| I arrived at the Sheperds Bush Empire and talked to a few people about who they were here to see Neil (Devine Comedy) or Ben and most people I spoke to were there to see Neil. I got to the front so I was right in front of Ben Folds. The first person on was someone called Chris TT, he had a acoustic guitar and sung songs about channel 4 and beer. He was quite good and he kept joking through the whole set about cracking jokes before a really serious song. Then the man of the night (for me) came on, he came on to a really good reception and went straight in to Boxing from the first album. After he finished the song he looked in to space for about 1 minute and he then said "Sorry, I just blacked out for a minute there, shit" and went in to another song. He was really entertaining, inbetween every song he would stop and tell us a amusing story about how the song came about or crack a joke. The best story was one about the song 'One Angry Dwarf' and 'Fred Jones Part 2'. The other good thing he did was split the audience half way and got one half to do the brass bit and the other half to do the different brass bit so he was running from on end of the stage to the other to illustrate who did which bit. He also got us to sing the introduction and high bits to Underground. Then Neil came on to play guitar while Ben was doing the piano to Mess, then Niel left and Ben did a version of Not the Same again getting us to do the back vocals to it, and at the end of the song he stood on the top of the piano and conducted the rest of it. I never knew one man and his piano could be so entertaining, it was brilliant. Then Neil came on and played a big instrumental then went straight in to 'National Express', I thought it was ok not as good as Mr Folds but entertaining. At points it was like Neil Hannon's comedy hour which was funny. Then Ben came back on and played drums for a Devine Comedy song, Ben looked really cool with sun glasses on and a black jumper. Then Ben left and Neil sung two more songs then left. After a few minutes Ben and Neil came back, Ben on the piano and Neil singing they sung a cover song that I can't remember what it was. Then they sung 'Raindrops' (another cover song). The last song they sung was a flaming lips song in which Ben played acoustic guitar, Neil played piano and the other band members of Devine Comedy played their instruments. After the gig I met Ben Folds and he signed my album covers for me and I had a picture taken with him, I told him I was going to come on Friday but I ran out of money really drasticily and he said 'Oh I've had that problem', I also had to use up my film so I asked him can I take some more pictures coz I need to use up my film and he said "sure, you have to use up your film". He was a really nice guy and a brilliant piano player. |
| Ben Folds |
| Support: Chris TT, The Divine Comedy Venue: Sheperds Bush Empire Date: 5/10/02 |