Two concerts

We were at two concerts this week, and apart from needing to wear masks it really felt as if normal life had resumed. 

The first one was Erasure, at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. In the 1980s James and I went to see Erasure and they were absolutely brilliant, really cool and edgy, and absolutely full of energy. It was one of the best concerts that I have ever been to. So I was excited to see them again. I will qualify what I’m about to say by emphasising that I did thoroughly enjoy the concert. However things had changed. Lead singer Andy Bell is two years younger than me but seemed like an older man, struggling to change tops during the concert and ending up displaying a large white belly to the audience while trying to put on his t-shirt. Now I’m not criticising anyone for getting older and developing a bit of a spare tyre. Indeed, I currently have a bit of a spare tyre myself. But getting it out in front of the audience wasn’t very rock and roll! He has had both hips replaced so he can’t jig about the way he used to, but more importantly, his voice isn’t what it used to be and it was obvious that the two excellent backing singers were supporting him expertly on the high notes. Anyway, we sang along with all of the old tunes, and it was a still a good evening.

By contrast, the Genesis concert on Thursday evening was excellent - really memorable. It’s James who is the stalwart Genesis fan rather than me, but I enjoyed the evening and the music very much. Phil Collins is of course older and has had health problems due to various back and neck surgeries. He walked onto stage with a stick and had to perform sitting down, but his voice is still good and he was well supported by Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, and his own son Nic Collins played the drums extremely well. He was relaxed and humorous with the audience and the whole performance was flawless, a really wonderful evening.

We saw on the news the next day that one of the band and their entourage had tested positive for Covid, so the Friday concert in Glasgow and their four London concerts were all cancelled; they hope to reschedule. We felt very lucky to have been there on the Thursday.