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Live Reviews
Live Review: Saint Etienne at The Forum, London on 18 Dec
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 10 January 2011
On a day when London is blanketed by snow and transport failures cause misery and chaos for thousands, to quote the news, it seems a safe bet that this gig would be cancelled. But this is a Christmas shindig, and you can’t just rearrange one of those for March, so the show must go on, and indeed it does. It’s a measure of how much the trio are loved by their fans that the Forum sees a solid turn out despite the weather and the whole evening feels like a festive party with your favourite friends.
As such, it’s basically a greatest hits affair, although we do get one new song, the fizzy ‘DJ’, and two album tracks from 1991’s ‘Foxbase Alpha’, with ‘Girl VII’ feeling even more magical when it’s heard in the capital, as Sarah Cracknell coos its list of places including Gospel Oak, Chalk Farm and London Fields.
Three songs also got an airing from the group’s fan club only Christmas album ‘A Glimpse Of Stocking’ (which was released last November and, like Phil Spector’s ‘A Christmas Gift To You’ before it, is an essential Yuletide listen): the sparkly ‘Gonna Have A Party’, a lovely, curled-up-by-the-fire ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ (which eeks out previously unrealised melancholy from Chris Rea’s jaunty festive staple) and, inevitably, ‘I Was Born on Christmas Day’, which wraps up the evening perfectly.
Now, where’s that new album? MS
