The Best Party In Town...

The best party in town arrived in Glasgow last week with the arrival of the second most famous band from Athens, Georgia. The B52's played a very clever set in Glasgow bookending the show with Planet Claire at the start and Love Shack at the end with an encore of Party Out Of Bounds and the incomparable Rock Lobster.

It's sometimes easy to forget how many great tunes the band have. Somehow I had completely forgotten about Roam, which highlighted Cindy and Kate's impeccable harmonies and was the highlight of the night. Another highlight was when Cindy Wilson delivered an emotional and vocally powerful take on the beautiful Girl From Ipanema Goes To Greenland - which she dedicated to her brother Ricky, a founding member of the group who died of complications from AIDS in 1985

Every and every song was delivered with manic energy, much waving of arms and a rapturous reception from the crowd. I have genuinely rarely witnessed such a pumped up crowd. Don't know when the last time The B52's played in Glasgow so that may have been part of the reason but I think the main reason was, quite simply, that the band were just so life-affirming and joyous.

There are not many frontmen out there quite like Fred Schneider who belied his 62 years by barking out his unique, surrealist lyrics with all the fervour of a man 30 years younger. All in all a great gig that was only slightly let down by the fact they only played for an hour and then a two song encore. they could have played on for much longer with no complaints from anyone in the crowd.

Also just realised that this is my 200th posting. Not a lot I know in comparison to these guys - Drew, Swiss Adam, Craig, JC and the many other great bloggers out there but after the unwanted changes in my life over the last 18 months or so then getting to post number 200 is, for me, an achievement.

Rock Lobster