"Sing if you know the words and go crazy if you want to do that too....."
This mini tour from early 2008 tour represented a new moment for the band in terms of the venues they were used to playing. Prior to this they'd already been selling out club dates, including three consecutive nights at the Brixton Academy in London. The next logical step was to see if they were able to command an audience in some of the more spacious concert facilities around the country. Here's the full itinerary of gigs they booked as part of that set of Spring shows:-
Blackpool, Empress Ballroom - February 28
Doncaster, Doncaster Dome - March 2
Manchester, Apollo - 3
London, Alexandra Palace - 5
London, Alexandra Palace - 6
London, Alexandra Palace - 6
Plymouth, Pavilions – 7
All of these were big venues, with Alexandra Palace alone having a capacity of over 10,000 in comparison to almost 5,000 at Brixton. Could they persuade enough of their notoriously gloomy fans to venture out of their darkened bedrooms, put down their copies of the The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and cheer up long enough to assemble in large numbers out in the world ? Well...
The 6th of March, which if you look at the list above should have been a day off for the band, would go on to become the second night they played at Alexandra Palace after selling out the first. The gamble worked and it certainly served as indication of what would come later, especially at various spots around Europe on the last tour where Editors and their scary flamethrowers took on bigger and bigger crowds.
Contrary to the idea that maybe the increased stage and audience size would force the band into a defensive shell, they actually rose to the occasion admirably and really seemed to enjoy the shows. Tom in particular is full of banter as you'll hear at both the Doncaster and Blackpool shows. His slow intro to Munich provides everyone with an opportunity to sing as loudly, and in some cases as far away from the actual key the song is performed in as possible.
As well as the hot, happening tunes I've got 3 videos shot from the crowd on the night to share here too, just to give you an idea of what it all looked like. You can find them in the bonus materials section below. Songs are being shared here in their original FLAC format, both as single downloads and as one larger file. Enjoy the music :)
stream it here
FLAC Files
Camera - download here
An End Has a Start - download here
Blood - download here
Bullets - download here
Weight of the World - download here
Escape the Nest - download here
Lights - download here
When Anger Shows - download here
Spiders - download here
Lullaby - download here
All Sparks - download here
Munich - download here
PYHTTA - download here
Bones - download here
Fingers in the Factories - download here
The Racing Rats - download here
You Are Fading - download here
Smokers - download here
Single FLAC file - download here
By way of extras here's 3 audience shot videos from the night, originally posted online by snaith63 (thanks for sharing your work).
Munich - stream it here
An End Has A Start - stream it here
All Sparks - stream it here
brought to you with lots of lemming-love :) x
