Towards the end of the first of The Streets' two sold-out shows at Castlefield Bowl, after the sun had gone down, Mike Skinner suddenly became convinced that aliens were invading. The blinking lights he could see floating off in the distance were likely remote-controlled drones, but this did not stop him from challenging what he perceived to be extra-terrestrials to a fight, shouting, 'Come down here and talk to me.'
A Grand Don't Come for Free Played in Full for the First Time in Manchester
Were they actual Martians, they would have chosen an opportune moment to land in Manchester from an anthropological perspective. Tonight, for the first time ever in the city, Skinner played his second and most commercially successful record, A Grand Don't Come for Free, in its entirety. It would offer alien invaders a fascinating snapshot of what it is to be young and British. More than twenty years after its release, the album's themes remain universal.
Skinner's narrator tackled hopes for a hookup ('Could Well Be In', a riotous 'Fit But You Know It'), low-key domestic bliss ('Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way'), modern vices ('Not Addicted' addresses gambling, the heady, drug-fuelled 'Blinded by the Lights' is a paean to club culture) and heartbreak. 'Dry Your Eyes', the number one single that propelled Skinner to stardom, provided the first set's biggest lighters-in-the-air moment.
Stage Setup Issues Obstructed Views for Half the Crowd
There were issues, though. Skinner, ever the everyman, depicted himself standing at a bus stop on A Grand Don't Come for Free's cover; he recreated that artwork for tonight's stage set, but placed the mock-up bus shelter so far towards the back of the stage that a significant number among tonight's capacity crowd could not see him, or his band, for roughly half of the songs during the first, full-album section of the show.
Just as well, then, that the second set of hits saw him front and centre and routinely venturing into the crowd, regardless of whether the song called for operatic drama ('Turn the Page') or laid-back UK garage ('Has It Come to This?'). These are anthems evergreen in their appeal. Skinner's lyrics — half-sung, half-spoken — revealed truths about working-class life that cut across the generation divide. To this end, he plucked a young fan from the audience, at the show with his dad, and successfully encouraged him to become the first-ever child crowd surfer at a Streets show.
Mixed Moments and a Call for Political Office
It was not all perfect; the turgid, one-note one-two of 'Never Went to Church' and 'Utopia' risked losing the crowd entirely. There is a simple litmus test of whether or not the audience's attention is being successfully held at Castlefield Bowl gigs, much like a Mexican wave at a dull football game; are the crowd turning to wave at a train passing by overhead? If so, time to liven things up.
And when Skinner did that, he was so successful in uniting what is a diverse, multigenerational crowd that you wondered whether it was too late to find a parliamentary seat for him to run in with a view to becoming prime minister. His heartfelt tales of love and lairiness have only dated in terms of certain anachronistic lyrical references, from the amusing (there's mention of DVDs and The Bill) to the painful (he talks about waving a ten pound note around at the bar, a reminder that that was enough for a round in 2004). The songs survive those marks on the clock, and endure in the hearts of Streets fans, because they find such poetry in the everyday; tonight was a heart-on-sleeve celebration of the little things that make Britain great.
Star rating: 4/5
Second Show Details and Set Times
The Streets performed the second sold-out show at Castlefield Bowl on Saturday night (July 11) — but ticketholders were advised it would run an hour earlier than originally planned due to England's World Cup game kicking off at 10pm. The set times for the Saturday show were as follows:
- Doors — 4pm
- Antony Szmierek — 5:40pm to 6pm
- CASISDEAD — 6:25pm to 7:15pm
- The Streets — 7:45pm to 9:30pm
