London The Venue

THE WAITRESSES special trayful of pleasure has kept me a keen customer since the many years past Akron compilation through to the ‘I Know What Boys Want’ single and up to the current Polydor album.

Their trip to our shores has been a moment worth waiting for but my first question on entering the Venue was where's the atmosphere?

This debut London g follows half-a-dozen others spread the length of the country. Unfortunately, though inevitably, it is earmarked as 'the special one’ and is complete with the full gory razzmatazz of the big event (yawn).

Photographers fill the front rows and there are even TV cameras cluttering up the arena. Such things nullify the possibilities of any special group/audience relationship. The visiting musicians become little more than prize exhibits be gawped at.

To continue reading this article and to discover many more (over 140,000 words-worth!), purchase Mick Sinclair’s Adjusting the Stars: Music journalism from post-punk London.