The Del Amitri Concert, July 10, 1997
CAMBRIDGE CORN EXCHANGE
by Elizabeth Slater

Buses between Oxford and Cambridge do not run as often as competitions between the universities’ rowers. This was to be our chosen method of transport (bussing it, that is...not rowing!) to our first Del Amitri concert of the year. However, the first available bus back was at 3am. Hey, we could use the time to do some sight-seeing (or more likely, some night-sight-not-seeing) of the city as Cambridge would be divested of its tens of thousands of tourists by this time. As great an idea as this may sound, come Thursday morning hiring a car seemed like a better one.

And so, we set off, armed with no map, my non-existent knowledge of the geography of Southern England and a vague idea of the general direction of Cambridge. By way of many diversions and the 50,674 roundabouts that are Milton Keynes, Gillian and I arrived in time for a quick pint while hearing the last song by the Candyskins (alas, alack and other such melodramatic-back-of-hand-on-forehead-type-sayings, I’ve been trying to see this band for ages and I missed them at the London Hammersmith gig also).

Being late, we weren’t able to get to our usual space in the front couple of rows (not that we take up this much space...we’re usually somewhere around these rows is what I mean!). However, from way back there, under the balcony, everything sounded so much clearer than usual. And I could see the whole stage in focus for once, which was cool for this set. Instead of the usual vast blackness behind the band, the stage became a bedsit for the night. Little paper-shaded lamps lit up the scene to reveal the famous floral flocked wallpaper (try saying that after fifteen Furstenbergs!), the bookcase from which long forgotten records were thrown (I didn’t catch what it was tonight - not the record, nor it’s title), a bed (I think?) and a huge draped window (omigod, nothing to put in parenthesis here!).

But to the music........first came the ‘New World Symphony’ introduction (that’s the Hovis bread advert music to us Brits, I think, but I could be completely wrong). If you are wondering why I mention this - here’s the connection: the latest Hovis bread advert features the voice of Julie Walters, who starred in Educating Rita with Michael Caine who was in The Man Who Would be King with Sean Connery. He and Christian Slater took the lead roles in The Name of the Rose and Christian Slater starred in Murder in the First with.....Kevin Bacon. And thus concludes my entry for David Sills’ Six DELgrees of Kevin Bacon (Issue 4, I & P) and........now I’ve lost the plot completely. Ah yes, after this atmospheric build-up and the ‘nightiest night of them all’ radio announcement, the band came onstage and launched straight into ‘Here and Now’.

This was followed by an energetic rendition of favourites from the albums (excluding ‘Del Amitri’ o’course) and new songs from SOSP. The band displayed their talent for the atmospheric narrative with ‘Paper Thin’, a song just crying out to be performed live. But ‘Cruel Light of Day’ still gets my vote for best live performance - powerful stuff. We were treated to the first live play of ‘What I Think She Sees’ which, although a beautiful song, wasn’t quite as polished as the rest of the set. They played two encores, beginning with the much loved ‘Be My Downfall’ (but no segueing into ‘Drowned on Dry Land’ unfortunately) and finishing appropriately enough with ‘Kiss This Thing Goodbye’.

But it was all over, way too quick. It did seem like they flew through some of the set, especially with ‘Roll To Me’, but then this is probably the best way to leave the crowd; not quite satisfied and always wanting more (no, I am still talking about the concert...). As always the Dels gave the impression that it’s all such seemingly effortless fun on stage. The new members also were pretty impressive, especially since this line-up has not been together long. Maybe it was the venue, not being at the front blasted by the speakers, or just the whole atmosphere, (or maybe it was just the actual quality of the performance?!), but tonight we definitely witnessed a great sounding rock band.

Contrary to the morphology of a Dels concert (Issue 4, I & P) I did not get to meet the band at the end, but I did bump into Kevin Cawthorne from the UK Del Amitri website who did get to talk with the guys afterwards, so I kind of vicariously got to meet them, sort of, maybe, perhaps? No? Okay, I admit defeat.

Well, it’s true what they say - all roads do lead to London. Especially if you are in Cambridge and are trying to head in the other direction. After exploring every exit from Cambridge I somehow managed to get home quicker than the outbound journey. Doesn’t this lead on perfectly to some cheesy comment about ‘driving with the brakes on’? However, I shall refrain because it wouldn’t be true - I wasn’t. Although, I may have been driving with my lights off. And for this I apologise to the near-invisible Cambridge tourists that narrowly missed a collision with our car. However, this did give me the answer to Justin’s question to the crowd about what tourists buy in Cambridge - or rather, what they don’t buy: not flashlights nor night-glo underwear (but hey, would you?) nor ultra sensitive ‘car-with-dangerous-female-driver’ tracking radars. As for me, the next time I’m a tourist in Cambridge, I’m gonna buy me a map.