Live report December 2nd, SSE, Belfast UK

For many years Belfast suffered an identity crisis.
Being a major capital city, this wasn’t a good look despite the arguments that Clint Eastwood had been fairly successful playing a character with no name in a few cowboy movies.
Under pressure from airline companies who needed to know what to print on the tickets, trials took place.
Linenopolis was briefly used on account of the linen industry, but this painted the city as a bit of a one trick pony which wasn’t the case as they also processed tobacco, made rope & built Titanics. So something more neutral was sought.
Bilfawst, Bilfaust & Baelfawst were all rejected as the pronunciation channel on youtube even struggled to cope with the different dialects. Then it came to them. A chance random play of Katie Melua’s Call Off The Search album delivered a simplified pronunciation in track 7.
But, following claims that Melua thought penguins could fly, the city quickly dropped the added animals & installed glittery, silly-hatted disco icons Boney M’s version as their anthem instead.
This sparked an influx of visitors alongside a celebratory castle building competition which Carrickfergus won on account of theirs being the biggest. However, there have been claims of shenanigans in that the Carrickfergans illegally used the Sampson & Goliath cranes which was against the rules. With the smaller castle having just burned down, fallen over, then sunk into a swamp, the local builders, still angry at their rivals’ cheating antics, replaced the tiny castle with Belfast city centre with the remnants of the old castle providing a sort of stable foundation.
But Sir Arthur Chichester refused to give up, building an entirely new castle at a different location which boasted double glazing, gas fired central heating & some snazzy pointy roof tops.
This new construction was too much to resist for London based rockers, Led Zeppelin who, inspired by the bendy staircase, the shrubbery & the nice lady in the gift shop, penned a song in the back of the van en route to the historic Ulster Hall where they debuted the song that was to become the scourge of music store staff the world over in 1971.
And, on the topic of debuts, will wishful , maccatori , altendalton , shane & gothmaz get a debut today? Whatever they get, let’s hope it’ll be brilliant anyway. But don’t forget to bulk up with some warming Irish stew & swill it down with a few Knockouts before heading to the SSE.
For todays’ flag, I count seven colours. This’ll be a laugh.
The Cure onstage 8:15pm local

Soundcheck:

Mainset:


Alone
Pictures Of You
A Night Like This
Lovesong
And Nothing Is Forever
Trust
A Fragile Thing
Burn
At Night
A Strange Day
Shake Dog Shake
Push
Play For Today
A Forest
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
Endsong

Encore 1:

I Can Never Say Goodbye
Plainsong
Prayers For Rain
Disintegration

Encore 2:

Lullaby
The Walk
Friday I’m In Love
Doing The Unstuck
Close To Me
In Between Days
Just Like Heaven
Boys Don’t Cry


As usual. If you stumble across a stream, you should be able to embed it in your post using the </> button on the tool bar. If you can’t then just post the link so those of us who can’t be there can at least share in the experience with those that can