+ CATHY DAVEY
THE VENUE, EDINBURGH - 25.05.04
Q: What wears unflattering stripey shirts, loafers, trousers 6 inches too short and bottle bottom glasses, can attract 500 people into a small room and cause them to dance insanely for an hour and a half without a stop?
A: Graham Coxon!
Having listened religiously to the new LP, "Happiness in Magazines", for the past week, quoting the lyrics to all my friends and humming the tune to "Spectacular" non-stop, this was definitely a show that was very high on my "Gigs to wet your pants with excitement about" list. The near sell out crowd were clearly all clinically insane, especially the two guys stood next to me who had bought Graham a hat, a teddy bear and couple of pairs of fake glasses that look like the type he would wear. Saying I was scared and felt slightly under-prepared would be a gross understatement.
Support came in the form of a blonde ice queen called Cathy Davey. When she swooped onto the stage, jaws hit the floor and drool covered the floorboards. What a stunner. With the old bassist from The Verve playing for her, we asked her if it was him because he looked so similar, it was clear from the outset that we were not in for the usual "singer/songwriter" performance of a piano and some shite lyrics about being totally mental for acting "22 and feeling 17". Don't get me started. Cathy provided vocals that Cherys Matthews would be envious of, simple power chord tunes that Jet would love to snap up and pounding bass lines that The Rapture could turn into cow bell aided dance fiestas at the snap of their fingers. She left the stage with some new fans I am sure and thoroughly impressed the very anti-"singer/songwriter" yours truly.
And then it was time...the time when Coxon marched onto his stage in amongst the rest of his band, humble as usual and yes, there was no smile! He accepted his gifts from the crowd and burst into "Escape Song". From his mentalist Busted-esque jumps in his impressive solos, it was clear Coxon had gained new Blur-free testicles and wasn't afraid to let go on stage. The lyrics to "No Good Time" are the best I have heard in a long while and the crowd lapped them up over the lo-fi pop bliss of its tune. "Ain't No Lie" and "I Wish" provided mass pogoing whilst "Bottom Bunk" and "Girl Done Good", two of the weaker tracks on the album, had new life breathed into them and they seemed epic. The highlights from his older albums though came in the form of "All Over Me" and "Life it Sucks". Possibly two of his more angsty songs seemed like the two freshest and most incredible rock-out tunes of his set. The Cox-meister by this stage knew that he owned the Edinburgh stage and that we all would worship him as our guitar god from this moment on. Pre-encore set closer "People of the Earth" was the highlight of the set to put it simply. The chants of the verse, the power of the chorus and the pop punk perfection of the interlude all culminated to create noise that would do any rock act out there proud. Simply amazing.
And then came the encore. "Bitter Tears" was the closest thing to making a few grown men cry that has ever came out of a few speakers, "Freakin' Out" was even more Sex-Pistols-esque live than it is on CD and "Who The Fuck...?" left the audience buzzing as the meister shook hands and humbly left the stage.
It is official...Graham Coxon made Blur. It is clear from his performance, imagination and skill with his instrument that he was the true creative force behind possibly the best thing to come out of the Britpop era, and seeing him in such a small venue with such an incredible atmosphere was simply an experience that will be hard for a lot of people to forget.
Review by Jason Edwards