It seems after two very long years of restricted fun, postponements and cancellations that the retirement adventure has once again been kick started. 👏👏

 

After a delicious pre gig dinner with the Besties we headed back to the wonderful De La Warr Pavilion to see Goldfrapp.

With the two of us in the old peoples seating area up in the balcony, we looked down on the Mosh Pit in search of the Besties, who had opted for standing tickets with the less silver haired 🤣. In reality the music of Goldfrapp doesn’t lend itself to moshing, but I find my diminutive height isn’t conducive to standing at gigs. I get a great view of the back of peoples necks or a face full of armpit as they dance the night away 🥺

So as we settled into our seats, we found we had a great view and were  just in time for the support act, Salt Ashes. They were a new name to me, but the vocalist had a fabulous voice and had rhythm on the drum too. With her two talented backing musicians, they gave a pretty lively performance to warm the crowd. With a lot of the audience obviously only there for the main event and not in the auditorium, they missed a good set.

Some of the Goldfrapp followers rudely didn’t arrive at their seats until the band were on stage. Really annoying for people who had to stand to let them through and for those behind 🤬. Finally in situ we could all enjoy the performance.

Now I like a bit of Goldfrapp and they had quite an excited following in the audience, but I was sadly unmoved by the show. The set was very dark, with lights flashing from behind the band, so from where we were sitting at least, for most of the performance all we could see were silhouettes. There was very little interaction with the crowd and for the first hour they played all their slow, melancholy tunes. I’ve never seen a standing crowd so motionless.

After an hour they left the stage and I could easily have left too. However with the audience cheering for them to return, they obliged and we had a final fantastic twenty minutes. They played more of their upbeat songs and had the crowd dancing both on the floor and in the seated area. There were lots more upbeat tunes they could have played, and for us, it would have been so much more enjoyable if only they’d interspersed some in the first hour session.

Its a shame, it wasn’t a bad night but we have enjoyed better. I’ll definitely listen to some more Salt Ashes but with Goldfrapp, I’m not sure I’ll venture to see them again. I think I’ll just listen to their music through my headphones whilst chilling in the future.