The dog's bollocks, nuff' said. The swimming ginger soldier.

I arrived at the venue about 7.30 with the doors having opened at 7pm ? I was behind a group of people who seemed to have no idea who Fishbone was! When I walked in to the room there was only about 10 people and they were all pretty much smashed out of their minds! They start drinking early in Birmingham. This didn?t bode well although they seemed a friendly bunch especially the young (20?s) lad who thought I was amazing to have seen Fishbone so many times (he asked me about three times if I had seen them!). Angelo turned up and was immediately swamped by the drunks - but whereas I would have made a fast exit he stayed and chatted, signed autographs (I got my ticket signed) and tried to sell his latest comic books and DVD.

Wolfunkind came onto the stage about 8pm to the applause of just me! I was one of about 8 people actually leaning against the barriers by the stage the few others around at the time where either hiding at the back (as it where) or mainly by the bar ? something which they picked up on and at one point asked how the drinks were, which got barely no response. It must be hard being a support act sometimes as it seemed that no one was really bothered about them. Angelo joined them on stage for ?Angelo dances with Martine?; that got a few more people by the stage but mostly they were met with antipathy. However, the couple next to me at the front bought their CD and t-shirt so they got at least two new fans.

The Academy in Birmingham is a small venue (capacity is only about 400) but was not full by the time FB came on. I got a set list and I?m pretty much sure this is what they did apart from the last two encores although they did throw in a song I hadn?t heard before possibly called ?Rub a Dub Soldier??

Set List (as written out)

Unyielding
alcoholic
Date Rape
Face Plant
Ma & Pa
Go Nuttz
Saddam
Suffering
Forever Moore
Everyday Sunshine
Ugly
Karma
Ho' fight
Frey'd Nerves
Fascism
Sunless
--------
Closed Doors
Freddy
----------
Jackass
Party

I did take my camera and took photo?s of Wolfunkind but they were filming and I was told not to use flash photography after I took one photo of Norwood and Rocky and my little Nikon doesn?t take good gig photos without flash so I only got the one! I asked about the filming and was told they were just practising and that they had no idea when anything would be released.
Altogether I would say that personally it wasn?t a great gig (although hopefully a warm up for Thursday?s final night of tour gig in London) ? there seemed to be a lot of drunken idiots there, the sound especially for vocals was poor and the audience didn?t seem to be very much into the gig apart from a few songs.

Colin