http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 54819.html
I like the last bit!
Suede, 02 Dome, London
(Rated 4/ 5 )
Britpop stars still strutting their stuff
Reviewed by Andy Gill
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Brett Anderson takes the stage like a wronged man scenting vindication, coming in for the kill. For so many years the Lost Boys of Britpop, tonight's tour-closing show at the O2 may be one of the biggest of Suede's entire career, and Anderson gazes out across the crowd with the look of a star relieved to find himself on a stage of suitable size again, after years of diminishing returns and a period spent shuffling alone through the has-been wilderness.
One of former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler's complaints about the singer was that he was too concerned with being a star – which, as frontman, may be justifiably regarded as being a large part of his job, after all – and when the bubble of stardom bursts, stars have so much further to fall than mere musicians. So the shift back into the spotlight must have come as an immense relief.
Tonight's show is the culmination of a comeback, and the audience response offers confirmation that this is something more than yet another nostalgia show. There's something more rabidly celebratory about this reaction, which by the third song of the set finds the mosh-pit pogoing madly to "Trash". Like many of Suede's songs, it's an anthem of gutter communion, blessed with a refrain of "you and me", which Anderson invites the crowd to sing in his place. Shortly afterwards, during an ecstatically received "The Drowners", he's thrusting himself into their adoring, outstretched arms, as if searching for the physical reality of the line "you're taking me over".
The rest of the band, though, seem to have shrunk to afford their frontman adequate room to strut his skinny stuff. Like him, they're all in black, but only guitarist Richard Oakes essays any onstage moves as he cranks out the brash, raw riffs. Bassist Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert huddle together at the rear, pumping out the juddering grooves that career around the room, while Neil Codling remains eerily stone-faced, impassive and emotionless as he drifts between keyboards and guitar. Not that there's any shortfall in impact. "Animal Nitrate" rocks harder than ever, and Oakes wrings a tortuous snarl from his guitar for "We Are the Pigs", which ends with Anderson on his knees, a supplicant in front of his congregation. A couple of songs later, he's back on his knees again, head bowed for what seems like an eternity, before rising up, regarding the audience with the quizzical stare of a meerkat.
From there it's a steady succession of crowd favourites like "So Young" and "Metal Mickey", interspersed with more languorous moments like the limpid "Everything Will Flow" and "The Next Life". It's a long show, the better part of two hours, as if the band are offering a valedictory performance and don't want to leave out anything of note. But on this showing, with this response, I'd be surprised if this were the last we were to hear of Suede. They may have been outflanked by more brutish Britpop bullies a decade ago, but if they can't feel renewed fire in their bellies after a night like this, what are they doing it for?
O2 reviews
Re: O2 reviews
http://www.nme.com/news/suede/54158
Suede play their biggest ever indoor gig at London's O2 Arena Date
Brett Anderson refuses to rule out further shows as band wrap up reunion tour
December 7, 2010 | 0 CommentsBuy Suede Music from Amazon UKSuede news RSS feedMore Suede news, reviews, videos and tour dates
Suede wrapped up their reunion tour by playing their biggest indoor show ever at London's O2 Arena tonight (December 7).
The reunited five-piece, led by Brett Anderson, played a huge set performing hits from their first four albums – 'Suede', 'Dog Man Star', 'Coming Up' and 'Head Music'.
Speaking ahead of tonight's gig, frontman Anderson told NME it was a fitting way to wrap up their current tour, which has also seen the band perform at the UK capital's 100 Club, Royal Albert Hall and Bush Hall.
"We did the Albert Hall when we came back and thought, 'Where do we go from there? We can't step down a gear'," he said. "So someone suggested the O2 and it seemed like a crazy, vain, glorious enough thing for us to do."
He also confirmed the band will sit down and decide their future over the next few days following the show.
"We're playing our cards close to our chests so we'll just see how it goes and how we feel after," he added. "The whole mantra with this tour has been to keep it special and to take it one day at a time. So in a couple of days we'll sit down and decide what we want to do next year, if anything."
Anderson said very little throughout their greatest hits set, which included 1993 single 'Animal Nitrate' – footage of which you can watch below.
