London, England, CC Club
A weird gig in ways, but enjoyed it anyway. After keeping us waiting for what
seemed like ages, they finally came onstage about 9.45 pm just to stand around
for 5 mins before starting due to problems with Billy's guitar/amp set up. There
were massive gaps between all the songs through the entire set again due to
these problems and Billy was not a happy chappy kicking his mic stand to the
floor early on, giving the monitor engineer a bollocking and dragging the bass
player across to his side of the stage at one point!! The set list was a real
mix of both album tracks and singles though they left out "Firewoman", "Wildflower",
"Revolution", "Sun King" etc again I think due to Billy's probs & time constraints.
They kicked off with "Nirvana" and went on to play a set including "Spiritwalker",
"Horse Nation", "Rain","The Phoenix","Lil Devil","Love Removal Machine", "Electric
Ocean", "Peace Dog","The Witch","In The Clouds", "Sweet Soul Sister","Edie", and
"Wonderland". Again ,after keeping us hanging around for well over five minutes,
they disappointingly encored with "She Sells Sanctuary" only!
However, it was fantastic to see the band up close in an intimate club setting. At
times the band were really cooking and grooving and I thought the sound was great,
all things considered. Yup, really enjoyed it and thanks again for pointing me in
the right direction.
Daf Jones
Travelled by train 180 miles or so from my home in Doncaster for yet another
encounter (must be at least a dozen or so now) with The Cult. Arrived early at
the venue and was told doors open at 7pm, no support, Cult on stage at 9pm. This
was good news to me as I had to leave at 11pm prompt to ensure I got my last
train home at 11.30pm. Disappeared for a few drinks, came back at 8.30pm to see
everyone still queueing outside. Apparently they were still sound checking! We
finally got inside around 8.40 to what was a very initimate venue, the perfect
setting. So with no support and the worse pre gig backing tape I’ve heard in
years we stood and waited, waited, waited. Typical Cult, almost everytime I’ve
seen them they are late on stage and keep everyone hanging around for seemingly
no reason. Anyway every few minutes a different roadie would come on stage, do
something for a few minutes, then bugger off, this went on for over an hour. If
they’d just finished the sound check & they were running so late why wasn’t
they’re any urgency in getting the thing started? The crowd began getting very
restless, booing everytime a new track started on the PA, then eventually the
lights went down and on they came at around 9.55. The music however didn’t start
for another five minutes as Billy’s guitar rig (or his techie) was so shit,
resulting in much arguing between the 2 with Billy heard to say on more than 1
occasion “We’ve been through this, concentrate, do your fucking job”.
They finally launced in to Nirvana to start with, fantastic, not heard in played
live since 1994, good start. Sound still shit, big delay before the next track
another old favourite Spiritwalker, followed by Lil Devil and The Witch. By this
time Billy’s guitar rig was so out of it that in sheer frustration he kicked his
mike stand into the guitar tech’s area with come force. Billy handed over lead
guitar duties to the rythmn guitarist stating they’d play it again later when
the sound problems were fixed. Things had become so bad sound wise now, that
the set list was thrown out and whatever Billy thought he could play with the
current state of his guitar rig they played. Oh my god…..Horse Nation, a first
for me live, Electric Ocean, Wildflower, Phoenix, Sweet Soul Sister, Wonderland,
Edie.
The rest I’ll have to read about as by this time 11.05, I had to get out of there
in order to get home (another fiasco) and get to work by 7am the following day
(where I sit typing this now). I assume the usual stalwarts Rain, Sanctuary, Love
Removal & Fire Woman were to follow. A real shame that the perfect setting to see
my all time favourite band ended as such a shambles. If the sound had been OK and
they’d started anywhere near to time this would have been the most memorable gig
of my life, in some ways it still is, but for the wrong reasons.
Good to meet fans from all over the country. Spent some time talking to a guy from
Chicago who had travelled over from his work base in Belgium for the gig, and also
to 2 guys from Finland, who had also come over specifically.
UK senator (rmkfh@teco.net)
Only found out about this gig by browsing through Wikipedia while bored at work.
How lucky was that.To be honest reading the other reviews about this gig has filled
in a lot of the gaps (literally) about what happened regarding Billy's rig problems.
The crowd were kept waiting outside the venue far too long and when we were allowed
in the band hit the stage about 10:00 then stood around looking a bit lost for 5
minutes. Eventually a very wound up audience was hit by Nirvana to open up and as
far as i'm concearned all was forgiven. The tickets were not cheap but the venue
was excellent and it seems the boys done the best they could under the circumstances.
I kind of missed The Cult live in they're hey day but now i've seen them twice in 9
months and loved every minute. Being a Cult fan is like being the member of an
exclusive club. It's like every one has completely missed the point and the band is
the preserve of an exclusive group. Can't wait for the new album in September. After
all this time in the wilderness it's like a resurrection (Joe).
Andy G - London
First of all, thanks for your constant work on the site…it’s crazy that I should have to
rely on you to provide info on the band before record companies etc…anyway, good work.
I have just read the reviews of CC Club gig in London last year after 7 months or so
and would like to mention a couple of points.
For non festival/multi-band gigs, when Ian is sober, which he more often than not these days,
The Cult almost always come on stage at 9pm unless local requirements alter this. You can set
your watch by them mostly.
The guys mostly arrived a tad late due to delays escaping from France, apart from Chris Wyse
who was hanging outside the CC club for some time prior to the gig, looking like a bassist
without a band.
The delay with the start of the CC Club gig however, was due to a large chunk of stage support
steel sticking up through the stage prior to the gig (the venue is normally full of 14 year old
girls dancing to Beyonce on a Friday night and the offending chunk of steel therefore is normally
under the DJs decks,so not an issue). This box section chunk of metal was clearly dangerous and
a plasma cutter or cutting torch with appropriate professional type engineer fellow needed to be
sourced to remove it. A ‘Final Destination’ movie type death would probably have ensued if this
work had not been carried out;o)
My humble opinion of Billy’s rig problems was that there was a genuine problem which was an issue
to Bill (anal perfectionist), although he did ham it up a little. We were right in front of him and
he was not happy with his engineer at all but he did manage to work through it. The delays between
songs were not an issue. We got to listen to Ian’s views of the world which are (if nothing else)
always entertaining.
I think this kind of problem adds to the close/personal/band/fan nature of a small venue/special gig
like this. There’s a great deal of enjoyment to be had out of hearing your guitar hero moaning like
feck and losing his temper. Remember the ‘Amplification Breakdown’ from the Marquee Live album.
Anyway, the gig was great.
For your tour dates page The Cult are also playing another ‘small venue’ gig at the 100 Club in
Oxford Street London on Tuesday 26th Feb 2008.
Dave W
Setlist
Nirvana
Lil' Devil
Sweet Soul Sister
Electric ocean
The Witch
Spiritwalker
Horse Nation
The Phoenix
Revolution
Rain
Wonderland
Edie (Ciao Baby)
Wonderland
Fire woman
In The Clouds
Rise
Wild Flower
Love Removal Machine
Encore
She Sells Sanctuary