Saturday 2 March 2019

Oddity #26 - Harassment of the Chris

In December of 2005 a fledgling band called Editors were on the road as part of the "Levi's Ones to Watch" campaign, which had them playing a week of dates in various Barfly venues around the UK. Unlike their shows these days where there are usually barriers separating artiste and unwashed masses, you could literally invade their personal space at will while they played their music. Such was the intimacy level. It also meant that you could essentially talk to them onstage in the quieter moments and they'd would probably hear you. They might not respond, but sometimes they just might and it is from this ease of communication that this latest addition to the oddity collection is created. On one of those dates in December 2005, I don't know exactly which one or where it went down, there were some equipment problems which caused a temporary halt in the evening's entertainment. This meant that there was a brief spell of musical silence that could only be filled one way, and that was by haranguing Mr Urbanowicz. The audience members begin shouting random song titles at him and he engages with the fatal line "I'm taking requests". 

The remaining minute of the clip is him looking awkwardly towards Tom in the hope that he will fix whatever issues he's having so the show can roll on. All the while, the crowd offer up some suggestions for an alternative setlist. The original clip that I have of this was called "Chris vs Hecklers" and the audio was out of sync. However I have a rare, free Saturday afternoon and I've fixed it for sharing here. Enjoy a clip that will be 14 years old this year. Goodness. 

stream it here

And don't forget, you can catch up with other Editors Oddities using this link:-



brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x