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Love Of The Common Man Buffalo Grass Kind Hearted Woman Determination Lucky Guy Can We Still Be Friends? Espresso Love Is The Answer It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference Lost Horizon Flaw Soul Brother I'm So Proud / Ooo Baby Baby / La La Means I Love You / I Want You Hawking I Saw The Light Courage Drive Couldn't I Just Tell You?
Hello It's Me 
Review by SueW:
Once I’d parked my car I didn’t know exactly where the venue was so I asked a guy walking past me. It turned out that he was Todd’s driver (he showed me his laminate) so he walked with me to the venue!
By the time I go to the venue (about 7.45pm after the doors opened at 7pm) it was really packed. Somebody said the venue held 350 people but it seemed closer to 1,000 to me. There was a balcony around the hall so I stood up there which meant that I also had something to lean against. The springy dance floor I had read about (and briefly stood on) seemed covered in some sort of carpet glue so was very sticky.
I think my overall memory of this gig will be how hot it was! This was the hottest ever October day in the UK (29C which is about 84F) and in that venue, with no ventilation, it was roasting. Todd had two big fans on either side of the stage to cool himself but I didn’t see anything for Kasim and the band.
I had expected that there would be an opening act but thankfully there wasn’t. Todd came on stage at about 8.15pm and played for just under 2 hours until 10.10pm.
I went to the second and third gigs of the first leg of this tour in the US and I think Todd and the band have become much tighter during that time.
Todd still does that abortive start to Hello It’s Me but thankfully now it’s only about 4 times during the set rather than constantly through it as he did in June.
I think that, after the Power Trio Tour, this is my favourite Todd set list out of all the tours I’ve seen him on (I first saw him on the Half Twisted Tour in 1999 and haven’t missed a tour either here or in the US since). There’s only one song he plays that I don’t like (Hawking although I could happily live without ever hearing Kind Hearted Woman again too) and he played a nice selection of rocking songs and slower ones.
This tour is very much Todd at the front and the band at the back. Other than the kicks in Couldn’t I Just Tell You, all the band stayed right at the back of the stage and weren’t lit up all that often. In fact when Kasim came out to do the high kicks with Todd and Jesse for CIJTY he looked at Todd as though he needed permission to do it first.
I’d forgotten how little guitar Todd plays on this tour. He probably only played the guitar for four or five songs and during those, most of the time Jesse played the lead parts. I think Todd only played his Foamy guitar.
John had some problems with his keyboards at the start of the first song so two techs spent most of that song attending to it.
Kasim (and all the band) wore all black. Kasim’s shirt was unbuttoned more and more as he got hotter! My first (shallow!) thought was that I was glad that Kasim didn't have any facial hair. Kasim switched between two basses for the whole set but I wasn't close enough to see which they were.
The sound wasn’t great at the venue where I was standing (and I expected that it should have been good up there) as the instruments were loud and the vocals weren’t always distinct, although when Todd spoke we could hear him clearly.
Todd wore a jacket which he took off after two songs (he said that he had packed a whole suitcase of hot weather just for us!) and underneath he wore a black T-shirt with Manchester on it in white and a black and white Union Flag (the British national flag). He wore black trousers.
As Todd walked off stage during A Dream Goes On Forever he briefly shared Jesse and then Kasim’s microphones.
This is the only gig I've been at where they gave everybody a lolly as we left the venue!
Roll on the first London gig on Monday!
Comments by fans posted to various messageboards and mailing lists include:
"Fab gig."
"Noticed Michelle standing by the mixing desk on the way out."
"Todd on form."
Other websites:
The band:
More about this gig (hopefully including videos) will be added in a few days
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The gig tonight is in Manchester in the North west of England. (In fact all of the gigs on this tour are in England as the other five gigs are in London.) The last time that Kasim played in any part of the UK was in February 2010 and that was just one single gig.
The venue tonight is now called the HMV Ritz but it used to be called The Ritz Ballroom when it opened in the 1920s. It closed in May 2011 for a $3m refurbishment including the restoration of original architectural features, extensive sound-proofing and the installation of state-of-the-art sound and lighting. It re-opened in September 2011.
Many of the most famous bands in the
HMV Ritz is located at Whitworth Street West, Manchester M1 5NQ and the venue is also notable for its unusual "springy" dancefloor!
Tickets for this gig were £18.50 (+ charges) so about $30. It is a General Admission gig and is sold out.
The gig is listed as starting at 7pm (2pm NYC time) but HMV have a policy of only putting the door opening time on their tickets so that people arrive early and drink to boost their profits!
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Tonight Kasim Sulton plays the first of six gigs in UK on the