Hard to believe really, but it’s 35 years since The Lightning Seeds burst onto the music scene with their debut single, Pure. And now Liverpool musician Ian Broudie and his band are back on the road for a greatest hits tour and it’s a complete sell-out.
When they emerged in the late 1980s, The Lightning Seeds were never the coolest band around but they ably plugged a gap in British music between the demise of The Smiths and Britpop. For a few years, they enjoyed huge success with a string of radio-friendly singles.
And it was these hits that the lively crowd at 02 Academy were there to hear. Clutching their two-pint plastic glasses of lager, these fans were out for a good time, no doubt about it.
They certainly weren’t disappointed as Broudie (a youthful 66 years-old) kept chat to a minimum and the band motored through 90 minutes of pure pop nostalgia. They performed 20 songs and almost every one generated a mass singalong and the sell-out crowd knew every word, even the two mid-set new songs (Losing You and Emily Smiles), which were as well received as the rest.
The Lightning Seeds were always a great singles band and they dusted off back-to-back hits including Sense, Change, Perfect, Lucky You, Marvellous, What If… and Sugar Coated Iceberg. They even squeezed in a cover version of Wreckless Eric’s Whole Wide World and The Ronettes’ Be My Baby (‘the greatest song ever written’ according to Broudie).
But it was a belting version of You Showed Me, a rousing Life of Riley and a roof-raising Pure that really ignited this performance. The band, featuring Broudie’s son Riley on guitar, seemed to be enjoying the football terrace-like singing as much as the fans.
And the best was yet to come when they ended the encore with a surprise version of Three Lions, the England football national anthem written by Broudie and a single that went to number one a record three separate times. That must be a nice pension fund.
‘Oh my God, I’ve actually heard it played live’ screamed the woman behind me in the red England shirt as Three Lions finished and the band left the stage. Broudie has said he doesn’t necessarily want to be remembered solely for that song alone but judging from the ecstatic, beer-splattered reaction to it last night, that might be wishful thinking.