TIM BOOTH : GLASGOW COTTIER THEATRE 7.11.04
Setlist : Laid, Eh Mamma, Into Darkness, Bone, Five-O, Dance Of The Bad Angel, Love Hard, Sometimes, Down To The Sea, Wave Hello, Butterfly's Dream, Monkey God, What Goes On, Ring The Bells, Fall In Love
Tim and the Individuals opened their UK tour at Glasgow's Cottier Theatre, a gorgeous converted church in the Partick area of the city. After a quick soundcheck including a run-through of the Joy Division classic "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (which sadly didn't make it into any of the sets on the tour), the support band Trap 2 played a short energetic set which got a mixed reaction from the Glasgow crowd impatient to see Tim play a non-festival show in Scotland for the first time in three years.
Coming on stage to a rapturous reception, Lee, Lisa and Tim opened with "Laid", Tim managing about two lines before being drowned out by the crowd. Two-thirds of the way through Tim stopped the song and asked the audience to let him sing the songs his way and said that Glasgow crowds were the best. Sorry Tim, they were the worst on this tour - disrespectful to the support band when there was a bar next door if they wanted to talk, yelling "play something we know" then not recognising Five-O, bellowing "come on Tim" at quiet moments, sticking mobile phones in Lisa and Robin's faces at key moments in songs and worst of all the couple at the front talking hundreds of flash pictures including the girl trying to pose in front of Tim at one point. Obviously this doesn't apply to the whole crowd (I doubt any of the people above would actually read this) but it did spoil the gig somewhat.
The set centred around Bone with about 2/3 of the album being played along with two Booth and the Bad Angel tracks - "Butterfly's Dream" and "Dance Of The Bad Angel" and four James tracks - "Laid", "Sometimes", "Five-O" and "Ring The Bells" and the Velvet Underground cover "What Goes On" that was sadly dropped from the rest of the UK dates.
Highlights were a storming version of Bone with Rob's sax ending merging seamlessly into Five-O and the UK debut of Ring The Bells, probably the closest in style to the James original but with a gorgeous keyboard driven undertone. The sound in the venue was however quite muddy (if you pardon the horrible pun), not helped by scaffolding in the roof area and the absence of regular monitors genius Stuart.