Placebo

If we rewind back to 2004 Laura and I embarked on our first ever gig adventure. I got tickets for my birthday to see Placebo MY ABSOLUTE ALL TIME LOVE OF MY LIFE FAVORITE BAND at the time. I still remember how excited I was and how I just couldn't believe I would be breathing the same air as them OH MY GOD! 

They did a one off 10 year anniversary gig at Wembley and Laura and I put on our fake glitter eye lashes, stockings and other odd combinations we used to wear and we went and had the time of our lives. 

I found these old Live Journal posts, unfortunately my old blog posts were rarely more than a few sentences so I don't have much of an account of it and it was long LONG before camera phones and digital cameras were pretty naff so I don't have any photos alas.

I'm not a fan of their newer music anything past Meds but when they announced they were doing a 20th Year anniversary tour with the following statement:

"...Let's just say there will be songs in the set that I've sworn never to play again. I think it's time that we purposefully acknowledged what a lot of Placebo fans really want to hear. They've been very patient with us since we rarely play our most commercially successful material.

A 20 year anniversary tour seems like the right time to do so. That's our intention. This tour is very much for the fans and a chance for us to revisit a lot of our early material.

So, if you want to see us play songs like 'Pure Morning’ and 'Nancy Boy’ which we haven't played in almost ten years and may not play again, then you'd better come along to these shows! We'll have some surprises in there too...."

As I went to my first ever gig to their 10th Year Anniversary I couldn't say no and miss the chance to hear the songs I ABSOLUTELY loved as a teenager, and to be honest still love to pieces. So Matt and I booked tickets to see them in Brighton. I would of LOVED to go with Laura again but she is up in Nottingham and i'm down south it just wouldn't work for either of us time and money wise alas.

Matt and I headed down to Brighton, had a good day out and went to a traditional ramen restaurant, then headed to the gig. I was suprised as I used to queue for hours and hours to get into gigs but there was very little people queuing and we got in super quickly. We were only a few rows from the front and I have to say it had a weird atmosphere. I am used to gigging in London venues and this felt like a school hall rather than a gig venue, but I didn't think much off it once the lights were down and the support act came on. I won't lie, I really didn't enjoy the support act they were pretty bad and I have no idea what their name were.

The evening speed by and before I knew it Placebo came out and I couldn't wait. The crowd were very different from what I am used to in London and not in a good way. I won't go into details as it really did ruin part of my night, but there were fights, groups of girls pushing and shoving (and SO VERY SMELLY!!!) and when my temper finally got the better of me and I attempted to pull a girls hair Matt snapped at me and we moved a few rows back.

I am glad we did as we still had a good spot and were surrounded by decent people (there were fights later on, but I was far enough away not to get involved). It was funny you could tell who were the long time fans when they played newer music. Younger people went crazy and other people (including myself) sort of stopped and just listened...... then when they played the classics that was our time to shine and loose our shit over songs that made up my teenage years!!

Other than the crowd (seriously why do people behave like that, they must realise they ruin other peoples nights, gah) the band were amazing and sounded great even after all this time. I would happily go and see them again if they played that many older songs in the future.

Matt manged to get some awesome photos too so please enjoy below

I was so happy with how many older songs they played and they even played the version of 36 degrees that they played for the first time at the 10 year anniversary gig which I absolutely ADORE!

Set List

• Pure Morning
• Loud Like Love
• Jesus' Son
• Soulmates
• Special Needs
• Lazarus
• Too Many Friends
• Twenty Years
• I Know
• Devil in the Details
• Space Monkey
• Exit Wounds
• Protect Me from What I Want
• Without You I'm Nothing
• 36 Degrees
• Lady of the Flowers
• For What It's Worth
• Slave to the Wage
• Special K
• Song to Say Goodbye
• The Bitter End

Encore:

• Teenage Angst
• Nancy Boy
• Infra-red

Encore 2:

• Running Up That Hill 

It was great to relive my teenage joy again and they defiantly still have it! I would like to see them again preferably in London as the crowd really did put a damper on that gig! But I think to see Stefan's hair in person was reason enough to go. Seriously look at that gravity defying beauty!