Setlist: Sound, What For, Lose Control, Johnny Yen, Sunday Morning, Seven, Born of Frustration, Don’t Wait That Long, Heavens, Come Home, Stutter, How Was It For You?
Review from A Sound Investment by Anita van Lieshout
We arrived at the Paradise at about 12:30 p.m. There was nobody there, only some roadies who were unloading the truck. The band had not arrived yet, so we made ourselves comfortable on the pavement in front of the venue. Sometime later a German girl joined us. I had already met her at a Morrissey concert in 1991, so we had a lot of things to talk about while for James to arrive.
A few times the tour bus stopped in front of us but it was always empty. A few hours later we were joined by two more fans. And then, finally, at 5:30 James arrived. I think they were quite surprised to find five people waiting outside. The first one who got out of the bus was my favourite member: Andy Diagram.
Although I was half paralysed, I some-how managed to walk up to him and ask for an autograph. The rest of the band hurried inside, but Tim Booth stayed outside for a few minutes and talked to us and gave autographs.
At 7:30 the other fans started to arrive. It didn’t become very crowded, though, not even when the doors opened at 8:00. We went inside as fast as we could, but it wasn’t really necessary, as not many people seemed to be interested in the front row. The Paradiso is a very small venue – I guess it has a capacity of 500 people but it wasn’t even sold out.
James started playing at 10:20. They were very late because the support band had cancelled their performance at the last minute – Tim explained.
The concert was absolutely great. Everybody stared at Tim’s dancing in amazement and the songs so sounded very good live. James got very bad reviews in Holland, but I think most people who were there didn’t agree with the critics.
After the last encore “How was it for you” l managed to climb on the nearly 1.50m high stage. Strangely enough I was the only one who got one stage (try that at a Morrissey-concert!). I ran to Andy, who hadn’t even noticed me climbing on the stage – only Tim had noticed… and I kissed him and told him how wonderful he was. He was very shy and only said “Thank you” twice. I hurried off the stage then, because I didn’t feel very comfortable in front of such a crowd.
The concert was one of the best I’ve ever seen, and I really hope they’ll come back to the Netherlands very, very soon…
Anita van Lieshout
Breugel, Holland
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