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JARDISLondon Astoria 219th May 2000 |
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Well, we were honoured. We were privileged. We were there. Yes, those ultra busy Jadis boys found time in their hectic schedule to travel all the way up to old London Town and entertain us. And they did. Unfortunately, we missed John Wetton's opening set, after being waylaid in the Royal George by those Dirtybox guys, Mark and John. We were held captive, and captivated by tails from the road, and stories from the gutter. When those Brummie boys finally stopped slagging various muso's off, we took our chances and scarpered. Avoiding the usual Astoria hassles with Security, by cunningly having tickets, we made our way inside, where we were set upon by Gazza Ghandler. We were lucky. It only cost us £10. Some have lost their houses. Others have lost their virginity. Nearly missing our old friend Matt 'The Hat' Ellis we made our rightful way down to our positions at the front and gave the nod to the backroom boys, who let Jadis enter the stage. Jadis performed as only they know how. Nearly two hours of their trademark PubProgRock madness, they certainly know how to hold a crowd. They played tracks from all their albums, except their first one ('Jadis' - Soon to be available on CD). Gary, with his new 'Just stepped out of the saloon' hairstyle, made his carefully scripted between-songs banter sound completely natural, and managed to lose nearly 2lb of sweat. Jack Jowitt was resplendent in the shiny black PVC trousers he stole from a prostitute on the last Arena tour. I have to report that Martin Orford never played a wrong note throughout tonights performance. 'If in doubt, don't play it' he told me later on. (Shame the keyboard player with Wetton doesn't follow this maxim. Or perhaps he does. ED). Cheese Pastie was, well, Cheese Pasty. As ever, hidden behind the drums, banging them for all he's worth. And some. The crowd loved it and lapped it up, like a sick cat at a desert watering hole. At the end of the set, they were baying for more. And the crowd were pleased too. The lads were just about to come back an perform 'Stonehenge' and 'Disastrous Tea' for the encore, but the bouncers had other ideas. The cleared the place out quicker than an enema up a warthogs bum. LA2. There you go. So we did. But we left as happy bunnies, all progged out.
Talking to Gary and Nick May after the show, it seems that, after the reception the band got tonight, they are toying with a proper UK tour, playing at smaller clubs around the country, such as the 'Roadhouse' in Manchester, 'The Horn Of Plenty' in St Albans and the 'Joniers Arms' in sunny Southampton. But they need suggestions for places to play, so get emailling the band (
info@jadis-net.co.uk ). And nothing in Liverpool, after the reaction they had last time they played that far north. Saturday 1st July 2000 |
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