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I arrived half way through Little Hell's set, and they seemed to be just going through the normal indie motions. The music press were there in full force, and when Little Hell had finished and started carting their equipment off stage, I overheard one exclaim, "Blimey, they're lugging their own gear!" Jesus - how out of touch are these journos? Talking to one of the staff before Ash came on, he told me that Ash's management had told them to stop any crowd surfing. Come on Tim and co, if you play these small venues what do you really expect? You want no interaction with the crowd, then go back to the big venues where you are protected! Ash came onstage and started off with the safe big, loud numbers before dipping into some new songs. The performance was ok, but it was really just Ash by numbers. Nothing dangerous, nothing groundbreaking, and not really inspiring. After 'Girl From Mars' was played, Tim for some reason passed his guitar into the crowd. The guitar tech looked worried as he tried to coax the audience to pass it back without damaging it. As Tim said after "probably not a wise thing to do." Doh! For the encore they played a new track 'Purely'. This was really bad. Words really cannot describe how bad this was. It was like a terrible, out of tune Bon Jovi ballad. Lots of the crowd had their hands in the air, either doing the wanker sign, or giving the band the two-fingered salute - they were not happy punters. One person even accused Tim of being like Cliff Richard, much to the amusement of the rest of the audience. Before the last song was played Tim tried to get the crowd to be quiet - no chance matey. People with big stage presence like Bono could get away with this, but you don't have the clout to get an audience to be silent. He tried for a good three minutes, saying that the next song was a ballad and they needed hush to begin. After giving up they launched into 'Numbskull', and that was that. A good performance, but as I said earlier, it was just Ash by numbers. You know what to expect, and that's just what you get. Disappointed - yes. I think this'll be the last time I see this band again. skippy set list:- Lose Control / Jesus Says / A Life Less Ordinary / Darkside Lightside / Goldfinger / Burn Baby Burn (new) / Oh Yeah / Walking Barefoot (new) / Warmer Than Fire / Girl From Mars / Sharp (new) / Let It Flow / Shining Light (new) / Jack Names The Planets / Kung Fu |