But he interacted with the crowd frequently, often shaking hands with audience members.
Rounding off the show with 1997 single 'Saturday Night' he hinted at the band's future: "Thank you so much, thank you so much. What can I say, it's been a lovely night and it's always so special to play in London. You might see us again sometime."
Suede played:
'This Hollywood Life'
'She'
'Trash'
'The Drowners'
'Animal Nitrate'
'We Are The Pigs'
'Pantomime Horse'
'By The Sea'
'Killing Of A Flashboy'
'Filmstar'
'Can't Get Enough'
'Everything Will Flow'
'The Next Life'
'The Asphalt World'
'So Young'
'Metal Mickey'
'Heroine'
'The Wild Ones'
'New Generation'
'Beautiful Ones'
'The Living Dead'
'To The Birds'
'Saturday Night'
Suede play their biggest ever indoor gig at London's O2 Arena Date
Brett Anderson refuses to rule out further shows as band wrap up reunion tour
December 7, 2010 | 0 CommentsBuy Suede Music from Amazon UKSuede news RSS feedMore Suede news, reviews, videos and tour dates
Suede wrapped up their reunion tour by playing their biggest indoor show ever at London's O2 Arena tonight (December 7).
The reunited five-piece, led by Brett Anderson, played a huge set performing hits from their first four albums – 'Suede', 'Dog Man Star', 'Coming Up' and 'Head Music'.
Speaking ahead of tonight's gig, frontman Anderson told NME it was a fitting way to wrap up their current tour, which has also seen the band perform at the UK capital's 100 Club, Royal Albert Hall and Bush Hall.
"We did the Albert Hall when we came back and thought, 'Where do we go from there? We can't step down a gear'," he said. "So someone suggested the O2 and it seemed like a crazy, vain, glorious enough thing for us to do."
He also confirmed the band will sit down and decide their future over the next few days following the show.
"We're playing our cards close to our chests so we'll just see how it goes and how we feel after," he added. "The whole mantra with this tour has been to keep it special and to take it one day at a time. So in a couple of days we'll sit down and decide what we want to do next year, if anything."
Anderson said very little throughout their greatest hits set, which included 1993 single 'Animal Nitrate' – footage of which you can watch below.
But he interacted with the crowd frequently, often shaking hands with audience members.
Rounding off the show with 1997 single 'Saturday Night' he hinted at the band's future: "Thank you so much, thank you so much. What can I say, it's been a lovely night and it's always so special to play in London. You might see us again sometime."
Suede played:
'This Hollywood Life'
'She'
'Trash'
'The Drowners'
'Animal Nitrate'
'We Are The Pigs'
'Pantomime Horse'
'By The Sea'
'Killing Of A Flashboy'
'Filmstar'
'Can't Get Enough'
'Everything Will Flow'
'The Next Life'
'The Asphalt World'
'So Young'
'Metal Mickey'
'Heroine'
'The Wild Ones'
'New Generation'
'Beautiful Ones'
'The Living Dead'
'To The Birds'
'Saturday Night'
Re: O2 reviews
More, more, more please!!!!!!!!!!! 
Re: O2 reviews
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/cult ... eview.html
Tim Burrows
Suede, O2 Arena, review
The return of the Britpop pioneers proved their songs are better than ever. Rating: ****
Poetry and aggression: Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson in 1999 Photo: Jeff Gilbert
By Tim Burrows 6:01PM GMT 09 Dec 2010 Comment
Just where did all these Suede fans come from? Approaching the band's latest, and largest, comeback show, you couldn't help but marvel at the thousands of thirty- and fortysomethings who had crawled out of the woodwork for this sold-out show.
Suede's depressing, drug-damaged slide into obscurity before their break-up in 2003 made them seem the least likely of the Nineties bands to reunite, but this year return they did after being asked to play a show in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Originally led by Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler (who left the group in 1994 and has not rejoined for the comeback gigs), Suede offered both the musical aggression of Oasis and the commuter-belt dreaming of Blur, and scored three number one albums during the decade. Yet Oasis and Blur, thanks in part to the marketability of their media feud, eclipsed them.
