Concert review
G-A-Y club, Astoria Theatre, London, 27 September 2003
by Vicky Shields

TEXAS are back! And with a bang!

The first live UK show in almost two and a half years was at G-A-Y at the Astoria in London on Saturday night (September 27th) and what a night it was.

Sharleen has had some “time off” –if you call having a baby, writing and recording a new album, single and video, and doing promotional work for CHAS, time off!

But you would think she was bang in the middle of a well rehearsed and practiced tour by the performance she put on on Saturday. She appeared on stage wearing an orange boiler suit and black pit boots, with Ally, Tony and Mark One for what had originally been billed as a “four song set” – in reality it turned out to be four songs from the new album and some of the bands best-loved hits.

The show kicked off with Say What You Want followed by Silver Chain from the forthcoming album “Careful What You Wish For”. After getting a great reaction from the packed out crowd Shar said that she had chosen to play her first live gig for her gay fans “Cause I know you guys have got taste”. She also admitted “I was a wee bit nervous about coming on tonight because I haven’t done this for a while.” Then burst out laughing when one fan stole a line from Scottish TV show Chewing the Fat and shouted out “I think I smell shite”

The band then launched into Summer Son – during which Sharleen snapped a string on her famous black and white guitar.
Next up was Telephone X followed by Black Eyed Boy.
Throughout the show Sharleen flirted with the audience, telling one lesbian fan who had thrown a washed out bra on the stage that she needed to buy new underwear. Another who flashed, was told “Nice tits – do you want to see mine?” After opening her jacket she told the crowd “Nah, it would take a lot more than that for me to get mine out”.
Carnival Girl was followed by Broken and it seemed the night was at an end when G-A-Y promoter Jeremy came on stage to present Sharleen with a bouquet of flowers.
But Sharleen has never been known to make a sharp exit and agreed to do another two songs for the crowd who had reached fever pitch by that point.
She also responded to shouts of “lose the shades” and got a massive cheer when she took them off. The noise got louder during Inner Smile.
The band closed with And I Dream. I knew it was all over when Sharleen told the crowd “You’ve been fucking great”. Lets face it if the second last word the crowd hears wasn’t the F word – it wouldn’t be Texas!!!!
So what can I say before I go? … IT WAS FUCKIN GREAT!

Vicky


back to Concerts 2003 page

If you dont see a toolbar on the left then please click here