Northside > Northside live at Moho, Manchester, 18 December 2007

Northside live at Moho, Manchester, 18 December 2007; setlist
Northside live at Moho, Manchester, 18 December 2007; setlist

Moho Live
21-31 Oldham Street (entrance is on Tib Street)
Manchester
M1 1JG

Review by Robert Elfving for Cerysmatic Factory

Northside played the newly opened MoHo Live venue, a cellar at the back of Afflecks Palace, on 18th December 2007. This was one of only two gigs in late 2007, the other one being Blackburn a couple of days before.

Despite adverts mentioning several "special guests" including David Potts (Revenge / Monaco / Ram), there was, disappointingly, no support band. Clint Boon introduced Northside. Andy Rourke and John Robb (also listed as "guest") were in the audience.

To be honest, I didn't expect much from this gig as I had heard they'd done a few gigs as Northside in 2006/07 but sadly with Dermo as the sole original member. Even though the gigs allegedly went down well, it always seemed like a bit of a cheat to me, but I thought I'd give them a chance anyway. So I was surprised to see original guitarist Tim Walsh in the line-up - his trademark guitar sound as good as ever, clearing away any doubts as to whether this was the real deal or some tribute band. It certainly sounded a lot better than the youtube clips I've seen of last year's gigs. This bodes well for the release of a long-awaited second album in 2008 - I expect this means "Pleasuredome" and other long lost gems from the Factory era could finally see the light of day. Whether the newly written material is up to standard remains to be seen - they didn't play any at this gig.

On bass was Dean Dermody (Dermo's brother) - this appears to be a man of many talents as he started out doing artwork for the band, then apparently played guitar for a while, then drums, and now bass!

A picture of this line-up can be seen at mdmarchive.com (it looks like they are recording a session for XFM).

The encore, 'Shall We Take A Trip' with the now obligatory stage invasion (ill-advised in a small club like this, as it gave the impression of the people on stage out-numbering the ones in the audience!), was dedicated to Tony Wilson.

Setlist

Freak Circus
Pleasuredome
Funky Munky (this was played before Wishful, despite what the setlist says!)
Wishful Thinking
My Rising Star
Weight Of Air
Mr Brown
Who's To Blame
Tour De World
Take 5 (featuring Bonehead on rhythm guitar)
Moody Places
Yeah Man
Shall We Take A Trip

--

Thanks to Robert for the review and setlist scan.