## London Conway Hall
Friday 25th February 2000

Act 1: DJ set by Chris Ronco

Act 2: Acoustic Set

- Hallway
- Dean Ser
- Lady Fair
- Honeymoon With Y
- O Caroline
- Gewn Ni Gorffen
- No One Looked Around
- Tears In Disguise
- How I Long
- Faraway Eyes
- Christmas Eve

Interval

Act 3: Electric Set (not in order)

- Poodle Rockin'
- Y Ffored Oren
- Desolation Blues
- Merion Wylt
- Sweet Johnny
- Spanish Dance Troupe
- Hush The Warmth
- Humming Song
- + one more?
- (encore)
- Johnny Cash Lawsuit Song
- Let's Get Together (In Our Mind)

Review by Matt

After a long round trip via Cardiff I arrived in the big lights to sample my first London gig - Woo! A quick jaunt on the underground brought us to the venue which in a previous life was a debating hall or something. (it also had various slogans around the place that the manics would be proud of) Taking up on the excellent 2 for the price of 1 T-shirt offer we entered the main hall. Then, the first horror caught us - Chairs! Surely they were not expecting us to sit down through a Gorky's concert were they?? We found some vacant seats up towards the front and sat down to enjoy the tunes put on by guest DJ Chris Ronco (a strange mix of songs of which I only recognised a few). This gave us a chance to read the special programs with mini biographies and more.

It wasn't long GZM took to the stage and after a few line-up changes for the first songs we were introduced to the full Mynci 2000. This included the normal Gorky posse + long time Gorky friend Rhodri Puw. Special guests were Ashley Cooke (from the group Derrero) who lended his services to guitar and backing vocals and Gorwel Owen (legendary producer of GZM`s last 3 albums and SFA's Radiator album) who helped out with keyboard duties. This all added up to produce a great sound that equals what they had before John left. The first set was an acoustic sit-down fair and included tracks from the new album, Bwyd Tyme and Tatay. We were also treated to some great b-sides in the shape of Tears In Disguise and the fantastic No One Looked Around. They also played a new song (which I think is called How I Long To Taste..... I don`t know what comes after taste). During the concert and sitting in the "royal" box there were various members of SFA watching GZM in action.

After the set there was a 30min interval before the second "electric set". During this you could sense an increasing unease of having to sit though the other set with people sitting on the floor between the stage and the first row of seats. Thankfully when Gorky's entered the stage Euros invited everyone to stand up and move up to the stage. This was a a cue for us to race forwards to gain prime positions. The second set started at a fast pace and never let up for a second and was a pure dance zone. Songs mainly came from the last 3 albums apart from Y Ffored Oren. After Humming Song they went off to a massive round of applause and cheering and everyone was in agreement that we wanted more and were not disappointed as they returned to give us the B-side Johny Cash Lawsuit Song and then Let's Get Together. Again there was a bout of people requesting songs to be played but only one person managed to get the last song right. Then it was all over and so began my on going quest of getting my hands on a set list. It looked like I had missed out again but I spotted one that had been missed and got my hands on it! The evidence of this is above! We then travelled back to the station to catch the last train back to Cardiff and catch some sleep on the journey. This is one of the best post-John gigs and was on a par with some of the great gig I`ve seen them play before. The crowd was realy responsive and enjoyed the second set especially. It seemed such a short night and left you feeling you wanted more although the combined set was much longer than what they normally play. I had a fantastic time and it was well worth the long journey it took to see them.

Review By Ceri

When an e-mail dropped into my inbox one morning announcing this tour I knew I *had* to go. However problems with trains persisted for two weeks until we finally established that one really existed and we could get home (well home for me). Two whole Gorkys sets - no need to put up with any average support band. So in the refined setting of Conway Hall we took our seats and read the wonderfully funny programme and worried about trains.

Sitting down through a gig was very strange, but worked in this context. The set was gorgeous with some lovely knew songs, a few surprising old ones which sounded remarkably good in this format and (my highlight) Faraway Eyes. It was a good idea for a band with quite so many hidden gems to split up the set in this way and it was absolutely fabulous to chill out to the music.

The other advantage was clear when it came to them "standing up to play". After rushing to the front with the rest of the hordes, we were treated to a really "up" set. If I've had one criticism of Gorkys shows in the past (and believe me my total dedication to the cause doesn't prevent me regularly criticising their live set) its that the show hasn't hung very well together - but the addition of a acoustic set meant that they were forced to play their fast numbers and play them they did. Matt already given the list, and as you can imagine we made the most of it. No wonder they weren't able to escape without an encore, which was absolutely superb and timed nicely for us to get to Paddington - how considerate of them.

Whilst I haven't seem Gorkys as often as Matt, this was I feel the best performance I've ever seen, and for once I had no criticisms over the choice and ordering of songs. This was Gorkys at their sublime, brilliant. marvellous best.

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