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Blog: The Divine Comedy In Cambridge
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I was rather excited about this as The Divine Comedy are (or perhaps IS, as it's basically Neil Hannon plus band) one of my favourite EVER bands. I have seen them LOADS of times and always found them to be GRATE, often in recent years with the aforsaid Mr Sutton, although weirdly THIS time my brother Mr T Smith had seen them a couple of days beforehand. He had told me they had a) been GRATE and b) done a TWO HOUR set, so I was even MORE excited than I already had previously been, which was a LOT.
I met Mark outside the station and we wandered round to his house to drop off my bag and collect Mrs H Sutton before then going to the PUB. Round where they live in Cambridge there are LOADS of really nice pubs, and the first one we went to was The Cambridge Blue where we had a GARGANTUAN plate of chips each. I had also foolishly ordered a TOFU PANINI which made me feel HUGE for the rest of the evening. It was very nice though, although I was AMUSED when the bar chap came over and said "And the tofu panini - for the lady?" OI! Tofu is WELL BUTCH mate!
Helen headed home and me and Mark went next to Live And Let Live where we got to sit in the SNUG, and then onto the venue. By this point I had had some BEER, and got another one once in the venue, so was a bit worried about sitting through a two hour show but I am happy - and inordinately PROUD - to say I didn't even NEED the loo. Well done BLADDER!
We were sat up in the balcony area where there were super comfy seats and also an EXTREMELY well-behaved audience. I have been to some big gigs where it is clear lots of people have only seen gigs on the TELLY so TALK all the way through and are generally annoying, but here everyone was clearly well versed in the ETIQUETTE - in our area everyone sat down throughout too, except for one lady who got up for an APOLOGETIC JIG during 'At The Indie Disco' and then sat quickly down again. The only surprise, when the lights went up at the end, was that The Corn Exchange (for that is where it were) was full of OLD PEOPLE. It was quite confusing - what were THEY all doing at a gig that youngsters like me and Mark were at? It made no sense!
The gig itself was FLIPPING BRILLIANT I must say, as Mr Hannon and the band took us through most of his new album 'Rainy Sunday Afternoon', also the HITS (Britpop years) and also the OTHER HITS (later on). Obviously this was an ALBUM tour so we were expecting a lot of the new stuff, but it was brilliant that apart from that he ranged widely across his EXTENSIVE back catalogue. I can't think of many other bands I like who can do that and keep an audience happy - we all know the famous songs from Back In The Day when e.g. Chris Evans played them, but pretty much EVERY album since then has had a few genuine BANGERS that have been added to the Potential Setlist as time goes by - really bloody brilliant songs like 'Norman and Norma', 'Our Mutual Friend', 'A Lady Of A Certain Age' etc etc which I don't think massively troubled the top ten but have become ingrained in the minds of them of us what follow his work. What I'm saying is that it was GRATE, basically!
There was also BITS, like an interlude where he served the band with DRINKS from a drinks trolley, which in turn led to some INSIGHTS into the interpersonal relationships while touring. I particularly enjoyed this because it reminded me that, generally speaking, bands are BANDS irrespective of how big the venue, and there will always be numerous in-jokes and RULES along the way.
It all left me with a WARM GLOW, especially when they finished with 'Tonight We Fly' which I BLOODY LOVE. We trotted out into the night very happy with a GRATE gig, and topped it all off by going to yet ANOTHER lovely pub, The Free Press, for lasties. Gigs are GRATE, pubs are GRATE, pals are GRATE and it was altogether a VERY cool evening. HOORAH!
posted 20/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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