The thought of heading across to Portsmouth on a Sunday evening is never an exciting one, but the prospect of seeing one of our favourite bands in a small venue made this a must-see gig.  

It was the first night of a 16 night tour so the down n dirty surroundings of 'The Wedge' provided a great launch pad and certainly lead us to keep an open mind on what to expect.

 

Support was Tanya Auclair, songstress hailing from 'West London via Canada and Rwanda' with loads of cleverly used loops using drumsticks, guitar and vocals. She did a 25 minute set; sadly the chatter level grew as her set progressed.

 

Guillemots took to the stage to a classical music backdrop and launched into Kriss Kross, opening number from their Red album. This is an edgy number and set the tone for much of the set - ie a very together band, individually highly accomplished, delivering a superb show.

Expecting a set centering on their 2011 'Walk The River' album it was a pleasing surprise to see them give an airing to tunes from across the whole seven years since they've been together. In particular, second song in they went for the fabulous 'Go Away' a tune that's never made it to any formal release - epitome of a confident band, on form.

 

For those going to a future date I shan't spoil things by going through the set list, but suffice to say we were delighted they played the wonderfully romantic 'If The World Ends' - a superb counter-balance to many rockier songs they delivered.

 

As ever Fyfe laid bare his rather clumsy manner as he filled for instrument changes and malfunctions between songs, a complete juxtaposition to his performing persona once the tunes kick in.  And as the show progressed he discarded his jacket and wooly hat.... a sure sign this gig was going well.

 

As the show climaxed with the crowd-pleasing Sao Paolo thoughts turned beyond the next six weeks to their forthcoming tour of South America and Brazil. This worldwide band will truly grace any stage whichever corner of the planet they play.

 

Anyone who has tickets for this tour is in for a treat.

Simon

 

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