Archive for the ‘Prefab Sprout’ Category

3 Jan

Martin McAloon (Prefab Sprout) High Forest Community Centre Sinderhope Northumberland 30 November 2024

Posted by vintagerock in Martin McAloon, Prefab Sprout. Tagged: , , , , .

Another adventure into the wilds of Northumberland. Jan, my taxi driver and I set off early in the evening for a 50+ miles ride up to see none other than Martin McAloon, of Prefab Sprout. The route has become familiar. Up towards Hexham, along a winding road up to Allendale and then a few miles further to Sinderhope where we easily found the High Forest Community Centre a small building set on its own surrounded by lovely fields and wildlife (see picture below from website). We arrived in plenty of time, around 7 PM (the start time was 7:30 PM).

The staff on the door were as helpful as last time we visited. Once again they had been expecting us and made sure I safely entered the building. They directed us to a space right down the front of the small hall. To those of you who are not familiar with this guy, Martin McAloon was the bass player and a founding member of Prefab Sprout. Prefab Sprout were a three piece band led by Martin’s brother Paddy McAloon and Wendy Smith. As they are not performing any more, Martin has decided to go out on the road and sing those timeless pop tunes to us.

The advertisement for the concert told us: “Martin will be performing a 2-hour show featuring a large selection of Prefab Sprout songs from their 40 years in the music industry, stripped back to the bare necessities, the raw elements of how they were first performed when originally written by his brother Paddy – before the bells, whistles and budget were added. Expect all the hits; Cars and Girls, When Love Breaks Down & The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and much, much more!”

“Following a fall during the pandemic that broke one wrist and a car accident that damaged the other arm, Martin used the guitar and the songs as a form of rehabilitation. Martin has been involved in the music industry since he was a teenager releasing the early Sprout records on his own label Candle Records, he’s lectured on music and art at colleges and universities and was instrumental in setting up the UKs leading music development agency, Generator Northeast. Martin is also a visual artist who exhibits under the pseudonym Feliks Culpa whose work is in collections worldwide and has exhibited at the Royal Academy and ICA London, Liverpool Museum of Popular Music, and Manchester Contemporary.” [Mental note to myself: Have a look at some of his artwork]

“These songs are the DNA that runs through me – the writing is pristine and it’s an honour to be able to play them in a live environment once again.” Martin McAloon

I have been fortunate enough to see Prefab Sprout perform on two occasions. The first was when an early incarnation of the band played at one of the legendary Durham Dome festivals. These events took place in the 1970s and early 1980s along the riverside at Durham. The stage was literally a dome structure, on which local bands performed, during some lovely sunny Saturday afternoons.

The second time I saw them was when they performed a short set as part of the Red Wedge tour which, organised and led by Billy Bragg, visited Newcastle City Hall. They had some great catchy pop songs and I was really looking forward to watching Martin perform those hits again. To say I wasn’t let down is an understatement. Martin played only a few feet away from us, performing those songs stripped down, just a man and his guitar. I imagine that this was how the songs first emerged with his brother Paddy, it was tremendous to see and hear such an authentic performance by one of the original members of the three piece band.

I had forgotten how many hits Prefab Sprout had amassed during their short career. I immediately recognised “When Love Breaks down”, “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “Cars and Girls”. Martin had two setlists in front of him. One was his own preprepared list of songs. The other was one on which the audience wrote their requests. Martin moved seamlessly from one list to the other; trying his best to recall some of the more obscure Prefab Sprout songs that members of the audience had written on the list. This was a crowd who were clearly fans familiar with the band’s back catalogue. Some had probably travelled many miles to witness this performance.

Many thanks to Martin for performing those songs for us in such an intimate venue. Thank you Martin for signing my ticket (see first image). Thanks also to Jan for the photographs and to Atlanta for manipulating the site. Jan and I were soon out in the cool Northumberland air, and on our way through the winding roads and back home. A lovely evening, spent with a great performer with a clutch of wonderful songs. It don’t get much better. Happy days.

