Wednesday 20/04/05 The Tears, The Departure @ Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton

Northampton five-piece The Departure arrive on stage all togged-up in geek chic with lead singer David looking and acting like a sexy Jarvis Cocker. With a great, intense performance The Departure look and sound like they have been together for years. Instant classics such as ‘Be My Enemy’ and ‘Just Like TV’ get a good response from the crowd. And the brilliant, chart-busting single ‘Lump In My Throat’, is soon outshone by the glorious forthcoming single, the re-release ‘All Mapped Out’. Every time David opens his mouth, overcome by uncontrollable adulation, Gigwise and throngs of crowd gush towards the stage. With a set full of singles already The Departure are seemingly a band set to do great things in the not-too-distant-future. Well worth seeing live if you get the chance.

For any new band touring must be hard. No one knows any of your songs and most don’t know who these strangers are decking the stage are. No such worries for Bernard Butler and Brett Anderson, aka The Tears. Their only worry is they are expected by the hordes of Suede devotees to play their former band's material.  With the venue packed and anticipation building the gig begins with a pretty low-key entrance. Brett gets a huge round of applause when he appears on stage but he's accompanied only by keys for ‘A Love As Strong As Death’. From the minute Brett starts singing he amazes with his stunning Bowie-esque voice. In fact for a moment, it was all too easy to forget just how good it was and still is. With the crowd still enthralled by Brett’s angelic utterances the rest of the band sneak in and the drums, guitar and bass kick in for ‘Lovers’ and a complete change of pace.

Confident, Brett swaggers cockily around the stage milking the crowd for every scream and cheer he can get. The new material is great and played with plenty of aplomb, so much so that Brett and Bernard look like they’ve never been apart. After telling the audience to liven up a bit they play great forthcoming single ‘Refugees’ with Bernard singing backing vocals. ‘Beautiful Pain’ sounds great but all this singing must be tiring Brett out because he keeps having to sit down in the middle of the stage! A heckler shouts out “You ****ing rock”, Brett graciously agrees and plays the last song of the set, ‘Apollo 13’. Back on for the encore, Brett introduces ‘The Asylum’ with: “This is another one you don’t know…but you’re going to be loving it soon”. Despite some muted cries for Suede songs, the band gracefully ignore their past. On this evidence, it seems The Tears will be around for long enough to build a bigger repertoire of songs. And that is a very exciting prospect indeed.

Photo by Michelle Evans