Borderline, London (UK) 2/3/2000

Landslide
From This Height
Who's To Know
I Can't Wait
Stone
Finest Little Space
A Name
Home Again
Forget About Me
Higher Than Reason
Pedestrian
Building
Agony
--oo--
Shed Your Skin
Solved
--o--
Almost Here



Pictures this way...


From : Ulen
Date : 3/3/2000
Suject : (UT) The long awaited comeback

Hello peeps, and welcome to my bleary-eyed write up of last night. Having almost not made it (another story) me and Al got there shortly after 8.30 to join the long queue to get in. We saw Beth, and then Owen outside (with a young lady under his arm), but apart from that not much chance of a listmeet. Oh well, perhaps inside near the DJ booth at the back then? Well once inside - no chance. The place was rapidly filling up, and it was all we could do to get a drink.

Oslo came straight on and did about five numbers which (to me) sounded a bit like the Cure meets the Stereophonics.

When they were off it was time to squeeze near the front, and say hi to Stu and Emily, and Chris.

After a quick soundcheck, ut came on to whoops of applause, (no Hugo Largo) and kicked off with Landslide (the new album opener - and the new gig opener also from now on?)

The full setlist was:
Landslide
From This Height
Who's To Know
I Can't Wait
Stone
Finest Little Space
A Name
Home Again
Forget About Me
Higher Than Reason
Pedestrian
Building
Agony
--oo--
Shed Your Skin
Solved
--o--
Almost Here

The band were a bit rusty in places, the odd bit off feedback and bum notes though didn't spoil the fun. Andy and Nigel were much more chatty than usual between songs (Nigel having to fill time while Andy tuned up for the next track). Andy thanked us all for coming, for supporting them - and even remembering who they are!

I had to guess "A Name" as it wasn't introduced, (in fact Andy only seemed to tell us the names of the songs we already know). Pedestrian is a definite departure from the unbelievable truth sound we are used to. Someone else will have to explain to you what Nigel was doing on the (electric) drums. Agony was fantastic, and is more proof that ut are in fact a rock band thinly disguised as acoustic alternative.

It was odd to hear FAM (I thought they'd dropped it) and for them to finish on Almost Here was (in my humble opinion) a shame... shouldn't they have finished on WSAYO?

Anyway, that was it, gig over and we had to rush off to get the train. Why are all the decent gigs these days on a Thursday? So no time to mingle with the band after. They had new T-Shirts, but sorry everyone, I had no money. I'm sure David will organise mail order!?
When we said goodbye to him, he said "See you soon" to us, so we asked "Oh yes? How soon?"... and he just said as soon as he knows, then we'll know! I guess this means that the rumour about Andy leaving to go back to Russia is simply idle gossip, and we can expect to see the band touring again soon...

A belated "Hello" to anyone I didn't get a chance to say hello to properly (especially if I don't even know your name) and here's hoping to see you all at the next gig....

Ulen.


From : Gary
Date : 3/3/2000
Subject : Re: (UT) The long awaited comeback

>Agony was fantastic, and is more proof that ut are in fact a
> rock band thinly disguised as acoustic alternative.

I have to agree with that, it was indeed a great song, my favourite new song of the night. It was a great performance, and the band seemed to be at their most relaxed, I'd never seen them looking so laid back. :) Did I hear Nigel correctly? Was Jim Warren doing the sound for the evening? So that's what he does on his days off, huh? Anyway, looking forward to the new album, and I hope it's out soon.

Gary

__________________________________________________

From : Newell
Date : 8/3/2000
Subject : UT review

Unbelievable Truth-Borderline-March 2nd

First a test. What are the three things you think of first when I say Unbelievable Truth? If you said, Thom Yorke's little brother, Acoustic guitars and Thom Yorke's little brother then you think like nearly everyone else. This band has Thom Yorke's little brother in it. But there's more there. The acoustic guitars have vanished to be replaced by electrics. The contribution of live man Jim Crosskey gives UT a harder edge and you forget to think of the R word during their set.

This cannot be said for Oslo, however. I went in to the gig not knowing Oslo, but knowing of them. I was told they sounded like Radiohead. Oh dear, I thought. Thankfully, they don't. They just sounded shite. They started off pretty well, with a song with a lot of ooohs and aaahs. Sadly after that, the rest is a painful drawn out blur. Everything sounding similar and all done with nearly no passion or emotion at all. I tried to like it. I tried so very hard, honest! But I found myself spending most of that set musing over the lead singer's likeness to Alexander Armstrong (of 'Armstrong and Miller' and 'Beast' fame if you didn't know…) and trying to avoid being hit on the head by his guitar. There was also the worrying point that both the lead singer and the bassist kept looking the crowd directly in the eyes (well, they were doing it to me and it scared me) to seek acceptance. None was given. In short, my friend and me had more fun dodging the guitar than listening to the songs.

