The Wedding Present + more across Manchester Academy.
Space
O2 Academy, Liverpool
Saturday 1st April 2023
Space wrapped up their 25th Anniversary celebrations for both the Spiders and Tin Planet albums with a triumphant homecoming at the Academy, Liverpool – Phil was there to witness it.
Space released their debut album Spiders in September 1996, and followed this up with Tin Planet in March 1998, both albums were well received, each entering the UK Top 10, Spiders peaked at #3 whilst Tin Planet edged ahead before stalling at #3. Numerous singles were released, all breaking into the Top 40, eventually earning the band total records sales in excess of 5 million. Probably for the convenience of journalists at the time they were often lumped under the Britpop umbrella – though they clearly didn’t nestle comfortably alongside the likes of the Gallagher brothers or Damon Albarn. Despite these healthy sales, and the current occasional play of The Ballad of Tom Jones on national radio I would argue that Space have largely been written out of the history books; though try convincing the packed-out Academy, Liverpool audience that Space somehow don’t really matter…
A lone bagpiper in full dress uniform heralded the bands arrival on stage, Tommy Scott flanked by Franny Griffiths who is obscured by a bank of synths and keyboards, Phil ‘Gandalf’ Hartley on bass, who with Alan Jones on drums create one of the strongest rhythm sections on the live circuit – the addition of founding member Jamie Murphy on guitar proves to be an inspired decision. Its Space, as such the expected conventions are immediately discarded, this is no album playback, instead, they open with A Little Biddy Help From Elvis which veers from a head-cracking assault on the senses to Scott’s own twisted crooner creation, whilst Franny generates all manner of sonic mayhem, before following this with No One Understands from the Spiders album. The stage is colour-washed blue, Hartley traverses its entire area, and Scott a ball of energy, spins on the spot as samples from The Elephant Man bounces off the walls before leading us into Begin Again and Money. Tommy jokingly remarks that they couldn’t perform a chronological playback as “all the hits came first and you’d then just fuck off”.
Kill Me demonstrates Spaces ability to craft darkly twisted pop, the perfect blend of rock n’ roll aggression, the influence of tripped out hip-hop, coupled with a bloody good chorus. The energy continues to build as we are rewarded with a menacing Avenging Angels. The video backdrop switches to that infamous flickering image of Charles Manson so signalling Charlie M from the Spiders debut, but here Franny cranks the synths to match those of industrial luminaries Front Line Assembly, Scott responds by delivering the lyric with a venomous bite. Unluckiest Man in The World is dedicated to the bands manager, ahead of the jaunty Lovechild of The Queen. Prior to The Ballard of Tom Jones, Scott pauses to draw breath then informs us that both he and Cerys Mathews were “pissed out their minds” when the track was recorded just a few hundred yards from tonight’s gig, the backdrop switches to the black and white video as Scott bounces off Cerys lyric.
Vincent Price’s delectable cackle introduces Mr Psycho as the crowd explode, a sea of bodies pinballing off each other, a surge that’s kept going as the band exit the stage leaving just Franny, complete with the Orbital-style twin torch headset to crank out the industrial rave collision that is Fran In Japan which has morphed into a behemoth of mangled electronic squall… yet with a bass that punches hard in the chest, as the track fades the band return to the stage and play along live before segueing into Voodoo Roller.
Space are clearly enjoying themselves, Drop Dead is a ball of frenetic energy, that sees Scott vault the crash barrier and deliver the lyric from the now seething mosh pit, he is rescued just in time for Female Of The Species, before going all the way back to Neighbourhood, a track he and Murphy wrote about growing up on the Cantril Farm sink estate located on the outer edges of the city, prior to encoring with Disco Dolly, a euphoric Jamie Murphy is stripped to the waist as he grapples with his guitar, Scott dances to every beat, Phil Hartley pinballs the stage before the whole thing implodes into a joyous celebration
Space once again demonstrated just how wide their influences are, their versatility, and their almost innate ability to both innovate and yet effortlessly connect with an audience. Space readily deserve the plaudits the crowd offered, this was a lesson on how a band can revisit their back catalogue without resorting to the likes of the Rewind circuit.
More writing by Phil can be found at his Louder Than War Author’s Archive
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