Face Of Cheam

At the Southbank Centre last weekend was the 18th birthday celebrations of Heavenley Records. With three of my favourite artists on the bill this planned my weekend. First up on the Saturday was Beth Orton making her first stage appearance for three years, surprisingly in a support slot to The Magic Numbers. Beth was hypnotic. I really could not take my eyes of her as she performed acoustically. I remember seeing her a few years previously where she had a similar magnetic presence, but that gig went on far too long where this 50 minute set was perfect and left you knowing that you had seen something special. The Magic Numbers on the other hand were just another band. Didn’t really know much about them prior to this and probably still don’t except that the singer is a large bearded bloke. Not bad but just not good.
Sunday saw Dot Allison support St Etienne. Dot only had her debut album (Afterglow) on Heavenley and her set drew mainly from this. She had a full band with her and was remarkably heavy ending with a great version of Strung Out. However, the sound suffered because of this and her vocal elegance could not really come through as it should. Still good to here her ‘rock out’ compared to the acoustic shows of hers seen in recent years.
In between acts we saw a bit of Tim Burgess do a DJ set and said hello to him after getting myself a beer. He now knows my band covers Sproston Green!
St Etienne sensibly stuck to a hits set with Only Love Can Break Your Heart played early on. Sarah Cracknell looked lovely as ever, and told the security to let people stand down at the front to dance away as they wished. In the encore they were joined on stage by the heavenly records founders before ending with Like A Motorway and He’s On The Phone, played like a eurovision cover! A really good weekend, that concluded with a purchase of a souvenir T-Shirt and a complimentary programme.