CityLife

Guillemots @ Academy 1

09/02/07

TO many observers last yearés Mercury Music Prize was a three-horse race, although in truth it always appeared that Richard Hawley and the Guillemots might be left chasing the Arctic Monkeysé heels.

For head Guillemot Fyfe Dangerfield, whose early years were marked by revolving door line-ups and seemingly interminable obscurity, the Mercury nod was a reward for perseverance as well as achievement.

Eight years on from his Peel Session debut, he tonight faces a packed out Academy hall with the assurance of a man who knows his time is now.

Shall we begin with one you all know?

No! Dangerfield, his three regular bandmates, and two sax-wielding cohorts instead kick things off with an experimental three-song suite. Rocked up loud, it sets the tone for a performance high on volume and somewhat bereft of subtlety.

A warning that the front few rows risk being bathed in the food-poisoned bandés vomit is not realised. Instead they and those behind them face the bewilderment of hearing latest single Annie, Letés not Wait being deflowered by a thunderous bass line.

Bouncy

Better news elsewhere. Following a faithful reproduction of breakthrough tune Made up Love Song #43 comes a bouncy little number that the Guillemots carelessly éforgot to record for the albumé (the enchanting Through the Windowpane).

Decked all in loose white clothing, the core entertainers are briefly joined onstage by a shambling chap sporting a red cloak and black head mask. Things take a turn for the weirder still when sinister chanting and a Jimmy Somerville falsetto infiltrate the set.

Sanity returns in the form of a beautifully stripped down version of earlyish single Weére Here, Dangerfield performing unaccompanied.

The ever-dreamy Trains to Brazil then gets feet moving before the spectacle of a posse of robed volunteers battering an inauthentic model Guillemot about the head with wooden sticks fittingly concludes a thoroughly baffling display.

What did you think of the gig? Have your say.

*YOU can also read another review below.