Astute fellow that he is, B&S frontman Stuart Murdoch instantly spotted the real difficulty with Perth's new venue - converted for the first time to a 1600 capacity hall with the removal of most of the stalls seating.
"Bit posh for Perth, " he joshed, before carving a path through the promenaders to check the acoustics. Singing, perched on a rail in front of the sound desk, he may be right. Interesting shows coming up including Alabama 3, Goldfrapp and Michael Nyman but all have performances more handily placed formany concert-goers.
This was a one-off, however, from the nation's most fondly regarded band. Within minutes, Murdoch was engaging in jolly banterwith the audience, chiefly about his stage attire and that of guitarist Stevie Jackson. "We'll never be fashionable, " he conceded, aware that in certain circles they have been since 1997. The currently-stable octet augmented by a quartet of violins, the B&S line-up beats the attendance at many an M U branch meeting. This was a slick, relaxed show of great sonic variety with lovely lighting and exemplary sound. Bringing on five extra people to whistle the coda of The Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runnerwas a very B&S thing to do, and when someone shouted a request for Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army, Jackson led the band in an impressive scratch version.
Of their own new songs, Murdoch's West End R 'n'B number about "domestic bliss or the attainment of it", details a couple's attempts to spice up their love life and was perilously close to Victoria Wood. Later, when he returned to the stage after his foray among the fans, Murdoch said the experience had made him feel like Val Doonican - appropriately, because when B&S rock, it is but gently.
Sponsored by Norwich Union.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article