As I alluded to in this earlier post, the Fannies are the band I've seen in concert the most often, this being the third time I've paid actual money to see them play (all of them in Bristol); I also saw them play at Glastonbury in what must have been 1993.
They've settled into a nice routine over the years, Norman Blake (in the middle in the photos) doing most of the between-song banter, Raymond McGinley (on the left in the black) looking increasingly like your greying but still slightly groovy and disreputable rock'n'roll uncle, and Gerry Love (on the right) seemingly not having aged a single day in the last 20-odd years. As with the albums, the gigs are divided fairly democratically between each of the three singer-songwriters - this gig kicked off with a bracing blast through Start Again from 1997's Songs From Northern Britain, then a few songs from the new album Shadows (including the single Baby Lee, a splendid live rendition of which can be seen here), and went on to include (in no particular order) The Concept, Ain't That Enough, I Need Direction, About You, Sparky's Dream, I Don't Want Control Of You, Don't Look Back, Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From, Verisimilitude, It's All In My Mind, Can't Feel My Soul and a rousing encore of Everything Flows.
They didn't play it at this particular gig, but here's a bonus - the deeply Neil Young-esque Gene Clark in a very rare live rendition from 2008.
I literally cannot comprehend anyone not finding the Fannies intensely lovable; the same probably can't be said of support act Veronica Falls, who suffer from the usual problem of new young bands - lacking the confidence to trust your songs and leave a bit of space here and there. The shoegazing frantically-scrubbed barre chord wall-of-sound approach is great in the right hands, but a bit monotonous otherwise. Nevertheless here's their single Found Love In A Graveyard for your listening pleasure.
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