Ben Folds Five
1997-03-07London Astoria
People seem to think I should be ashamed of liking Ben Folds Five, likening it to sheep shagging. I think most of them get put off by the piano because pianos will never be cool. Show people a woman in front of a piano and they may think of Kate Bush or Tori Amos, which to my mind isn't too bad, but a bloke in front of a piano reminds them of Liberace or Richard Clayderman. Oh dear.
I was quite surprised then to see that there was a fairly young crowd at the gig, a large number of them younger than me. Maybe they'd never heard of Liberace or Richard Clayderman. Anyway, the band came on and the first few songs had me and Simon wondering what was wrong with the crowd. They were just standing there staring.
Then without any good reason the next number sent them crazy and we found ourselves in the middle of a very messy mosh pit. Now moshing was very much my thing at the time but then so was smoking heavily and after twenty minutes of non stop floor pounding I felt like I was ready to meet the grim reaper. I spent the rest of the gig sweating like a pig, unable to breathe between huge glugs of beer.
By the way, they were great and I'd recommend them to anyone.