Informal review of Mark Seymour’s Saturday 27 July 2002 gig at the Dan O’Connell Hotel, North Carlton, Victoria.

Author: Alison Belot.

Date: 31 July 2002

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I successfully managed to rearrange a business trip so that I landed back in Melbourne at 4.00 am Saturday morning, well and truly in time for the show. The 24 hour flight was bearable knowing that there was some real music waiting for me when I got home.

In the past Mark’s gone on about Friday night crowds (full of uptight people in suits) compared to Saturday night crowds, his preference being for that latter. It was a real SATURDAY NIGHT crowd! The venue is only fairly small, meant to hold about 300, but I’d say there were a fair number of “extras” there as it was wall to wall people, no room to move, which I haven’t seen at one of Mark’s Melbourne shows before. It was just Mark and Rod and apart from a bit of a scratchy voice, it was a great show and well worth flying half way round the word for! The crowd was one of the best in ages, and he really seemed to feed of that and in the end I think it lifted his performance, I haven’t seen him play that happy and relaxed in ages. They were also a bit more on the young side compared to what I’ve seen at other concerts. From what I remember he did the same play list as the recent Sydney shows.

[Don’t You Know Me?, Lorelei, The Ghost Of Vainglory, Try Not To Try, Waratah Street, Long Way Down, Made Man,  Holy Grail, Home Again, See You Around, Sad Songs, Paradise Down Under, Last Ditch Cabaret, Ballad Of The One Eyed Man, On My Way Home, The Eye Of The Needle, Throw Your Arms Around Me, Richard Cory, Parting Glass].

The crowd was good and made a big difference I think it was the forth night so no wonder he couldn’t quite hit the high notes, he really does give it his all. It was really nice not being the only one that knew all the words. Actually it was mainly the guys that were signing along, the girls were just there for the perve! It was also a relief to know that I was probably the second oldest there, Mark being the oldest. He also mumbled something about Richard Cory being released before most of the audience was born and he was right. Good to see that not all the people there know H&C from the very early days!

A few notable things:

 Naturally dressed in black, but as a concession to winter a long sleeved tee shirt!

 As I said, Mark’s voice was a bit scratchy and gave out during One Eyed Man, so he couldn’t do the “.. nah nah nah, nah nah” bits, but a few hearty souls in the audience took over and were loud enough to hear, which really seemed to surprise him – he does a very good impersonation of a rabbit in the spotlight when surprised.

 He introduced Eldorado as being about a guy with Schizophrenia, which is odd as in the past he has said its about gold lust – ever noticed that he seems to change the story from time to time.

 He introduced Eye of the Needle as being about immigration, which is new, and then went on at length about us all being boat people when you think about it.

 I was waiting for a comment on the Liberals when he did Holy Grail but all he said was this was the only song he’d sing from the “Other Band” that he used to sign with, naturally that wasn’t true because he did “Throw” as part of the encore as per usual.

 Rod can actually talk and not only plugged his web site and Mark’s, but mentioned that it was Mark’s birthday on Friday (the 26th). Rod seemed to be a bit embarrassed when the crowd burst spontaneously into a round of Happy Birthday (seems even Mark’s parents had forgotten).

 Got the requisite blatant plug for the after show sales of his CD’s.

– Al

Robert Miles, who does sound for Mark Seymour, had the following comments on this gig (which was one of four Melbourne area gigs in the one week):

“Saturday was the best, with a sell out crowd and the owner raving about it. The only down side for me was someone knocked off my Sony professional headphones, after surviving ten years and all over the world, they walk in nice civilised Fitzroy.”

Mark Seymour, the man himself, had the following to say:

“Saturday rocked… full house… very inspiring…”

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