It was a damn fine show.

The Hammersmith Apollo is a very old-fashioned theatre. Me and a couple of friends were sitting near the back of the stalls, so any innacuracies in the account below can be blamed on excitement, distance from the stage and the big heads in front.

The support band, "Chyna", despite being unsigned, were impressive. The eponymous lead singer appeared with a bass guitar which hid the fact that she was six months pregnant! Their sound was rhythmic and soulful; Chyna had a strong and emotionally-charged singing voice, the two other lead vocalists filled in the melodies very professionally, and the band worked very well together. Their final song, "Love is not a colour", gently suggested an anti-racist message with a very likeable chartable tune.

After a brief interval, the curtains opened to reveal some clever stage-craft designed to give the lighting effects maximum impact. Translucent columns arranged in an arc (like the river-front of the County Hall building in London) stood like coloured light shafts in front of a white backdrop. Punters, who had stayed in the bar and missed Chyna's excellent set, began to fill the seats (the performance was sold out). Then the man himself appeared leading out the band, prompting cheers and whistles, wearing a dark suit and no shirt.

Their opening number was "I'm Alive", a heavy rock version of the track from Seal 2, but at the same time very moving. Seal and the band were in very good form. I had seen a TV recording of Seal singing live a couple of years ago and found his voice very raw and the performance unsatisfactory, but this night I was very far from disappointed. "Bring It On", "Crazy", "Prayer for the Dying" and other tracks from the two albums formed the set (perhaps someone who bootlegged it might provide a list) as well as one song which I didn't recognise, a B-side perhaps. Everything was performed with backing vocals from the band, rather then from backing singers.

The sound quality was everything you would expect from a big name venue. The lighting effects were outstanding, and turned the theatre into a projection screen for disks of moving colours which looked like melting and dancing stained glass windows. At poignent moments an ethereal chord from the keyboard would be accompanied by a sweep of coloured rays throught the theatrical smoke filling the hall.

In a brief pause between tracks, Seal thanked the audience for our enthusiasm, and said that it was good to be welcomed back after four years. He seemed affectionately amused by a shouted question from the auditorium. "How's the snow-board?", he repeated. "The board's fine, it's my knees that aren't." "No, I don't think I'll switch to skiiing."

By the end of the set, the whole audience had got ten times their money's worth. But had we had enough? No, of course not. We clapped and chanted until the band reappeared, with an (admittedly planned) encore which was as good as anything I have ever seen live, including "Future Love Paradise" and "Kiss from a Rose", again blasted out with feeling and power. By this time the whole audience were on their feet and clapping, tapping, dancing, even joining in!

Anyone with a lax view of copyright laws would fill a boot-leg tape with some excellent variations on the album recordings, which mostly had a harder edge and a simpler definition. If you do make a boot-leg please confess your crime to the e-mail address at the foot of this message. :)

/<eith
--
K.Turner@ucl.ac.uk http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ccaakrt/ ...and deeper understanding