Return-Path: <owner-tallulah@infoseek.com> Date: Tue, 15 Oct 96 13:55:59 BST<BR>
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To: teenage rasputins <tallulah@infoseek.com> From: jturner@rpms.ac.uk (Jonathan Turner) <BR>Subject: Robert at The Garage 12/10/96<BR>
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A belated review, but here at last. And I see Richard has just beaten me to it....
(Contains a set list - if you're off to see Robert in the next few days, you might want to skip this review)
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<P>
The Garage was pretty full when I arrived, halfway through Beth Orton's set. Quite a sizeable proportion of the audience seemed to be there to see her (or, at least, were happily swaying along) - she's back at the Garage later this month as a headliner. 
Fortunately there were a few people there to see Robert, too, and he strolled on stage with Adele & Glen (in a lovely Custard t-shirt) at around 9.30.
He looked pretty relaxed in pinstripe trousers and black & white printed shirt, sadly without the canary yellow suit, but at least there were swans on the shirt.
Robert was a lot less chatty than the previous times I've seen him, certainly during the early part of the set, though this picked up a little later on. 
Maybe 
the touring has been tiring. He had to apologise for the "frizzy" state of his hair,
since there was no hot water in the hotel. It did look pretty bad.... and what's wrong with cold water and detergent anyway, Robert ?
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<P>
During the first song someone generously threw a gaudy hawaiian shirt on stage, which Robert left draped over his mic stand for a couple of songs before tossing it back into the crowd.
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The band were pretty tight, good backing vocals, and minus one guitarist (forget his name, sorry) who performed well at the last Garage show in the summer. Despite this, the 3 piece seemed much more of a unit than the 4 piece, more of a band than just Robert's backing group - the touring is obviously paying off, though it does seem to have taken the edge off Robert's imrpovisational excursions in songs like "Heart Out To Tender" and "The Circle." Glen not only drummed, but also played guitar and whistled, and Adele was in fine form too, though perhaps her bass was a little too loud and bubbly for my liking, particularly during "I'm Alright." "She Sang About Angels" - Robert's song for Patti - popped up as the final encore, but he's got to do something about that Kurt Cobain/Tom Verlaine verse (When she sang "About A Boy"/Kurt Cobain/I thought what a shame/it wasn't Tom Verlaine).
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I think I've got the set in more or less the right order -
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I Can Do
I'm Alright (big cheer for this one)
Baby Stones 
I'll Jump 
Warm Nights
121
Falling Star (nice to hear this one again) 
Fortress
Justice
Snakeskin Lady
The Circle (preceded with a story of how he played this a few days ago, saying then
that "Richie Blackmore couldn't have played a solo like that" to which some wag in
the audience replied "he couldn't have played a solo like that when he was three!").
Cryin' Love ("This was a single in July." (silence) "I think that says it all...")
Heart Out To Tender 
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Head Full Of Steam (still sounds wonderful) 
Rock And Roll Friend
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Atlanta Lie Low
2541
--
She Sang About Angels
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