Happy New Year! This is the promised “before the end of the year” article which for various reasons hasn’t been written, other than in my head, until now.
I’ve done a number of “Seen ‘Em Live” posts – 10 in actual fact. This is not by any stretch the total number of live music events I went to last year. I’ve only written up the ones where I thought there was something interesting to say or to share. The shows I haven’t written about have been very good, don’t get me wrong, but a combination of lack of time and not there not being something share-worthy stopped me from writing them up.
I could have mentioned the show we went to in December, just 6 days after my hospital dash, where I remained seated for the entire event, wondering if this was actually a sensible place for me to be – Manchester Arena with Mrs TGG and our 2 sons, watching Madness supported by The Lightning Seeds. The memorable part of that gig was that both acts paid tribute to Terry Hall, with “Sense” from Ian Broudie and co and “Friday Night Saturday Morning” from the headliners. This last gig of 2023 therefore neatly bookended with the first where Belinda Carlisle had played Our Lips Are Sealed as a tribute to the great man (see Seen ‘Em Live #1).
However – that’s not the point of this piece. Just three days after Seen ‘Em Live #10 (Gary Numan acoustic at Manchester Cathedral), we were back in Manchester at the Ritz to see Haircut One Hundred. If you’ve been paying attention, you may recall that we’d seen Nick Heyward at Rewind North, where we’d had the hits played to us. This was a deeper dive, with 3 original members, and a 4th, drummer Blair Cunningham, sadly too ill to perform, but a very competent replacement had been drafted in. If you like their Pelican West album and the other peripheral tracks they recorded, you’d have enjoyed the show. I do and I did. Closer up (a LOT closer than at Rewind), I realised that despite being 5 years older than me, Nick Heyward could easily pass for 5 years younger than me. A point Mrs TGG has been reminding me of ever since, particularly during my spell of illness when I felt about 20 years older than him.
While we were queuing, we were wondering if there was a support act. Upon entering the venue we could see that “Barbara” was due on stage at 8pm. A female singer or a band? We weren’t sure until we clocked a small merch store in the corner. A band.
Barbara are in fact two brothers, Henry & John Tydeman, from the Brighton area, who for their support slot on the tour were augmented by three other musicians. One is the vocalist, one plays the piano, and I’ve forgotten which is which. All I can say, is that I loved their set. Some strong 1970s influences, but somehow dragging that sound into the 21st century. I’ve been listening to them quite a bit since as well.
A couple of their tunes, both of which they performed in Manchester.
They’re out and about in 2024 with none other than Paul Weller, as support on his forthcoming tour. We tried and failed to get tickets for the Stoke-on-Trent show – so we’re doubly fed up about that now.
Hopefully they’ll be back in our neck of the woods with their own show at some point – I think Mrs TGG may even put up with having to stand, we liked them that much! Their Bandcamp page is here: https://barbaratheband.bandcamp.com/
I’m planning more of the regular series as 2024 progresses and I still have to fish out the actual cassette for my next planned Cassette Album. I’ll try to post a little more frequently as well. Try, being the operative word!
TGG
Wasting time in the study 
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