Coventry review, Thu 4th March (5/3/99)

Scott McKenzie:

After a dodgy two or three minutes trying to get the sound right, this turned out to be an excellent gig with songs coming mainly from old albums, though three or four new songs were played (a short song along the lines of Ken Dodd's 'Happiness' which made reference to The Tindersticks and Radiohead went down very well).

Memorable songs included Trumpton, Squabble Fest, Albert Hammond, Dukla Prague, Fred Titmus, Everything's AOR, Time Fly's By and Turned Up. The only dodgy song of the night was the Help Me Rhonda cover, which is not a patch on the Transmission cover we are sometimes treated to. I was a bit surprised that they chose not to play more songs from the last few albums, though the majority of the crowd seemed to be more into the old stuff anyway.

I would estimate that about 200 punters attended the gig and this amount pretty much filled the venue. My only gripe about the venue was the lack of a proper stage. With HMHB playing on the same level as the punters, this made viewing impossible (unless you were standing at the very front). The pillar in middle of the venue didn't help much either.

An excellent night out, well worth the hour drive.