Tuesday 30/10/07 Super Furry Animals @ Leeds Town Hall

If there’s one band that’s famous for their live shows then it’s this lot .  Ask anyone. Ask your blind, deaf and senile grandma, and she’ll probably say “oh, the ones with the tank?” They’re not the kind of band you miss, and that’s why Leeds Town Hall is packed. It’s the perfect venue for them with rave lights spinning off the balconies, and, in the middle of the room, the hairiest Welshmen this side of the border are sticking out like sore thumbs, and pleased about it. 

Gruff mumbles “this is a song about a dog”, they kick into ‘Golden Retriever’ and the crowd goes mad. Not wild, but mad. These are Super Furry Animals fans after all. Pints fly, someone behind us is shouting “a duck! A duck!” and the bloke in front of me is running on the spot.  But wait!  We’re five alt-pop gems in by now, and there isn’t a Yeti costume in sight! No tanks? Maybe, just maybe, the Furries are starting to grow up.  

That’s one thing that won’t be happening any time soon. Another song in and - the band are leaving the stage!  Someone’s holding a sign saying ‘back in five’, and is that – the World Cup cricket song??  SFA know when to play the hits. And they know when to play them in helmets – if you haven’t heard ‘Rings Around The World’ sung through a Power Ranger’s eye, well, you haven’t lived.  “We’re middle of the road!” shouts Gruff, “the most dangerous place!”, and barks at the crowd before waggling his fingers like bunny ears, and starting ‘Hello Sunshine’.  They may be ‘MOR’, but it ain’t MOR the way we know it.

As the gig comes to an end, Leeds Town Hall is full to bursting with a crowd shouting ‘The Man Don’t Give A ****’ at a bloke in a helmet, who’s standing there, arms up as if he’s converted the room.  This time, maybe, he has.