As planned, a lot of us met up in "The Royal George" before hand. It was great to see so many Sputnik fans had made it. The alcohol was certainly flowing I can tell you that. Sputnik stories were swapped and a good time was had by all before we decided to head to The Borderline.

Sonic State had already started their set when we arrived. Let me assure you that they are a fantastic band, Jenny Z especially was really going for it. Maybe they can be Sputnik's full time support act. I'm certainly gonna try and see them again in 2001. After a quick look at the new shirts, (I could only afford one out of so many to choose from but decided on the piratespace skull shirt), we headed to the front of the stage to found a large crowd already waiting for the band to appear.

The Clockwork Orange intro boomed over the loudspeakers as the group took to the stage. Tony now has dreadlocks which I thought looked really cool. "This is gonna be a good'un tonight" Martin announced. He was right! Just like some of the gigs from years ago, they started with Sex Bomb Boogie which sounded really intense and tight. Here's the full set list

SEX BOMB BOOGIE
EVERYBODY LOVES U
21ST CENTURY BOY
ALIEN CHRIST
SHE'S MY MAN
DEMON SEED
ALIEN@TION
JAYNE MANSFIELD
SLAVE TRADE
LOVE MISSILE F1-11
**********
ULTRA VIOLENCE
SUCCESS
ROCKIT MISS USA
ZERO ZERO

There were no technical problems tonight, the band interacted with the audience loads and were really up 4 it. Martin lost his way on She's My Man a bit but who gives a fuck! He had his Elvis t shirt on again and was proudly showing it off throughout the set. The hat was back too. Alien@tion was introduced as aNNIenation so the word is spreading. Somebody asked the band to do Jingle Bells!! but as Neal pointed out Jingle Bells has 4 chords and they only do 2. The crowd went MAD for Love Missile and we all got rather crushed (especially poor aNNIe who I hope is now recovered). Ultra Violence was superb and was performed acoustically with Neal perched on a stool and Tony with a face mask. They tagged some of U2's With Or Without You on the end which went down well. Success included the guitar riff from (I think) Smoke On The Water. This version of Success needs to be recorded NOW! Finally the official announcement of the last outing of Zero Zero and my favourite performance of it.

After the show passes were handed out (cheers Shep!) and we met up with the band, had a talk and a laugh and PLENTY of drink. We met Tony's wife(?) and stepson (does he let you play the space bass)? Mick Jones was there too and was really cool. One thing that surprised me was the number of people who wanted to speak to me. It was quite humbling and I hope I didn't disappoint, thanks to you all. I can't remember leaving the venue as I was TOTALLY hammered so I must have had a good time.

This for me was the best gig of the year, a triumphant end to 2000. One problem now. No gig's until next year, where am I gonna my fix of live Sputnik?

Glad to have met Shy Girlie and partner, Lyndon, (congratulations on your fatherhood), Mr and Mrs Shep and all the others who came and said hello, hope to see you all again.

For KP's page on this show click HERE.

JENNY Z WITH SONIC STATE

AFTER THE SHOW WITH TJBO$$$

SHEP

SONIC STATE IN SUPPORT

TICKET

THE OTHER TICKET

GREG AND JP

BACKSTAGE PASS

SET LIST AQQUIRED, AS USUAL, BY ANNIE. QUOTE "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PULL IT OFF, NOT TEAR IT OFF"

ME, MARTIN AND MICK JONES

WITH THE SONIC STATE GIRLS