Dressed in uniform black, Suede 2010 cut a well-honed, savage entity – like Dr Feelgood hooked on Bowie and cheap glamour – and came armed with forgotten songs that seemed built for arenas. They opened with This Hollywood Life from their second album Dog Man Star, but it was Trash – as perfect a pop song to come from the era as you could find – that transformed the show from an awkward indie-band stadium gig into a proper rock show.
Well-rehearsed from their recent European tour, the band swam on a wave of nostalgia, but there was enough grit and power in their performance to cast the songs in a new light. "Good evening, London!" Anderson cried, grinning. Throughout the night, he was a bouncing presence, buzzing off the reaffirmation of his band's power.
The delicious thing about Suede is that they appealed – indeed, still do appeal – to the football fan element of the Britpop crowd, despite lyrics drenched in sexual ambiguity. It is said that some fans, strangely, have even got married to The Wild Ones, a song about an unbalanced, unrequited love.
So Young, Beautiful Ones – single after single was delivered with smack-in-the-face force, reminding you just how good the band were at churning out clever-yet-heart-wrenching hits. Even Everything Will Flow, a much-derided release among the Suede faithful, felt invigorated.
Suede at the O2 Arena shouldn't have worked, but that it did was a great reaffirmation of their musical importance.
Tim Burrows
Suede, O2 Arena, review
The return of the Britpop pioneers proved their songs are better than ever. Rating: ****
Poetry and aggression: Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson in 1999 Photo: Jeff Gilbert
By Tim Burrows 6:01PM GMT 09 Dec 2010 Comment
Just where did all these Suede fans come from? Approaching the band's latest, and largest, comeback show, you couldn't help but marvel at the thousands of thirty- and fortysomethings who had crawled out of the woodwork for this sold-out show.
Suede's depressing, drug-damaged slide into obscurity before their break-up in 2003 made them seem the least likely of the Nineties bands to reunite, but this year return they did after being asked to play a show in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Originally led by Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler (who left the group in 1994 and has not rejoined for the comeback gigs), Suede offered both the musical aggression of Oasis and the commuter-belt dreaming of Blur, and scored three number one albums during the decade. Yet Oasis and Blur, thanks in part to the marketability of their media feud, eclipsed them.
Dressed in uniform black, Suede 2010 cut a well-honed, savage entity – like Dr Feelgood hooked on Bowie and cheap glamour – and came armed with forgotten songs that seemed built for arenas. They opened with This Hollywood Life from their second album Dog Man Star, but it was Trash – as perfect a pop song to come from the era as you could find – that transformed the show from an awkward indie-band stadium gig into a proper rock show.
Well-rehearsed from their recent European tour, the band swam on a wave of nostalgia, but there was enough grit and power in their performance to cast the songs in a new light. "Good evening, London!" Anderson cried, grinning. Throughout the night, he was a bouncing presence, buzzing off the reaffirmation of his band's power.
The delicious thing about Suede is that they appealed – indeed, still do appeal – to the football fan element of the Britpop crowd, despite lyrics drenched in sexual ambiguity. It is said that some fans, strangely, have even got married to The Wild Ones, a song about an unbalanced, unrequited love.
So Young, Beautiful Ones – single after single was delivered with smack-in-the-face force, reminding you just how good the band were at churning out clever-yet-heart-wrenching hits. Even Everything Will Flow, a much-derided release among the Suede faithful, felt invigorated.
Suede at the O2 Arena shouldn't have worked, but that it did was a great reaffirmation of their musical importance.
Re: O2 reviews
hahaha - well when i said more, more, more i meant suede shows but also the reviews are lovely josé hehehe hey also got 4/5 I saw yesterday in the London Evening Standard but John Aizlewood was a bit shitty in it about the sound and stuff!!! I thought the sound was great personally - maybe i'm wrong or something!!!!
hey also got 4/5 I saw yesterday in the London Evening Standard but John Aizlewood was a bit shitty in it about the sound and stuff!!! I thought the sound was great personally - maybe i'm wrong or something!!!!Re: O2 reviews
yes:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/rev ... -savour.do
Suede
Description: Brett Anderson's Britpop pioneers play their rock hits.
