Friday night found me in London's fashionable DALSTON area of London, where I was due to see the reformed PROLAPSE, back together after 16 years. It was all very exciting - I'd heard from Tim and seen online that the previous night's gig in Manchester had gone well, and was looking forward to seeing a) them b) a whole heap of other people who I guessed might be going too.
My guess was a GOOD one. As Mr S Hewitt and I rounded the corner we saw a metric TONNE of old faces, all looking very pleased to see each other. The Victoria was RAMMED with people going "OOOH! I haven't seen you for YEARS!" to each other, and everybody was very much in the mood for a good time - so much so that the bar had run out of GAS to power their beer taps. Undeterred we all switched to bottles - a room full of people in their 40s on a night off were not going to be denied BEER!
I missed the support band due to standing around outside NATTERING (I don't think I've ever said "No, I don't have any kids, do you?" QUITE so many times to QUITE so many drunken people) and going "Oh blimey look who ELSE has just turned up!" It was lovely, like being at a WEDDING, except with loud music, loads of drunk people who'd not seen each other for ages and... well, like being at a wedding.
And then there was the gig actual. It was AMAZING! Prolapse were always a brilliant live band, and they had lost precisely NONE of their ability to be GRATE in the 16 years since they last toured. Scottish Mick was hilarious, Linda was brilliant, and between them Tim was thrashing away like a LOON - a loon who, I could not help but notice, was like a HUMAN METRONOME! How did that happen? Pat, Geordie Mick, Donald and Dave round the edges rolled out the INCREDIBLE riffs - every single song they did started with an instantly recognisable riff that made approx 80% of the audience (NB including me) go "HOORAY!" as soon as they heard it.
For LO! it was a set of HIT after HIT after HIT - pretty much every song you could wish for got done, including, to my IMMENSE delight, "Psychotic Now" and the GRAND FINALE "Tina This Is Matthew Stone". It was AMAZING! All right, I do understand that, to the small number of people who didn't spend a large part of their twenties at Prolapse gigs, it may have been a bit of an old racket, but for those of us who DID it was... well, it was still a bit of an old racket, but a GLORIOUS one!
Seeing them all thrashing away I was struck by how few bands there are who could ever match them for MACH SHAU - the hour ZOOMED by in a very very sweaty room full of very very happy people. Afterwards I lurked around with Mr M Jones, who I'd not seen for YEARS, and LO! there was a whole HEAP of smiling faces, hugging, loads more beer and GOOD TIMES. Tim seemed, to say the least, pleased with how it all went, and I left knowing he had at least one more night of proper ROCK before he returns to his day job with us in a couple of weeks!
In conclusion then: well done one and all, let's hope this tour isn't the last!
