole Truth track called Slipping Through Your
fingers is up next – this is one of the strongest tracks on the Ignorance
record.
By
now it’s clear the band have been working hard rehearsing – they play
exceptionally. The atmosphere in
the bar is amazing and Toby talks freely to the crowd like an old friend.
Unlike some other frontmen, when Toby is onstage it’s obvious that he
is still Toby – he doesn’t become some rock giant but remains down to Earth.
The
only slow songs in the set are ‘Forgiveness’
from the new EP and ‘Don’t Prey For Me’.
The set was a nice mixture of Angels classics, some tracks from Toby’s
first solo LP and the reason we are there – the new stuff including the
currently unreleased 'Inside Out' (a definite
thumbs-up). The only way I could
have improved the show would have been to make it longer. I really could have listened to them play all night.
'Womankind'
was a slightly different arrangement to the Angels version, it has a very nice
heavy rock intro. It’s kinda
difficult to write about the new tracks other than to say they sound fantastic
– it’s nice to hear some proper guitar rock for a change, especially when
it’s performed by a singer who can actually sing (sorry Fred Durst but that
ain’t you). The trademark screams
are all present and correct and the seven year gap hasn’t diminished Toby
lungs or abilities at all.
'Too
Much Too Young' caused a massive cheer from the crowd and seemed to be
the highlight of the show, there was even some moshing at the front (too posh to
mosh – not us!). Ignorance track
'Harder All The Time' closed the main set.
I’m not a huge fan of the song on CD, but live is really is much
better, especially the ‘don’t smoke your dope’ section.
After
a very short break, Toby and the band came back out for one more.
And what a song to choose – 'The Way That I Live'.
A standout Angels track and a pretty accurate statement on behalf of
Toby.
Murrays
is a pretty small venue, and it was quite literally packed full.
Everyone sang along to the Angels tracks, most of us glad to be hearing
them again finally. Let just hope it’s not another 7 years until we hear them
again!
Breakdown
All Roads Lead To You
Some People Are More Equal Than Others
Young Gods
Slipping Through Your Fingers
Inside Out
Forgiveness
Don't Prey For Me
Unwind
Radical Your Lover
I Won't Be With You
Womankind
Refresh Yourself
Too Much Too Young
Harder All The Time
-------
The Way That I Live