Getting to Leicester was no problem!! Finding the venue, even though I'd been there before, was. I ended up parking FiFi2 (the car!!) at the railway station and getting a taxi. The only problem was that, after about 20mins, even the taxi driver couldn't find it. Eventually it turned out I was only 2mins away.

After meeting up with Cakeman, Shygirl, Plastique and Coyote (do none of us use our real names!!) we headed to the venue, got beveraged up and waited for the Sputnik's. Jenny's boyfriend Jon was minding the merchandise stall for the night and we got chatting, Jenny told me that she is twiddling the knobs for the whole tour as Lisa is busy with another project!! She's now got a groovy pink sputwig too and looks great in it (in my humble opinion of course).

I'd also met up with Jon 'Sputnik Future Vision' Nurse, Penny and Baz by this time. We were unanimous in our opinion of the support act(s). Were there 2 support acts that night?? I can't remember but it there were than they were both crap!!. The promotion for the band was brilliant. Sigue Sigue Sputnik are back!!! Remember Love Rocket F1-11 it proudly announced. The best rock n roll moment of the night was Zammo milling about with his cup of tea.

Anyway, the band did finally come on stage after what seemed an eternity to a somewhat muted cheer that I told Penny maybe should be enhanced on the video before anyone sees it. I thought Neal was looking pretty good tonight, he's lost some more weight. I just wish he'd share his secret with me!!

What followed was a relatively run of the mill gig, not the worst I've seen but not the best either. Set list as follows

CLOCKWORK ORANGE
RAZZ CRAZY
EVERYBODY LOVES U
21ST CENTURY BOY
ALIEN CHRIST
ACOUSTIC MEDLEY
DEMON SEED
ALIEN@TION
SEX BOMB BOOGIE
JAYNE MANSFIELD
SLAVE TRADE
LOVE MISSILE F1-11
SUPERCROOK BLUES
ROCKIT MISS USA

It goes without saying to those of us that have seen sPUTTy live over the last year or so that Razz Crazy and Supercrook Blues were the musical highlights tonight (although I think Penny said Demon Seed was her fave!!). Razz Crazy was superb, I've been waiting to hear that live for so long. It's got a new beginning, I thought they were playing a totally new song to start with until it dawned what it was. I think it's good that they've taken the trouble to re arrange it slightly rather than just playing it as they did in '88/'89. Supercrook Blues I know is the one old song that Martin has been wanting to play for ages, and he's finally got his way. You could see he was enjoying it too. Many of the samples from the 12" mix were thrown in for good measure, but gone were the ooh ooh's, so me and Jon supplied them!!

Other than this, the fire alarm sounding during Alien@tion was a bit of a laugh, especially as no one took any notice of it whatsoever. The band asked for the lights to be switched off during this song as Martin wanted to add to the atmospherics with the torch he had attached to his microphone stand. Unfortunately, no one bothered to switch the lights back on afterwards until Neal asked. DJ Coyote joined the stage during the acoustic medley and F1-11 complete with his trusty tambourine. Good luck with the support slot next week Mr Coyote.

So all in all, an average gig. Maybe us die-hards (certainly me) were expecting to hear some totally new material and were slightly disappointed that we didn't. Still, the band played well and I think everyone had a good time.

Many thanks to the cakeman for being video camera man for the night!!!

No photos of the gang this time, you already know how beautiful we are.