Setlist (something like this based on previous concerts): Moving the River; Faron Young; Cowboy Dreams; Looking for Atlantis; Nightingales; Don’t Sing; Carnival 2000; Hallelujah; When Love Breaks Down; Electric Guitars; I Remember That; The Sound of Crying; Cruel; Here on the Eerie; Never Play Basketball Now; Cue Fanfare; Horsin’ Around; Nancy (Let Your Hair Down for Me); Appetite; The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll; Bonny; Goodbye Lucille #1; Life of Surprises; Cars and Girls

30 Mar

Red Wedge tour (featuring The Smiths) Newcastle City Hall 31st January 1986

Posted by vintagerock in Billy Bragg, Communards, D C Lee, Jimmy Somerville, Junior Giscombe, Paul Weller, Prefab Sprout, Style Council, The Smiths.

Red Wedge tour Newcastle City Hall 31st January 1986
redwedgeThe Red Wedge concert at Newcastle City Hall in January 1986 is one of the most memorable gigs I have been to. Red Wedge was a collective of musicians, fronted by Billy Bragg, who set out to engage young people with politics, and the Labour Party in particular, during the period leading up to the 1987 general election, in the hope of ousting the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. Billy Bragg was joined in Red Wedge by Paul Weller and The Communards lead singer Jimmy Somerville. Red Wedge organised a number of major tours and concert. The first and most memorable, took place in January and February 1986, and featured Billy Bragg, Paul Weller’s band The Style Council, The Communards, Junior Giscombe, and Lorna Gee. The core touring acts were joined by other guest bands throughout the tour.
The City Hall concert featured Billy Bragg, Junior Giscombe, The Style Council, The Communards, with guests Prefab Sprout and, as a big and very welcome surprise, The Smiths. It is The Smiths who stole the show, and their performance that night sticks in my memory as one of the best I have ever seen, by any band.
All of the bands performed short sets; a few songs each. The Communards were impressive, Jimmy Somerville’s soaring vocals were amazing, and the Style Council were also good. I seem to recall D C Lee guested with them and sang “See The Day”. Local heroes Prefab Sprout also went down well. John Hardy recalls their two song set on his North East Music History Blog: “But topping the local talent was the accoustic Paddy McAloon. The quirky ‘Dublin’ – a nostalgic carol to lost Ireland – his carressing croon and lyrical magic came through on ‘Cruel’, aided by the sylph like Wendy”.
RED_WEDGEprogBut it was The Smiths who stole the show. There were whispers around the hall that something special was going to happen. Without any real warning, The Smiths were announced and stormed straight into ‘Shakespeare’s Sister, followed by ‘I Want The one I Can’t Have’, ‘Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ and ‘Big Mouth Strikes Again’ (“our new single”). There is something about a short set; it allows a band to focus and to maintain a high level of energy and passion throughout. The Smiths were simply phenomenal that night; there was a buzz about them at the time, and everyone was delighted to see them perform. But it was more than that. It was as if they had decided to put everything into those four songs; the power, the intensity, and Morrissey and Marr’s performance were a step above anything I had seen them deliver before (or since) that night. It was as if they knew that they were simply the best band on the planet at the time, and they came out with the confidence and ability to deliver a word class, stunning performance. We sat there, feeling that we were witnessing something special. It was that good. It was the best time I saw The Smiths, and a performance that will stay with me for ever. Perfect rock ‘n’ roll in four songs and 20 or so short minutes.
Johnny Marr said afterwards: “The Red Wedge gig at Newcastle City Hall was one of the best things we ever did. Andy and I had done a couple of gigs already with Billy Bragg in Manchester and Birmingham the week before…I was telling Morrissey about it and he was fairly up for just doing an impromptu show. So we drove up to Newcastle, without telling anyone. I walked into the sound-check…the other bands were a little bit perplexed as to what we were doing there. We had no instruments, so we borrowed The Style Council’s equipment and just tore the roof off the place. In the middle of the set we just walked on to this announcement and the place went bananas.” Morrissey said (NME, 1986): “…that was why we made a very brief, but stormy appearance. When we took to the stage the audience reeled back in horror. They took their walkmans off and threw down their cardigans. Suddenly the place was alight, aflame with passion!”