Great gig
Small venue which was by no means full to bursting which seemed a shame, but there you are, and the expected mix of late 30's / early 40's plus the 'Next Generation' of teen and early 20's baby bats.
Support was provided by a competent but second rate Tori Amos type. Good voice but that's about it.
Now; I've got to admit to a small amount of shock when Mr Murphy made the stage, as he's always been this dark, lithe beast with hollow cheeks, but it appears he's been dodging the salads to make space for double cake rations recently
He's not fat by any stretch of the imaginantion, but he's looking comfortable shall we say.
Face is the same though, framed by a cockatiel blonde mohican cut and a fine tache and goatee combo. Shock two of the evening: he's balding quite badly now - similar sort of shock to seeing Geordie on the Killing Joke tour last year with a big baldie spot. It's WRONG and makes ME feel old so STOP GOING BALD.
After those shockers the fact that he was dressed like a bad tranny was neither here nor there really.
But...
The voice. Oh! joy of joys THE VOICE!! As rich, full and sonorous as ever. Toptastic. Played for an hour or so, with songs from throughout his solo career. Encore started out with him solo with a twelve string acoustic for a sublime "Strange kind of love" with the guitarist and bass player joing him on stage during the song to fill in the sound as it grew. Wonderful
Final encore was a totally out of the blue but stonking cover of Joy Divisions 'Transmission'.
He seemed to be enjoying himself and was happily saying hello to people in the audience he recognised, including amongst others his brother!
A good evening all in all.
Something pithy.