Braved the fog to get from Oxford to London to see the Biscuits for the first time in bloody years. Anglo-German support band, Sonnenberg were ok, a little bit Go-Betweens if completely one-paced. Nigel and the lads wafted (or perhaps stumbled) onstage to Aled Jones' dulcet tones and kicked off with "Light at the end of the tunnel". That set the tone - all the fast songs were played faster and all the slower songs were played fast too. There was fair spread of stuff from "Fred Titmuss" and "Trumpton Riots" through to a good chunk of "Achtung Bono". The mosh pit took a while to get going and then waxed and waned through the evening - from my vantage point on the balcony I could see that there were blokes older than me in there, which made me wish I'd gone for the stall ticket instead. Mind you I'd probably have put my back out by the end of the first song. Nigel interspersed the songs and fidgeting on stage with the usual non-sequiters - he seemed to be pointing at me when when he shouted Cornelius Lycett. Highlights were probably bringing back the Sonnenberg girls for the rarely sighted festive treat of "It's Cliched to be Cynical at Christmas" and the stream of consciousness rant through my favourite song "A Country Practice". Fantastic stuff. Any road a good night was had by all - and for God's sake Tony make this national treasure Sir Nigel in the New Year's Honours List - he deserves national recongnition for representing sarky gets everywhere.
In no particular order the setlist was (I think I've got most of them):
Light at the end of the tunnel
Shit Arm Bad Tattoo
Fred Titmus
Vitas Gerulaitis
Trumpton Riots
Vatican Broadside
Restless Legs
Bad Review
Chatteris
Joy Division Oven Gloves
Built This Village on a Trad Arr tune
Corgi Registered Friends
24 Hour Garage People (great soft rock mix on the bloke's iPod or was it MP3 player)
Paintball's Coming Home
Bob Wilson Anchorman
Albert Hammond Bootleg
Lark Descending
Them's the Vagaries
Running Order Squabblefest
A Country Practice
Look Dad No Tunes
Encore
What's My Name? (in tribute to St Joe Strummer)
It's Cliched to be Cynical at Christmas
Everything's AOR