Royal Albert Hall
Mon 13th Nov 2000

‘Take Me I’m Yours’, a fitting line to read on the back of the Ryanair in-flight brochure, considering this was the name of Squeeze’s first hit single – uncanny or what ! Maybe this was a good sign after having to cancel my rail tickets to London and opting to fly down instead. It must have been, I got there for a start, which is more than can be said for so many of the trains at that time.

I was in the 2^nd row out to the left hand side looking at the stage which had the perfect view as I was right at the aisle angled directly at the stage with no one in front of me. Marti covered every inch of the stage so I was ideally placed whenever he came over to our side. I had been geared up for a race to the front as soon as the lights went down and was surprised when no one moved (or not at our side anyway), probably because there were some freelance photographers at the front for the first few songs. Anyway I was very pleased with my place and didn’t really feel I needed to move, especially if I was going to be the only one doing it.

After such a long wait and all the expectation of my first ‘Marti’ concert, there I was sitting in the Royal Albert Hall in London – suddenly the lights went out – here we go !

The band did a great build up to ‘curtain up’ and Marti being in full view on the stage. The music was getting louder, the soul singer girls from Memphis were working up to a cresendo becoming louder with every line they sang. The crowd were clapping in time and cheering in a frenzy of anticipation as we watched a tantalising Marti silhouetted on the semi-transparent curtain. Finally the curtain fell and the roadies ran across to clear the stage for everyone to see Marti and the whole place screamed.

Immediately the band launched into ‘Sweet Little Mystery’. This got the night off to a rocking start followed by ‘Wishing I Was Lucky’ where Marti wanted to see all our hands. ‘East Of The River’ was next after which Marti thanked all his fans for having stood by him over the last couple of years and we were more than delighted to cheer back in thanks to him for doing this and making his comeback.

Marti then treated us to one of his new songs, ‘Did You Ever Wake Up’ which I must say was an ideal introduction to his new material, I enjoyed it very much. Another old favourite – 'Temptation' was then followed by a cover of David Bowie’s ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’, cool song ! Marti sat down to do one of the first songs he’d written as a solo artist, ‘Hard To Cry’, which got everyone’s full attention until the end when someone shouted out, "I love you, Marti." To start with Marti looked in despair, resting his head on his hand as if to say, I don’t need this, then stood up and replied, ‘I love you too’ which got a loud cheer from the crowd. Other incidents similar to this happened throughout the tour getting the same response.

'I Don't Trust You' had a very saxy start thanks to Leo, who is a great asset to Marti's band and we were priviledged that he took time out from Jools Holland's tour, who was also on the road, to join Marti. Between his earpiece and his eyes Marti was moaning as he grabbed a bit of paper from the stand just before a brilliant new tune and swearing that he couldn’t see, ‘the f***ing set list’, all jokingly of course.

This was a selection of new stuff including two very catchy numbers, 'New York Vibe' as just mentioned and the other, ‘All Around The World’ separated by the classic Wets ‘dance’ track, ‘I Can Give You Everything’, which yet again had the whole crowd clapping along. We were then introduced to one of his backing singers as Marti brought down Jackie Johnson to the front of the stage and she proceeded to sing a duet with Marti of the old soul song, ‘It Should Have Been Me’ – wow !

Back on familiar territory, ‘Lip Service’ had Marti at all corners of the stage and the lights going up and down as he ‘looked at our faces’, not to mention doing that daft dance of swinging his arms about in all directions. In a put on English accent Marti said ‘Goodnight Girl’ was next, all the hands were swaying for this one. All too soon the main part of the concert was drawing to a close as he did a very rocky, Joe Cocker style rendition of ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ then waved and walked off.

Sure enough though Marti came back for an encore, starting with a Joni Mitchell song, ‘The River’ during which he sat down again. The sheer power in his voice as he projected it while holding the mic down it was amazing. Marti declared that ‘Gypsy Girl’ had been one of his favourites from the Wet Wet Wet days and was all about, "ladies of the night . . . strictly an observation you understand" which we all found very funny. During the song he accepted a few bunches of flowers from fans, mainly roses, then after it had finished Marti ‘just had to’ pick up an item of ladies underwear which had landed on stage (just the one, I think, contrary to what the papers said). A large sized ladies bra which needless to say got his attention no ends. Everyone was laughing as he made a few dodgy comments about it before going on to one of the highlights of my night (from the past).

‘Angel Eyes !’ I was so ecstatic to hear ‘Angel Eyes’ as I wasn’t sure if I would ever hear it again live, what with it being one of my all time favourite Wets tracks, I was happy, and yes, I screamed ! It wasn’t much different other than a more bluesy feel to the end of it which took it back to its early days of the original ‘Home and Away’ version but sounding more accomplished now, which enhanced it even more (if that’s possible). A perfect song to end an encore on. However ‘that’ song hadn’t been done yet so we knew there was still more to come.

Marti came back on for the second time and started with a song which he’d only just written a few weeks beforehand. I’d actually been lucky enough to hear ‘Close To You’ on radio Clyde 2 when he played an exclusive live version of it a fortnight earlier. As soon as I’d heard it even then I knew it was a winner and was overjoyed that he’d left it till so late to play at the concerts. This is a truly amazing song and as good as any of the best Wets songs as far as I’m concerned.

However Marti was none too impressed when a girl in the third row centre section yelled out ‘Yes please’, just as he was holding the final long note in ‘Close To You’. As soon as it had finished he came right over to that area asking for some lights so he could see who the culprit was. The girl seemed quite proud to own up to it which I think made it even worse. He gave her a few harsh looks while going on about it being such a poignant moment in the song and questioning her timing. I’m sure by the end of that the girl had got the message though.

So now there was only one song left to do and everyone knew exactly which one it was, ‘Love Is All Around’. I’d brought a small St. Andrews flag with me so I thought I’d let it make an appearance. We all sang along and waved our arms (and flags) in the air.

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