A short journey up the M1 to attend the annual Nottingham City Pulse. Headlining were the Neville Staples band with special guest Pauline > Black. Last year the Beat were the main event.
Before Nev took the stage the Secret Affair played for an hour. Ian Pages voice is as strong as ever and the classics Time for Action and Dance are as good as they were 30 years ago. This is My World shouted Page. Mods Mods Mods!!! The Mods in the open air audiance loved it and so did we! I don't think the Secret Affair ever got the credit they deserve and it was good to see them go off to a huge cheer.
At 8.45 the orginal rude boy Mr Neville Staples came out and the crowd
had doubled to about 1,000. A number of Rude Boys were wearing The
Special tour tee-shirts. If not Fred Perrys were compulsory!
Neville explained that one of the guitar players were stuck on the M1 but they were going to start! Explaining he ain't the Specials and that "he's better then them" brought the house down. He added it's £50 quid to see the Specials and he's playing with them tomorrow. He played a mixture of his own, the Specials and Fun Boy Three tracks.
Four tracks in he introduced rude girl Pauline Black. "Hello Nottingham"! Pauline played Three Minute Hero, Missing Words, and On My Radio before ending with Too Much Pressure.
Neville then joined her singing an extended version of Ghost Town and
Nite Club to finish the set off.
The Original Rude Boy was in fine form, he got a plug in for his book explaining "everyone else is doing one!".
For a free gig, you can't complain (something Coventry City Council should look at again) and Nevilles energy levels made up for a brass section that didn't quite hit all the right notes.
Roll on next year.
See two songs from the set here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk4JFtFInA8