I’m sorry to be missing Crowded House on tour this year, but I’m sure that everyone attending will be looking forward to the classics more than the new songs. I like that they are writing new songs and not just trading on nostalgia but I wish the melodies were stronger and with more guitar hooks. I have no idea what ‘gravity stairs’ are, as they are not referenced in the lyrics, but it seems a good name for the album, suggesting that serious thoughts can take you places.

Talk Talk – The Colour of Spring. Talk Talk’s third album crossed over from synths to more natural sounds. As with anything by Talk Talk, the whole record is a sonic delight, with even the silences perfectly arranged. It has a different energy to their previous two albums and paves the way for the next.

Depeche Mode – Black Celebration. A popular fan-favourite despite not having any chart-busting singles, Depeche Mode’s fifth album has a warm, almost claustrophobic atmosphere, which ought to be at odds with the industrial sounds. It’s also interesting for the innovation and use of sampling.

Crowded House – Crowded House. Their debut album has a little Split Enz mania mixed in with an exuberant rock-pop sound. ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ is of course the stand-out track, among fierce contenders such as ‘Something So Strong’, ‘World Where You Live’ and ‘Mean To Me’.

Kraftwerk – Electric Café (aka Techno Pop). The ninth album from the pioneering group is cool in both senses of the word. Although its appeal is not as immediate as, say, The Man-Machine, the more you listen, the more you like it. The themes are telephones and electro-pop itself.

Being the music nerd that I am, I pondered the links between these bands and albums, but the only ones I’m certain about are that Kraftwerk and Talk Talk were influences on Depeche Mode and that Electric Café was mixed by François Kevorkian, who would later work on DM’s Violator. We’re left with some mere coincidences: Black Celebration and Crowded House both have songs with ‘world’ in the title, Black Celebration and The Colour of Spring both have songs with ‘time’ in the title, and that Black Celebration has the song ‘Fly on the Windscreen’ while The Colour of Spring has moths (not flies) on the cover artwork.

It was worth getting there early – and the foot-ache! – to get a position close to the front. Many people were bagging places on the stone steps at the back of the venue. The DJ played a great selection of songs, including ‘Mr Blue Sky’, ‘Killer Queen’, ‘The Chain’, ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ and ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’, as the space filled up. The weather forecast was a 30% chance of rain, but it was dry and sunny (the rain came the next day).

The support act turned out to be Liam Finn, in a bright red suit. He entertained the crowd with his own songs, a cover of OutKast’s ‘Hey Ya’ with brother Elroy and a composition inspired by son Buddy, entitled ‘Bum Bums and Toilets’. His family were watching from the side of the stage. There was a technical problem but all part of the show, of course…

When the whole band returned, to excited cheers from the few thousand people in the audience, they launched into ‘Distant Sun’, thrilling everyone with a fantastic performance until the closing song, ‘Better Be Home Soon’. The setlist included 5 songs from the most recent album, Dreamers Are Waiting: ‘Show Me the Way’, ‘Whatever You Want’, ‘Playing with Fire’, ‘To the Island’ and ‘Goodnight Everyone’. There was a new song ‘Some Greater Plan’ aired and a cover of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, plus a Split Enz song, ‘Message to My Girl’. The rest were Crowded House classics: ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ (for which Neil urged us to consider what freedom means in the light of current events), ‘Weather With You’, ‘Fall At Your Feet’, ‘Seven Seasons in One Day’, ‘Private Universe’, ‘When You Come’, ‘Nails in My Feet’, ‘Sister Madly’, ‘Chocolate Cake’, ‘Black and White Boy’, ‘Pineapple Head’, ‘Something So Strong.’

There were surprises throughout the show. Johnny Marr suddenly appeared on stage with his guitar for ‘Weather With You’, to immediate rapture from those who realised what was going on. A young man called Stan did some amazing breakdancing on stage, twice. A woman in front of me held up an Elroy Finn appreciation banner and it looked like all the band noticed it except for him. Neil in a pristine white suit was in great form and even played the piano with his back to it. Nick looked comfortable in a kilt and should have won a prize for holding his vocal notes the longest. Liam, now wearing a shirt patterned with hats, threw his guitar up in the air and almost didn’t catch it. Every ten minutes or so, a train would rumble over the bridge and if it was going slow enough, the audience, passengers and train guards waved to each other. Neil theorised that someone who couldn’t get a ticket to the gig might be riding back and forth on the trains just for a view of it.

All in all, this was a fun, atmospheric gig which appealed to all generations. The band were obviously having a great time too and I’m sure they’ll remember it as fondly as the audience will.

Image of tour poster from band’s Twitter page.

Dreamers Are Waiting is a grower – the best kind of album, don’t you agree? If an album is instantly catchy, you can get bored of it quickly. The singles, ‘Whatever You Want’, ‘To the Island’ and ‘Playing with Fire’ are the strongest tracks and are all quite memorable. It will take me several listens to be able to remember the album tracks. ‘Show Me the Way’ stands out as something a bit different and was written by Liam. The sound is generally upbeat, mellow and confident. The lyrics seem to me more political than previously and show some evidence of what 2020 was like. The variation in tone is appealing, as some of the songs are serious and earnest, while others are playful.

