Newcastle 2 (Goldfrapp nil)

A few years ago - and documented somewhere in my Blips* - the Minx and I came to Newcastle for a gig and on the way back we made a detour to visit The Naked Deli, whom she followed on Instagram. These days, they have a place in Newcastle city centre, and that's where we had breakfast, this morning.

After that we decided to have a mooch around the music shops. Whereas Manchester is now down to only one - as far as I know - we found three in Newcastle. The Minx takes a passing interest in the aesthetics of guitars, so we enjoyed looking at the various models and both fell in love with the new Fender Acoustasonic Players. (I also had a happy few minutes discussing my reservations about the classic ARP Odyssey synthesiser with a like-minded shop assistant.)

After that we went around Grainger Market, which is an interesting place, full of stalls, some of which seemed incredibly old-fashioned, but then there were interesting coffee shops and what one might called 'artisanal' outlets, too. And lots of butchers shops! The Minx loved it.

By now it was lunchtime and we found a subterranean bar called 'WC', which, as you may have surmised, is a former public toilet. It's not that big and although it wasn't yet busy, it appeared that it was fully booked. In the end, though, we were told that we could use one of the tables for two for an hour, which was perfect for us. I took today's Blip while we were in there.

After that, it was back to the hotel, and while the Minx went up to our room, I sat in the bar and made my notes for tomorrow's radio show and enjoyed a Newcastle Brown Ale, before we shared a bottle of Prosecco and went out for the evening.

We were off to see Goldfrapp at the Sage and stopped off nearby at the HWKR Food Market for dinner, where the Minx ordered us a pizza to share, which turned out to be a spectacular eighteen inches in diameter.

And so to the gig itself and, to cut to the chase, it was a real disappointment. The tour was originally the 20th anniversary of Goldfrapp's debut album, 'Felt Mountain', which is a sumptuous mix of analogue synths, strings, and Alison Goldfrapp's stunning vocals. Covid meant the tour was delayed back to 2021, and then again to this year.

Now, Goldfrapp playing live is usually a fantastic experience, which made the disappointment all the worse. For a start, the show was too quiet, which immediately detracts from the visceral joy of a live performance. Further to this, two of the tracks from 'Felt Mountain' were used for the intro and exit tapes, which didn't feel right.

Worst of all -- for me, anyway - was that there was no emphasis on the electronics. In fact, there was a chap playing acoustic guitar on most of the songs. And finally, there was the set selection, which never seemed to rise above a slow melancholy. There was no 'Ride A White Horse' or 'Strict Machine' or indeed any of the other bangers they've produced over the years.

In the end I was quite glad it was a fairly short set, coming in at around eighty minutes, although, judging by what I overheard on the way out,  I think some people felt short-changed. Poops.

*Amongst the enhancements I'd like to see on Blipfoto is a function to search through one's own Blips