Artist:  The Cult

Venue: The Carling Academy, Newcastle

Date: 17 September 2006  

One of the most influential bands of my lifetime has to be The Cult, who single handily made the word Goth a household term, and who since their first live performance in three years earlier this year, have been the buzz word amongst the rock crowd with rumours abound about a new album and full tour.

Well the tour part is true as the band set about a full 11 date UK tour, something that has been a long time coming for many fans.

So on to tonight’s show, well having read some reviews of previous UK shows it was hard to make sense of what the whole tour vibe was creating, so I was going to review this show on its own merits and ignore any others.

 Well things didn’t get off to a good start as well, as there being no support act for the UK show, this left a lot of punters standing around for over 2 hours waiting for the band.  Plus the added headache of there being a problem with the on-stage power just prior to the band being due on stage, meant that a further 20 minute delay was added by this time. 

The capacity Academy was a melting pot of anticipation and frustration but at 9.25 pm all was about to be forgotten as Astbury and Duffy walked on stage, accompanied by Mike Dimkitch on rhythm guitar, Chris Wyse on bass and John Tempesta on drums.

The band quickly got down to business with the set opener the classic ‘Lil Devil’ and it was clear to see that all the waiting had been worth while.  The crowd simply erupted into a seething mass of bodies all united in idolization of their heroes.

It was plain from Billy Duffy’s demeanour that he wasn’t completely happy with the on-stage guitar sound he was getting, but he continued never the less as the band continued to impress with ‘Sweet Soul Sister’, a song that really got the crowd jumpin’.

Astbury asked if Newcastle was still the wild rock n' roll town he remembered, to which the crowd gave an emphatic reply and showed that Newcastle still know how to rock.

The set continued with something a little different as the band went into ‘Electric Ocean’ and excellent ‘The Witch’, before really cooking up a storm with ‘Spirit Walker’ and ‘Revolution’.  By this time Duffy seemed a lot happier with his sound and went on to rip up a storm as the band went into the obvious crowd favourite ‘Rain’.

But it was the acoustic cut back to the minimum version of Edie (Ciao Baby) with just Astbury and Duffy on stage that was one of the highlights for me, especially with the sing-a-long section of the crowd.

Things got back to the rockier stuff with a stirring rendition of ‘Wonderland’, then it was really time to rock as Duffy let out the first few chords of ‘Fire Woman’, to this the place simply erupted.  The rock kept on coming as ‘Peace Dog’ and ‘Rise’ were not just played but unleashed onto the enthusiastic audience.

As the set came to a close it was time for the band to pull out all the stops and they did so in spectacular fashion by finishing off with ‘Wild Flower’, another crowd favourite and ‘Love Removal Machine’, before leaving the stage.

With the crowd baying for more it would be more than their lives were worth for them not to finish off the night with ‘She Sells Sanctuary’.  Which they indeed did and this rounded off what had been a great set from a great band despite the long wait, but what is two hours when some of the crowd had been waiting years to see their idols live once more.

 

 

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