The Del Amitri Concert, March 15, 1996
"Tradewinds" in Sea Bright, New Jersey
by Jason Scully-Clemmons

Since Tradewinds is the kind of place people go after a day at the beach to drink too much, pick up someone, have a meaningless, self-destructive, one-night stand, and regret it for the rest of their lives, it would have been a great place to hear "Might As Well Be You," but no such luck.

Okay, so I wasn't a big fan of the venue, but the concert was INCREDIBLE. The crowd was lively from Josh Clayton Felt's first chord until the Del boys left us aching for more after their second encore. The primary set was the same as it had been at 7 Willow Street in Port Chester except that the Dels played "One Thing Left To Do" instead of "Driving With The Brakes On."

The encores were more or less the same. Sadly, the Dels gave "Spare Pair Of Laces" a miss this time. We put a sign requesting "Move Away Jimmy Blue" on the stage, and the Dels obliged. Before they began the song though, Justin picked the sign up, showed it to the crowd and joked, "When we started playing back in the 80's, requests would come up typed out on a typewriter. And now look, it's done on computer. What will they think of next?" Again the last song was "Be My Downfall," but the Dels threw in a heart-wrenching "Drowned On Dry Land" between the last two verses.

After the show, Andy and John hung out and chatted with fans... what a band!

So, Alison, I hope you enjoyed the reviews. In other Dels news, we got to talk w/ Justin very briefly before he got on the bus. I asked him if he knew how David was doing, what he was up to, etc. I thought you might be interested. Justin said "David's writing comedy for the BBC."

I had heard a rumor that he was trying to get a job with the BBC, so I asked, "Oh, so he actually got the job doing that?" Justin started to shrug and smile so I asked, "Or are we in a bit of a grey area there?"

Justin responded, "Yeah, well I guess we're in a grey area there. That's what he's trying to do."

Also, I asked Justin if he knew if they were going to come to NYC this tour, and he said that they were just hitting smaller places this tour, like you said. However, and this is a kicker, he said, "But we will be in New York, we're going to be on, uh, I think it's Regis and Kathy Lee?"

And lastly, from an interview with Del Amitri on a local radio staion, another theory on the name. The band is named after Del Amitri, a Long-Island Italian-American who went to high-school with the DJ in the late '80's, drove a Camaro IROC-Z, and wore an italian horn on a thick gold chain. [ed note: LIE!] The band took the name because this studly young man was such a good kisser that his fame crossed the Atlantic. (I would personally speculate that Mr. Amitri's current whereabouts are unknown, but his mother still lives on Long Island as do most of his heartbroken high-school lovers.)