Difference between revisions of "Gig:Skyscape, London, 26th September 2000"

Revision as of 01:11, 23 January 2016

Skyscape was built as part of the Millennium Dome complex to act as a cinema for the duration of the Millennium Exhibition. However it also staged a series of music gigs, which were recorded by TV to showcase the best of British music. Mansun appeared on the 26th September 2000, together with Reef, Coldplay, Toploader and Placebo.

Reviews criticised the lack of atmosphere at the venue as seen in the following review by Dorian Lynsky

"Today is Paul Draper's 27th birthday. He is reluctantly spending it at the Millennium Dome. His band, Mansun, are playing at the Skyscape [a kind of soulless mini-Dome in the shadow of its much-derided big brother] for a Japanese TV show. A monument to misguided ambition and bombastic folly, for Mansun-haters it's another open goal.

Onstage, the supernaturally-irritating Sarah Cawood shrilly announces a ban on smoking, drinking and stagediving. Helpfully, she indicates the stony-faced security guards who will gladly expel miscreants. Backstage, Mansun have been told they have to wait "for the pyrotechnics".

When Cawood squawks, "They won't disappoint you - heeeere's Mansuuuunnnn!" there's a sputter at the front of the stage as, in the words of Dominic Chad, "the smallest flares in the world" feebly erupt. When Mansun come on and thunder into 'Take It Easy Chicken', they have to struggle to stop laughing.

The band have given 50 tickets to fans and, as is traditional, different individuals take up positions facing their favourite member: Paul, Chad or bassist Stove King. As drummer Andie Rathbone drily admits, he doesn't get any. Elsewhere, the intrigued mingle with the bored and bemused as Mansun rattle ferociously through seven of their jagged, anthemic hits. Such receptions have followed them ever since they first emerged from Chester in 1995 with a defiantly unfashionable sound and seemingly a new image every month. Riding waves of fanatical obsession, and dogged by constant hoots of critical derision, Mansun have somehow become Britain's biggest cult band.

"We get two reactions", muses Paul Draper. "Either, 'I thought you were really shit but I liked a couple of your singles and bought the album and think its really good. Why does everyone hate you?' or 'Oh that bunch of fucking benders. Fuck off back to Chester!' We don't get floating voters." "

Video from Skyscape 26th September 2000