Hot House Flowers - a setlist
Olympic Ballroom. Dublin, 29 April '88
At
the time it seemed to signify great things - not one but 2 nights in Dublin's (ahem)
prestigious Olympic Ballroom. Well, that was how it appeared back then to one scruffy,
greasy-haired 16 year old (and, sure, some would contend that all that has changed
in the meantime is the age...).
Anyway, a few weeks later their greatness was indeed 'confirmed' when they adorned the television sets of Europe during the pre-vote slot of that seminal tune-fest known as the Eurovision song contest. A video of "Don't Go" filmed in various capital cities across this continent celebrating the diversity its people. The end-result was more amusing though, as a load of sallow skinned young people looked on perplexed, as 5 pale skinned, unshaven, long-haired buskers sporting Mr. Scrummidge's wardrobe jumped about the place with cheshire cat grins in front of a crew of sweating camera & sound men wondering what destination the Ryanair charter plane was going to inflict on them next.
In any case, back to that night in the Olympic. It was the second of the 2 shows and, if memory serves me correctly, the Black Velvet Band supported. Liam and the boys went for the old flood-the-stage-with-dry-ice-before-you-come-on gag. Sadly, my pubescent self was at the time somehow outraged by this. I considered it sooooo Spinal Tap for a band who trumpeted the organic side of their music. And then when they played almost the exact same set from the night before (yip, I wanted to be there both nights as it was 'history in the making' - don't ask) my sense of betrayal was almost complete. But obviously it wasn't enough to stop me make a fool of myself by screaming at the roadies after the show for the setlist reproduced here. Ah, the fickleness of our yuff.
