CRISIS IN ASIA - Portishead, Massive Attack & more (incl Damon Albarn)

A packed Carling Academy in Bristol were treated to a fantastic evening of entertainment in aid of Oxfam's Tsunami - Crisis In Asia appeal. Which you can watch for yourself here and the £5 for it goes to charity too.

A long queue outside the Academy meant we got in only minutes before the first act and already the area in front of the stage was packed, so we moved up to the gallery where at least we had space to dance about. We manage to get a great view over the stage where all tonight's equipment has already been set up for the bands, so change overs between bands could be as rapid as possible.

The first act promptly walked out on stage and we were wondering who they were. Fortunately someone next to us explained that they were ex-members of Suede and Strangelove.

Patrick Duff and Alex Lee
The ex-members of Suede and Strangelove started the evening off with a couple of songs. With just an electric and acoustic guitar they belt out a song called Letter to America and explain that they were in Asia at the time of the Tsunami. The set is very short and we realise everyone's sets will be no more than a few numbers! They are quite vociferous and I'm hoping that all this shouting and grievance isn't indicative of the night ahead, fortunately it isn't!

Fuzz against Junk
I'd never heard of them before but I'll be looking out for them from now on. I was impressed with them. A big double bass, keyboards, bluesy guitar and a serious rhythm section with some great dub tunes they were highly entertaining and I hope to see more from them, they had everyone at the back dancing.

The Coral
With a short set The Coral hit us with their 'greatest' hits and are well received and have us all continuing to dance at the back! They did four songs including Dreaming of You and Pass It On and then treated us to an old Buddy Holly song too. Saying "We're only supposed to do four songs, but our songs are only two minutes long!" The Scousers were on form and left us all wondering where they'd been for the last couple of years.

Robert Plant
Next up the master of acoustic rock, the incomparable Robert Plant and his Strange Sensation. Featuring the keyboardist from Massive Attack and hugely on form. The organisers really struck gold as Robert gave us a perfect sweet and short set. I need to watch the web cast again to catch all the numbers he did but he did four tracks including Darkness Darkness and Ramble On. I tried to move down to the stage to get closer to the band. But it was impossible the front was packed and there was no movement in or out of the first fifteen rows - frozen in wonder as Robert captivated them with his words.

Damon Albarn
The shock surprise guest was the Blur front man, who sheepishly walked out with an acoustic guitar and gave us Tender is the Night and another song. He's not really my cup of the tea but the audience were appreciative and he reminded us why we were there and for the first time I noticed big screens in the rafters running Oxfam footage and asking us to donate our money, so I nipped down to the foyer to peruse the tea shirts and drop some money in the buckets.

Massive Attack/Portishead
The excitement and anticipation was all too much as Massive Attack took to the stage with a stripped-down set-up and took their places amongst the shared equipment to give us Teardrop with vocals by Elisabeth Fraser. Before mixing up the ending and transforming into Portishead. Sharing musicians and mic duties. This was the first time that Trip Hop's finest had shared a stage. But it didn't show, surely they must have hung around the streets of Bristol together for quite some time. We were treated to Sour Times and Roads from Dummy plus more stuff but as usual I was too lost in the haunting voice of Beth Gibbons singing "Nobody loves me, it's true" and I still can hear it ringing in my head now as I write this.

So there you have it. We were treated to five hours of glorious money, we helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for Oxfam and it was a pleasure to do it. Tickets may have been like gold dust, with frustrated touts outside unable to get people to part with even one ticket. But it was a glorious night of almost full acoustic music. 'Unplugged' as it's called. My personal highlights were The Coral, Robert Plant and the Trip Hop collective at the end. I only felt a bit guilty for enjoying it so much, charity has never been such a pleasure before!

I highly recommend you pay the money for the webcast - you won't be disappointed!

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.