Suede in a ten-piece orchestra affair at Meltdown

If a poll had been taken last night, the impression is, half of the people would have thought it was an uneven show while the rest would have vehemently argued that opinion. The dividing line was a ten-piece orchestra for Suede’s return to the UK stage last night, after some three silent years that were filled with assorted events. They recorded then dumped an album’s worth of material, lost keyboardist Neil Codling, re-recorded the album and saw their label Nude collapse.

All of it apparently far from the band’s mind at the Meltdown date for which they were picked by their/Brett Anderson’s idol, David Bowie. The curator should be happy as Suede delivered a set that was challenging in parts, delight in others but never predictable. They included seven new songs of which five were on the grandiose, fully blown scale by ten-strong string section, while the other two were more trad-Suede. This is certainly a new beginning with September-due album number five, ‘A New Morning’.

Opening with an obscure soundtrack number, ‘Simon’, lushness of new songs, ‘Obsessions’, ‘Lost In TV’, described by Brett Anderson as a “favourite” of the band, ‘Positivity’ and ‘Astrogirl’ are perfectly mixed with fan favourites ‘Metal Mickey’, ‘The Wild Ones’, ‘The Power’, ‘Starcrazy’, ‘Everything Will Flow’ and ‘She’s In Fashion’. On the whole, it was a homecoming and a very good one.

A colleague on mine used to say he didn’t like Suede because they reminded him of Bowie too much; I’m sure he’d say he couldn’t stand them now because they sound nothing like Bowie. Some people… Suede have matured and try to relate to the present and not some distant sounds from the past… The trouble is that their fans are, typically, a couple of years behind and still smarting faux-glam while the band flogged its mascara-identity at a local school-fete some years ago.

Suede are on the upbeat, again…

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Set list:

‘Simon’
‘Positivity’
‘The Wild Ones’
‘Everything Will Flow’
‘Lost In TV’
‘She’s In Fashion’
‘She’
‘Trash’
‘Metal Micky’
‘Starcrazy’
‘Indian Strings’
‘Astrogirl’
‘Beautiful Loser’
‘Beautiful Ones’
‘Can’t Get Enough’
'When The Rain Falls'
- Encores
‘Obsessions’
‘My Insatiable One’
‘The Power’
‘Untitled’