Paradise Lost live at the Islington Academy

Well it wasn't the greatest gig in the world that's for sure! But for the price of the tickets and a night out I can't complain. It was a decent night actually, due to managing to get Chazzy F to take one of the 2 tickets I had. We had a good chat about this and that and Chas's exploits as a gig promoter amongst other things. Interesting stories he has to tell about how much work and shit goes through organising a gig. It really is a labour of love I think. Even though the Riverside gig he promoted was a full sell-out, he only ended up with a couple of hundred pounds profit to his name after everyone had their piece so to speak. The previous gigs he promoted made losses so in order to basically break even in this business you need to sell all the tickets and that's really hard with this type of music.

Anyway the gig itself was in a venue that I had never been to before and I got lost, walking way down the road before I realised it can't be down here. It turns out the Islington Academy is actually inside this shopping centre area. I had seen hardly any 'black-shirts' around so I never followed them or some such. Eventually I managed to figure it out and saw a couple I recognised walking inside the shopping centre and lo and behold there it was round this corner.

First we had a bite to eat and a drink in the upstairs pub which was nice as me and Chas talked a bit more before finally we decided to enter the venue. As we walked in the support band was already playing and we were a bit taken aback by how packed out it was.

Novembre were like a mix between My Dying Bride and Opeth with some Paradise Lost thrown in. I wasn't particularly taken with them to be honest. Still I never expected to be, seeing as I don't much like that doom with deathy overtones style too much. I prefer the more melodic aspects of Paradise Lost. They played a few more songs to polite applause but I guess the crowd wasn't too interested in them either by the looks of things and everyone was here for the 'Lost. The venue itself was pretty much packed to the rafters and it was quite hard to move around like I said. In the end we managed to get a reasonable spot for the start of the PL set though it was quite a way back. The sound was ok from where I was, but not great. The band played well, but they didn't seem all that animated. Nick Holmes is usually full of quips, but he seemed fairly relaxed and normal. They played well, the crowd seemed to enjoy it. It wasn't earth shatteringly brilliant but it was ok. The setlist was iffy, but I guess I'm not too fussed if I'm honest. They did play a couple of my faves like Enchantment which was great stuff. They could have played a couple of songs from Icon, which would have been nice but not to worry. They played roughly 80 minutes all told which was ok.

Once again at the price, I can't complain and it was nice to talk to Chas at the gig and we had a good time.

A short clip from As I die.