Rocker’s return: Brett Anderson, looking like the foppish offspring of Bryan Ferry and Peter Mandelson
By John Aizlewood
08.12.10
Always the Britpop bridesmaids, but never the brides of Oasis and Blur, Suede always had an enjoyable tendency to overreach themselves.
And come the inevitable re-formation, they have maintained that tradition. Foolishly, they grossly over-estimated their appeal by booking the 02, only for the top tier to be curtained off and there being enough room for everyone to swing a clowder of cats downstairs.
The worst sound I’ve encountered at the 02 didn’t help this most subtle of bands either. Suede’s songs deserved better; Suede’s audience deserved much better.
Those gripes aside, I hadn’t realised just how much I’d missed them. Wisely, they avoided the meandering ballads which did for them first time around. Instead, they plumped for a mix of crowd-pleasing hits — Can’t Get Enough stomped like it was still socially acceptable to enjoy the music of Gary Glitter — and album tracks such as The Next Life, which served to remind that Suede were more than those crowd-pleasing hits.
They’ve aged reasonably well, although legendary youthful guitarist Richard Oakes now has more girth and less hair. In contrast, singer Brett Anderson, looking for all the world like the foppish offspring of Bryan Ferry and Lord Mandelson, remained stick-thin and comfortably arrogant of bouncing, monitor-mounting disposition. And reassuringly, Anderson is still so desperate for affirmation and adoration that he repeatedly wandered into the crowd, presumably to get groped one more time, since there was no cuddling (or, indeed, smiling) on stage.
A mid-set fusillade of Trash, The Drowners, Animal Nitrate and We Are The Pigs was muscle-flexing of the highest order but better still was the manner in which Saturday Night, The Asphalt World and Anderson’s solo showcase The Living Dead merged swagger with genuine pathos.
As reunions go, it was midway between the deep-freeze of The Verve and the touchy-feeliness of Take That. Once Suede members remind themselves how things went for each of them without Suede, they’ll be back for a re-match.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/rev ... -savour.do
Suede
Description: Brett Anderson's Britpop pioneers play their rock hits.
Rocker’s return: Brett Anderson, looking like the foppish offspring of Bryan Ferry and Peter Mandelson
By John Aizlewood
08.12.10
Always the Britpop bridesmaids, but never the brides of Oasis and Blur, Suede always had an enjoyable tendency to overreach themselves.
And come the inevitable re-formation, they have maintained that tradition. Foolishly, they grossly over-estimated their appeal by booking the 02, only for the top tier to be curtained off and there being enough room for everyone to swing a clowder of cats downstairs.
The worst sound I’ve encountered at the 02 didn’t help this most subtle of bands either. Suede’s songs deserved better; Suede’s audience deserved much better.
Those gripes aside, I hadn’t realised just how much I’d missed them. Wisely, they avoided the meandering ballads which did for them first time around. Instead, they plumped for a mix of crowd-pleasing hits — Can’t Get Enough stomped like it was still socially acceptable to enjoy the music of Gary Glitter — and album tracks such as The Next Life, which served to remind that Suede were more than those crowd-pleasing hits.
They’ve aged reasonably well, although legendary youthful guitarist Richard Oakes now has more girth and less hair. In contrast, singer Brett Anderson, looking for all the world like the foppish offspring of Bryan Ferry and Lord Mandelson, remained stick-thin and comfortably arrogant of bouncing, monitor-mounting disposition. And reassuringly, Anderson is still so desperate for affirmation and adoration that he repeatedly wandered into the crowd, presumably to get groped one more time, since there was no cuddling (or, indeed, smiling) on stage.
A mid-set fusillade of Trash, The Drowners, Animal Nitrate and We Are The Pigs was muscle-flexing of the highest order but better still was the manner in which Saturday Night, The Asphalt World and Anderson’s solo showcase The Living Dead merged swagger with genuine pathos.
As reunions go, it was midway between the deep-freeze of The Verve and the touchy-feeliness of Take That. Once Suede members remind themselves how things went for each of them without Suede, they’ll be back for a re-match.