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SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN
EL GOODO

The Afan Lido
Port Talbot
24.09.05

Reviewed by Guy Salvador:

Port Talbot Afan Lido….. Haven’t been here since…1998, shit! Is it that long ago? Since the last time Super Furry Animals played here actually. That gig being a real blinder with “Grandaddy” as support it really was a superb gig. Notorious for “Grandaddy” apparently, or are we just blaming the yanks! Breaking into the swimming pool after the show & getting everyone into lots of trouble, naughty chappies! Anyway, really looking forward to this one, in expectation of something very good. With it being close to the end of the British leg of the tour I was interested in seeing how SFA’s set had shaped up. Having seen SFA a few times this year, warm up shows or outdoor gigs, where they were good, they hadn’t really been on top form, anyway, more of SFA later. To start the evening we had “SFA’s”own “Placid Casuals” “El Goodo”. With a new album out & a support slot with SFA on the British tour things are starting to progress for the band & tonight they showed a real improvement in their live work as well. Having only seen them in a small club before tonight, they had struck me as being a quirky, working men’s club band but, tonight on a larger stage, with a much bigger sound the band were starting to get an “El Goodo” sound developing. Some of the songs in the set are far to “60’s” or “Beatles” sounding for my taste, which I think is what I am referring to in the workingmen’s club reference. There is a much more modern, sophisticated sound breaking through with “El Goodo” & with the way things are developing for them at the moment, after years of perceived inactivity, it seems as if they are being given the opportunity to progress, and I wish the best of luck to them in doing that!

How do you review the boys from “The Port”! The one & only GLC! Wherever they tread they bring happiness & joy guaranteed! Of course, some people don’t understand GLC, or are just plain to uptight to have a laugh, for me, they never fail to raise the occasion, whether planned or impromptu, the boys are “Safe as Fuck”! With names like Maggot, Mr Love Eggs, Mystic & Billy Webb(?), they can’t fail. The set is their usual high energy boy band stuff, not really…… Beastie Boys used to do this stuff great in the 80’s; on a different level maybe & of course they were at the forefront, along with Run DMC, of the real first wave of Hip Hop popularity in the UK. Still works just as well for GLC in the present time. Must keep them fit, it knackers me just watching them! I believe there is a new GLC album imminent, which will be interesting in whether to see if the initial appeal has held for the band or whether they will have to rely on their success in Eastern Europe, which they apparently had with the “Guns don’t kill people….. Rappers do single”, according to the band this evening???

You knows it!

Brings us sweetly into “Super Furry Animals”. Huge behind stage projection tonight makes the show look great tonight. In typical SFA style the band has something up its sleeve as a stage entrance as they skid onto the stage in a golf cart? Attired in their “Radioactive Shepherd” suits, which really work tonight, with it being an indoor venue, different to the last couple of times I’ve seen them has been outdoors, where the suits didn’t really work. The band take us through the first half hour of the set, starting with “International language of screaming” with the majority of the rest of the songs being from the new “Lovekraft” album, “Ice Hockey Hair” thrown in for good measure. The huge sound & vision of some of the tracks, Atomic Lust, Zoom & Cloudberries, being close to watching & listening to the Electric Light Orchestra show in the seventies. Check out their “Discovery”, “A new world record” or “Face the music” albums for reference. The overall sound of a lot of the newer stuff is moving towards this more orchestral rock sound, accepting “Lazer beam”, which still has an inkling of… there are none of the old Furry pop songs in with this lot. Great stuff but again, and this is to do with the mix with some of the older songs, such as “Run Christian Run” this part of the set is a bit one paced, still excellent stuff though. With the introduction of some of the older songs the set hoting up a bit leading to the finisher for the first half “Receptacle for the Respectable”. Second half starts with another recent set starter in “Slow Life”, then they smash through some of the older records, “Do or Die”, “Something for the weekend” & the “Dead Kennedy’s”, California Uber Allies” take off “Kalimero”. With the lads from GLC joining them onstage for “Mother Fokker” & the inimitable “Man don’t give a fuck” the place erupts. Gone is the 20 minute “Cieran” rave at the end, replaced by a much shorter & acceptable little bit of knob twiddling, with again a great screen show of the band being loaded into a truck in their golf cart & more hilarious snaps. They may after 10 years have grown up but, it is still Super Furry land when you come to their gigs & long may this continue for one of Wales’s greatest modern treasures.

All the best

Guy Salvador

www.southerndownrecords.co.uk

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