The evening started with a slight accident on the way there. A quick pit stop to do what only a man can do on the side of the road ended up with me stumbling down an embankment and getting covered in mud, nobody seemed to notice anyway. We then proceeded to Birmingham, found Curzon St, drove up and down it several times before we spotted the venue. Upon entering we were greeted with friendly smiles confirming we were in the right place for the SSS gig.

A number of Sputheads were already there - it was good to see some of the old t-shirts again. Some flyers had been put up around the walls, all images from early on in Sputnik's career, very good they were to. They'd all gone by the end of the gig, did any of you out there get them? Sputnik were due on stage at 10.45pm. We sat drinking for a while until we realised that most of the people had already gone to the stage area. The function room, I would estimate, held no more than 120/150 people, but it was packed. The support act got the crowd going and there was a bit of a fight just before Sputnik took to the stage (finally) at 11.05pm accompanied by the signature Clockwork Orange intro.

They launched straight into (once again) Ray Of Light, Martin Degville certainly had the power shootin thru' his veins tonight, he was like a man possessed, dressed in the red leather suit he wore at The Borderline back in July. They didn't play to a set list (perhaps because I don't think they could find it). Sex Bomb Boogie was next, still sounds great live, at least we didn't get totally crushed this time hey aNNIe? Not sure of the right order but we got Everybody Loves U, 21st Century Boy, Alien Christ, Satellite, Atari Baby, Slave Trade, Jayne Mansfield, Love Missile/Sympathy and then Success, Rockit Miss USA and Zero Zero for the encore. They were plagued with technical problems throughout the set, Martin and Neal kept shouting out that they couldn't hear f**k all, apparently during the fight, some of the sound monitoring equipment had been damaged. Martin explained later that it meant he could only hear himself and not the others. Consequently, we were treated to some rather unique versions of the songs. I think aNNIe helped Martin keep up with the rest of the band several times, espaecially on Atari Baby. The lads really were up 4 it tonight and put on a very energetic performance. Neal’s guitar went between Martin's legs at one point!!! The girls at the front seemed to be loving it. Tony seemed to enjoy pounding out Success (this live version they play now is far better than ANY of the versions that were released). And was that a brand new space bass Tony? It was silver with, I think, Ghost Rider written on it.

All in all, another fantastic show from the Sputnik's. Can't wait for Wolverhampton, won't forget your photo Neal!

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