I expected a disappointment from UT. I built them up and after (cue name-dropping) meeting the bassist earlier expected the greatest gig I'd seen (including the stuff on TV). The fact that they had only a month or so before been dropped by their record company due to the EMI/Time Warner merger also gave me a hint of doubt over the band's quality. I was no where near disappointed, though. They started off with a song (which I hadn't heard before, but someone told me was an old new song…whatever that means) called 'Landslide' and then merged effortlessly in to 'From this Height'. After this came the amazing 'Who's to Know'. It's well known that the band had a falling out with Virgin over this track. It was supposed to be on their debut album, 'Almost Here', but the execs didn't like it and instead demoted it to one of the most emotionally stirring B-sides ever written. Thank God they got dropped. As Nigel, the drummer, performed his little repartee whilst Andy tuned up the audience laughed and joked with him taking the piss out of the record company. We were all under UT's spell and in awe of them. Then they started 'Forget About Me'. A favourite of mine, I expected it to be okay. It had the crowd singing at the top of their voices as the band decided to add a heavier edge to it, replacing the gentle acoustic strums with steely power chords tearing apart the audience. It could have only been downhill from here…if the band hadn't played 'Higher Than Reason', the debut single. After that, the acoustic guitar came out for 'Pedestrian' a new song on the "'forthcoming' album". It started with some weird drum pad scratchy roll. Yes, it was a drum solo, but it was a drum solo which made you think more of Unkle or, dare I say it, Ian Brown's psychedelic dance beats. And the acoustic guitar? It was drowned out by the screaming riffs of Jim's electric guitar and could only be heard doing a short riff. The song showed, along with 'Agony' (which was to be their first single off of the album) and the other new material that Virgin were fools to drop these guys. All this album needed was some good promotion and it could well establish UT as a strong band. Perhaps if the media attention given to shitey "I wanna be a rock star, mummy and have a 'controversial' name" bands that reside in Virgin's stable was given to a talented band like UT this sort of situation where they are scrambling for a new deal may not have arisen.

Once the band had concluded their set they were heralded back onstage to perform the obligatory encore, which consisted of 'Shed Your Skin' (another new track) and the beautiful 'Solved' and more power and emotion than any Radiohead song I have heard. By the time they left the stage after Solved it wasn't thought another encore would be given (there was a club afterwards-'rockit'-complete shit) but there was. Andy and Nigel came out and performed the skeletal 'Almost Here'. 270 people were hushed in to silence as Andy produced the most ardent emotional performance of the night.

The greatest part of the night was the interaction with the crowd. When Jim screwed up the introduction to one song and everyone laughed at him and the hilarious retort to one member by Jason when he picked up a guitar instead of his custom bass:
"Jason, you're so talented!"
"Yeah I can play guitar and…guitar!"
When the whole thing had ended and everyone was meandering around the venue, it was agreed that this was their best gig ever, even though they hadn't performed for a whole year and Virgin should never have dropped them. What made the night even more bittersweet was seeing the guys move their own equipment from the stage. I bet Gay Dad have roadies…




Subject: New songs
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 10:15:15 +0000
From: Owen Marriott

Just a really, really quick message (busy, busy) to say that 'I Can't Wait' is already, after just one listen, perhaps my favourite UT song. It has a *real* Mark Mulcahy influence to it (I would say), that kind of soulful groove thang. Those of you who have heard the band's version of 'Hurry, Please Hurry' will know what to expect.

Pedestrian, as already mentioned by Ulen, was.. woh! Nigel sporting a nice set of V-drums, *completely* unlike anything you've ever heard before. Stunning.

By far the strangest thing about it all was the way that, with two electrics and an acoustic on stage, Andy used the electrics on all of the quiet songs (Stone, Forget About Me, Building) and the acoustic on the loudest of them all (Pedestrian). I don't wish to be a traditionalist pain, but Stone just didn't cut it for me - far too loud and raucous.

Sorry to those of you I didn't get a chance to say hello to (one of those days)..

Seeya, O.

-- Owen Marriott owen@arnoldmusic.com http://www.ArnoldMusic.com


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