It’s fashionable to complain that the output of bands who have been around for a few decades is never as good as their old stuff. I’m not sure it’s a debate worth having, as musicians, like the rest of us, change as they mature and they’re obviously not going to re-make albums from their peak of popularity. This goes for any kind of artist. It’s more important that they’re true to themselves and make the art they want to.

In summary, Dreamers Are Waiting is a welcome return from Crowded House. It’s the only album released this year that I’ve actually bought this year.

Crowded House – Don’t Dream It’s Over. A classic 80s song from one of my favourite bands, re-released the year they broke up.

Ocean Colour Scene – The Riverboat Song. Not sure what this song’s about, but it rocks.

Pulp – Something Changed. Wistful, irresistible song from the Britpop giants, with Jarvis Cocker’s distinctive voice.

Faithless – Insomnia. Massive dance hit with the famous refrain ‘I can’t get no sleep.’

Shed Seven – Chasing Rainbows. Sweet, slightly melancholy rock song.

Lighthouse Family – Goodbye Heartbreak. Uplifting song with the recognisable vocals of Tunde Baiyewu.

Björk – Possibly Maybe. Enchanting ballad from everyone’s favourite eccentric Icelandic singer.

Dina Carroll – Escaping. Irresistible power-pop about falling in love.

Strike – My Love is For Real. A dance cover of a Paula Abdul song, insanely catchy.

Healy & Amos – Stamp! A funky and fast dance hit to make you stamp your feet.

See previous posts in this series: The Beatles – Revolver, Simon and Garfunkel – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine, Depeche Mode – Violator.

Books:

Matilda by Roald Dahl, first published by Jonathan Cape. This fantastic tale about child genius Matilda is the best of Dahl’s children’s novels and has brought us the iconic Quentin Blake image of the little girl contentedly surrounded by stacks of books.

Collected Poems by Philip Larkin, edited by Anthony Thwaite and published by Faber and Faber (1st edition 1988, 2nd edition 2003). Larkin is my favourite poet, although I expect I wouldn’t have got on with him, had we met. I was first introduced to his work through the collection High Windows.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, first published by Victor Gollancz. The sixth book in the Discworld series, it has a vaguely Shakespearean theme and features the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nannie Ogg and Magrat Garlick. The Discworld novels focused on the witches are, in my opinion, usually the best ones.

Where’s Wally Now? by Martin Handford, published by Walker Books. The ‘Where’s Wally?’ books challenged you to strain your eyes by scanning various scenes to find our stripy-hatted friend (in the US he is Waldo). I remember looking at these in the library and I’m sure that this 2nd book in the series was one of them.

Music:

Temple of Low Men by Crowded House, released on Capitol Records. The band’s second album predictably did well in Australia and New Zealand, but in the UK it charted at number 138, which is a pity because all the tracks are so good, especially ‘Better Be Home Soon’, ‘Into Temptation’, ‘I Feel Possessed’ and ‘Love This Life’.

Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk, released on Parlophone Records. Decidedly less commercial than the band’s previous albums, this one takes several listens to get into but is so fascinating and atmospheric. I can’t really categorise the style but it includes improvisations, a variety of instruments and a considered use of space.

Hydrology by Recoil, released on Mute Records. This was the second EP from Recoil, the project of Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode. Consisting of three sample-heavy tracks, ‘Grain’, ‘Stone’ and ‘Sermon’, the music was ahead of its time. Also included on the CD album was 1 + 2, a fun and innovative earlier release.

Some great singles released this year too: ‘Heart’ by Pet Shop Boys, ‘Orinoco Flow’ by Enya, ‘Beat Dis’ by Bomb the Bass, ‘Orange Crush’ by REM, ‘The Living Years’ by Mike + the Mechanics, ‘You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart’ by Eurythmics, ‘Good Life’ by Inner City, ‘Blue Monday 1988’ by New Order and ‘Suedehead’ by Morrissey.

Screen:

Red Dwarf, created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. The first series of the sci-fi sitcom aired on BBC Two in the UK, beginning on 15th February. You can’t beat the first episode, in which Dave Lister (played by Craig Charles) ends up being the only survivor on the mining ship Red Dwarf, having been in stasis for 3 million years.

Sharky and George, a French Canadian cartoon for children from the early 90s, which was shown on Channel 4 very early in the morning when I was little. It was about a couple of fish who are private detectives in an underwater version of 1930s Chicago. I still remember this TV show well. It had a cool theme tune.

The Last Temptation of Christ, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Mysterious, edgy and thought-provoking, this controversial film has a great performance from Willem Defoe and fantastic music by Peter Gabriel. It’s a long way from those boring Biblical epics.

My Neighbor Totoro, written and directed by by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli. It’s gentle and quirky. Two sisters move with their professor father to an old house, to be nearer to their mother, who’s in hospital. There are various creatures and sprites around, the best of these being the Catbus.