Event Review: Leftfield Live in Bristol 2017
As I excitedly signed into Leftfield’s Facebook page to find photos of the event, I read this: “Very emotional and special first night of the tour in Bristol at Motion last night. Thank you everyone who came. Fantastic atmosphere all night. So much bass my sound card kept vibrating out of the computer!” Basically summed up as much as I remembered word for word... apart from the sound card problems, I didn’t bring mine!
Leftfield barely need an introduction. Lauded as pioneers of Progressive House, they were the first band in dance music to make what I considered to be a ‘proper album’. Greater than the sum of it’s parts, Leftism has easily stood the test of time and it’s tracks continue to set the standard for dance music acts across the World. Celebrating it’s 22nd birthday with a short seven date UK tour taking in London, Birmingham, Manchester and finally Glasgow, Leftfield kicked off in my hometown, Bristol and you could cut the anticipation with a knife.
Leftism draws from a myriad of influences such that afro-beat, ska, dub reggae, ambient and techno are all mashed up in the same melting pot that Neil Barnes and Paul Daley stirred into one of the top 5 ground-breaking albums of all-time. Both members of bands before they began Leftfield, the Do-It-Yourself style of Acid House suited their punk sensibilities very well, “A lot of stuff was done on the fly. We were just being creative in the studio.” Remembers Neil in a recent BBC interview, “That time was great for music in the UK and as time goes by the '90s, and what happened creatively, is only now coming into focus and I'm really chuffed what we did is considered as something special.”
We arrived early, like way early. Leftfield were due on stage around 9:15pm, and we had rocked up to the venue at 7:30. Fortunately, we weren’t alone and the courtyard of Motion (voted one of the top 25 clubs in the World in DJ Mag) was already quarter-full with excited fans, inquisitive students and slightly bemused other halves wondering how this ended up being ‘date night’. Inside the impressive main room, warm-up act Hodge was laying down an interesting mix of ambient soundscapes, soaring vocals and dubby beats. Building energy to a relentless tribal conclusion, we had to literally peel people from the roof after an hour in the presence of this mesmerising talent. Ending with hometown heroes, Massive Attack was an inspired move. We were indeed Safe from Harm.
Then, blackness.
Ever the theatrical, Leftfield (now just Barnes) with a drummer, mixing desk engineer and the original cast of vocalists launch into an extended version of Release The Pressure; sweet ambience surrounds Earl Sixteen’s call to arms vocal before the gargantuan bass drum rallies the entire room to pogo in time. It never fails to move me how music has such a profound effect on us humans. I pogo too. I don’t care, the World is outside. This is my time now: Leftfield are already in full control. Deafened by the whoops and cheers, they quickly move into Afro-Left and Neil leaves the relative safety of his console to play the berimbau intro. Visibly taken aback, he too can feel the respect for his creations the room exudes and as Djum Djum ad libs his way through, he shuffles back to his laptops and keyboards - I remember thinking “is there anything he can’t play?!
Following the album track list faithfully, Melt and Song of Life provide welcome future-proofed thoughtful moments before Toni Halliday joins them for Original. Sultry and alluring, Curve chanteuse Halliday commands the stage while images on the huge video wall behind them segue to the music perfectly. The visual experience has been spectacular all night to be fair; each track benefitting from individualised concept art. Black Flute and Space Shanty up the energy now we are suitably mellowed out and even though Inspection (Check One) is a lot slower in tempo, it’s special place in our hearts means it feels like a continuing crescendo in the ever building wall of sound that the album creates.
Storm 3000, with its drum n bass percussions feels like a brand new track with the live drumming element and as the opening chords of ‘Open Up’ ring out, I genuinely expect John Lydon to sweep in from stage left to leave the crowd is stunned silence. He didn’t, but the cut up visuals taken from the official video made up for it. From conversations with older friends, I don’t think they played Open Up live back in the 90s, so it’s power was not lost on the now rapturous audience.
One track to go.
The realisation that the evening was drawing to a close caused more than a few around me to become very emotional, and by the end of 21st Century Poem, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. We’d just witnessed the greatest gig of our lives. There’s a reason that Mixmag called Leftfield “The single most influential production team in British dance music.” and Q Magazine called Leftism the “...first truly complete album experience to be created by house musicians.” and we had just witnessed why in two of my most treasured hours of life. If you don’t own the this album, for shame. GO BUY IT NOW, and if you have a chance to see them live, grab the opportunity with both hands and enjoy the ride.
Music journalist, Acid Ted, DJ and producer, Simon Huxtable lives and breathes his passion every day. Like many of his age, dance music’s arrival was the wake-up call he needed; 80’s Britain was a desperate place and rave music provided a release. Now he is able to put into words what that means to him and how much dance music saved his life. S.H. Twitter
