“We’ll be back soon” said Blossoms singer Tom Ogden at the end of their concert at The Limelight in March. He was true to his word, with the band returning five and a half months later to support Kasabian at Custom House Square.
It was a nice treat, to have two bands on the bill I want to see, rather than viewing the support act as a way of filling time before the headliner.
Kasabian are one of many high profile acts who have had Blossoms supporting them in recent years – Paul Weller, The Courteeners, The Charlatans and The Kooks have all had them as support. I saw them support Paul Weller at Waterfront Hall in 2015.
Next month, will be their biggest support slot to date, when they support Noel Gallagher at his concert to reopen Manchester Arena.
To dismiss them as a support act is harsh. These boys have tunes.
Restricted to a 45 minute set, they had to play the hits. Considering they’ve only released one album, they’ve already had quite a few hits, such as Blown Rose, Getaway, At Most A Kiss and Honey Sweet, all getting the approval of a crowd who were getting drenched while the set was ongoing. We even got an instrumental version of Gimme Gimme Gimme, just like at The Limelight in March.
Just like at The Limelight in March, the band asked for a member of the audience who had been just dumped to dedicate My Favourite Room to.
At The Limelight, it was Orla (apologies if that’s not the spelling she uses) who had been dumped by Ryan. I don’t know if she was there on Tuesday.
The lucky winner, if you will, was Emma, who had just been dumped by Jack. Jack was booed by the crowd. If you’re reading this Jack, you’re a bastard.
My Favourite Room also included singalongs of Half The World Away By Oasis and Last Christmas by Wham!
I say singalongs, it was Tom singing the first line of a verse, and the crowd doing the rest.
If drunks can sing Fairytale Of New York on St Patrick’s Day, then it’s more than acceptable for people to sing Last Christmas in August.
As the band neared the end of their set, finishing on Charlemagne (voted the best song of 2015 by this blog), Tom Ogden asked the crowd if they were excited for Kasabian, before giving a shout out to Touts.
Touts were the band who were on before Blossoms, and supported them at The Limelight in March and at Castlefield Bowl in July. They’ll be supporting Paul Weller at Ulster Hall early next year.
If you saw them, you probably thought they were called Tights, due to their Peeeyuuurrrre Deee-errry (Or Peeeyyyurrree Leeonndonddeee-errrrry, if you prefer) accents.
I didn’t catch any of their performance and wasn’t really fussed about that, to be honest.
It can’t be unsaid about the sheer number of smelly tramps at this gig. Seriously, it was embarrassing, trying to find somewhere without having cigarette or vape smoke being blown into my face.
We are the majority, yet our nights out are dictated by smelly tramps who haven’t even the basic decency to consider those around them and go a few hours without.
I’m fed up about outdoor events being ruined by these tramps, having to walk through the City Centre holding my nose on my lunchbreak, and don’t even start me on how useless Eventsec are at stopping this at international football matches.
It might seem drastic, but surely it’s worth putting anti-smoking clauses into the granting of licences.
Some smelly tramps might get their feelings hurt by this, Fuck em. It’s not my problem, and my enjoyment of events shouldn’t be dictated by them. I give more of a fuck about my lungs than I do about their feelings.
If there must be a compromise, built a hut for them and let them do their trampy wee habit away from everybody else.
I know I write about this a lot, but I will continue to do so until either authorities tackle it or there are societal changes in Belfast.
No amount of glossy Game Of Thrones themed advertising can disguise the fact that Belfast is a smelly smoke riddled shithole. It doesn’t have to be.
At about 8.45pm, I had managed to get a decent view, the rain had stopped, and I was in an area which had the least amount of smelly tramps surrounding me. I was all set for Kasabian.
Kasabian are no strangers to Belfast in August, with this gig falling on the tenth anniversary of them supporting The Killers at Tennent’s Vital, and just over seven years (by five days) since they headlined Belsonic at the same venue.
However, 2017 would not be joining 2007 and 2010 as Kasabian visits to Belfast.
An announcement came over the speaker “THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT …”
Nobody really paid attention. They just thought it was an automated health and safety announcment.
I have been to several Belsonic concerts in the past and never heard a health and safety announcment. It immediately struck me as odd, but nothing to get worried about.,
The announcement continued “….. DUE TO A LAST MINUTE …..”
I immediately thought to myself “Oh fuck”, I knew what was coming.
It continued “… ILLNESS, TONIGHT’S SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED. THERE WILL BE NO PERFORMANCE”.
The venue went silent and everyone was in disbelief. The announcement was repeated, and people began to take in what was being said.
The title of their current album For Crying Out Loud was quite apt.
The second time was met with boos, and booze, as some people chucked beer at the stage in disgust.
It clearly was a late announcement with Blossoms being unaware when their singer was under the impression Kasabian were performing as they were on stage.
Last year, The Kooks cancelled their gig at Feile on the day, so the organisers bumped The Coronas (who were supporting) into a headline slot and offered anyone who wanted to see The Kooks a refund.
Clearly, the cancellation was too late for a similar arrangement to take place here.
It was stated that a new dated would be announced. There’s not much room for maneuver from band and promoters or a Custom House Square gig in the immediate future.
It was expected that they would go on a Winter tour, the announcement will have been embargoed until their summer festival appearances had been completed.
That turned out to be the case.
There’s no Belfast gig. There was never going to be a Belfast gig on that tour, as we would have already had one this year.
There is a Dublin gig, and free days either side of it. Block out your diary for an Odyssey gig would be my hunch.
Anyone who had a ticket for Custom House Square will be compensated with admission to The Odyssey.
That’s just a hunch, I have no inside information.
That’s the second concert in a few days i’ve left early. One because I only wanted to see the support act, and the other because the headliners cancelled. It’s not a habit I want to get into.
You have to be philosophical, i’ll either get my money back or i’ll get to see Kasabian at a later date.
Let’s be honest, Kasabian will be playing a gig in Belfast in 2037 to promote Greatest Hits III, it’s not like they’ll never come to Belfast again.
As it turned out, there was a tunderstorm during when the band would have been performing their encore. That would have been, um, fun.
If you do want to read a Kasabian review, here’s their 2014 Odyssey concert.
Blossoms Live At Custom House Square Photo Album
