Valentines Day 1997

London ULU: Valentines Day 1997
Valentines day is supposed to be a time for love and romance, flowers and candlelit dinners. This year I decided to spend a romantic evening with My Life Story who were playing their first mainland U.K gig of the year at London University Students Union. Timed not only to coincide with Valentines Day but also the release of their new single The King Of Kissingdom it made a welcome change from another lonely night at home with a can of cider and a well thumbed copy of the freemans catalogue!

As if a Valentines date with My Life Story was not enough we were also being treated to support from both Peach and Orlando. Peach are a 3 piece dance act who supported Erasure on their last tour. They only played 5 songs on their short 20 minute set, one of them being their last single "From This Moment On" which in my opinion was the weakest song of the set. Their first single "On My Own" however is a magnificent disco pop tune which made a refreshing change to the3 piece guitar bands who seem to have formed My Life Storys main support backbone on their last tour.

Next came Orlando, who also supported My Life Story at the second of the "Month Of Sundays" residencys at Camden Dingwalls. Not surpirsingly Orlando had a lot of fans in the crowd, although it's difficult to tell exactly who they came to see as many of them were at the Hackney Empire on New Years Eve as was Tim the lead singer. At one point it look as though My Life Story Sunshine Tours were going to be outnumbered by Orlando Nation. Dickon was wearing his military uniform and Tim was bouncing around the stage as usual during a fairly standard 30 minute set, including their previous and next singles. They finished with the fantastic Just For A Second, their first single and they also did the wonderfull Don't Sleep Alone which is rumoured to be their fourth single. They didn't however play Fatal which Tim had promised they would play at a their last London gig at the Garage Islington.

With such strong support acts many other bands would have had trouble matching them, let alone bettering them, but not My Life Story. A new year and a new set list. The set started with an Piano version of Sparkle as normal, but then we were treated to Silently Screaming, minus the Cello. Unfortunatly Ollie hadn't been able to find the audio lead for his Cello when he came on stage so he had to start playing without it. It took about 2 minutes for Kumar to find it and plug him in. Mr Boyd, April 1st and Girl A, Girl B, Boy C were noticably absent but The Penthouse In The Basement made a welcome surprise appearance. We we treated to the first live performance (to my knowledge) of A Boy Called Daydream, and the highlight of the set had to be You Can't Uneat The Apple, without doubt the best ballad My Life Story have ever done, yet shamefully only it's second ever live performance. The main set finished as always with 12 Reasons Why (with special red valentines numbers), followed by a quick costume change by Jake and then Angel and Funny Ha Ha as an encore. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed themselves even though Jake (and Paul) stayed firmly on the stage. The string section made up for this though and made their way to the front of the stage at every opportunity. Jake did however pick up his accoustic guitar during A Boy Called Daydream and then pose with it Elvis style all the way through the song without playing a single note on it!

It is difficult to describe in words what an amazing gig it was, but Tony manages to get pretty close...
"Packed to the rafters with pretty young creatures of various genders all loved up and ready to explode into a swirling euphoric mass of pure energy... The orchestra fed off the crowd in a frenzied attack that made 'Psycho' look like the Waltons, Paul and Danny slamming down the bass notes, the Strings tearing down on the violins in a way that made me fear for their safety, the horns throwing out deep brass sounds that overwhelmed you... The sight of a whole room full of people moshing unbelieveable, (they'll just have to move on to stadiums there's just not the room any more) two encores, and so much sparkle I almost thought I'd died and gone to heaven..."

A new setlist, new songs and a more appropriate venue easily made this gig at least as good as New Years Eve, however the addition of two brilliant support acts has to make this gig of the year. No one else is going to even get close!

Melody Maker published this review of the gig.
Poor Orlando. Suddenly, I believe that they might be telling the truth in all their self-pitying songs about being unloved outsiders. Surely, if they had any real friends, one of them would by now have gently pointed out to them what they're doing can never work. After all, half-hearted soul is a contradiction in terms.
The claim that Romo was/is not an early-Eighties revival seems more laughable then ever. Orlando's sound is shamelessly two parts Culture Club, one part Soft Cell. However, the former had a singer with a fine voice and the latter had one who knew how to work within his limitations. Timothy Mark, a painfully awkward and inhibited presence onstage, has neither of those talents. It's a pity, because some of the songs are actually pretty damn good. Listen to the genuinely poignant "Nature's Hated" , for instance, and you sense that this could really be special - if only David McAlmont were singing it. Unfortunatly, it's Orlando up there, so it's rather like hearing Neil Tennant trying to perform the hits of Smokey Robinson.
Orlando's shortcominggs are cruelly highlighted by the contrast with My Life Story, whose harshest detractors could hardly claim that they lack charisma. If anything, Jake Shillingford's instinctive showmanship has sometimes distracted attention from the subtleties in his songwriting. The start of tonight's show is thus somewhat surprising. Keyboard player Danny Turner ambles onstage, sits at the electric piano and begins to play one of My Life Story's most subdued songs, "Silently Screaming". Then Jake slowly strolls out of the shadows, stands still next to Turner, and sings the song's tormented, lonely words. In the mic stand-twirling, glitter encrusted world of My Life Story, that's pretty radical.
Much of what follows supports the suspicion that Jake may be keen to tone down My Life Story's trademark flamboyance, or at least divert attention to the substance behind the sparkle. The hidden depths have always been there; "The King Of Kissingdom", for example, is a glorious glam stomp which also happens to be the sharpest double-edged look at drugs since Pulp's "Sorted For E's and Wizz". MLS certainly haven't lost their sense of fun (as you'll gather from the set list), but many of the songs from the forthcoming "The Golden Mile" album nevertheless emphasise that Shillingford is fully prepared to confront the darkness in life. "Marriage Blister", for instance, paints a particularly bleak picture of love gone sour, and "You Can't Uneat The Apple" is truly touching in it's dignified acceptance of romantic rejection.
This is a Valentine's Day Party, so of course it's not all introspection and angst. "Suited and Booted" is a stirring, strutting thing, and the traditional closing full tilt race through "12 Reasons Why I Love Her" is as much of a hearty communal celebration as ever. Still, the lingering impression is that My Life Story have grown up a little, and while it's worry to have to say that about a pop group, in this case it's no bad thing. Melancholy and Maturity suit My Life Story.
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