I had the chance to see them last Monday in Zurich, so a few comments follow:

They had no support, came on stage about 90 minutes late and the sound more-or-less sucked. Ian's voice could not be heard but John's guitar sounded fine. They opened with 3 "oldies" :-)), I wanna be adored, She bangs the drums and Waterfall.

Adored is a cool opener, so appropriate, but with most vocals hardly hearable over the music and no backing vox (I believe Remi was doin' them, so I guess they are gone with him) they weren't as good as they should've been. They followed this trio with Ten Storey Love Song  which is probably the song from Second Coming that sounds most like the first album, and then followed with mostly new stuff. Notable exception was Made of Stone which still stands as one of the best songs ever (at least in my book), and Elizabeth my dear which was part of a 3-song semi-acoustic part halfway through. Love Spreads was obviously a crowd favorite.

 Overall, the concert lasted not more than 80 minutes, and I was kind of disappointed. John Squire has to be one of the top 4-5 guitar players at the moment, he is unbelievable and was definitely the high point of the concert. Ian Brown on the other hand sucked big time. First of all, his vocals were hardly hearable, and then he had an awful attitude. They were so late, and after the first 4-5 songs he tried to "provoke" the crowd by asking whatsthematter with 'em, and how come they don't jump up and down, making a smart-ass comment that maybe they have too much money (as opposed to a certain Manc group that was payed gazillions to sign for Geffen, I suppose). 

Well, the answer was simple: the crowd was sick and tired of waiting for them and to top it the sound sucked. At the end the crowd was applauding, asking for an encore, and Ian simply said "Fuck you" and went away. To my great disappointment the Swiss crowd did not trash the place down, nor did they kick the hell out of Mr. Brown, as they should have, instead simply went away.

The above might sound a bit harder than they should, the concert wasn't that bad, but it wasn't as good as it could have been either, John Squire is a God, the t-shirts were excellent, but Ian is a brat and should get his act together. 

He can't take 5 years to make an album and do the Johnny Rotten at the same time. The new drummer wasn't bad but he didn't do any fancy drumming either. The best thing about the concert was that it gave me the chance to listen The Second Coming again, a while after the hype, and it's a great album, much much better than the credit it received.

Anthony Stefanidis
Zurich