Astoria
Details
- Date
- January 15, 1994
- Venue
- Astoria London, England
- Billed As
- The Soft Boys
- Gig Type
- Concert
Notes
This is the expanded Soft Boys line up including both Andy and Matthew on bass with the addition of Sean Lyons on guitar.
Set List
- Do the Chisel
- Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole
- The Face of Death
- Queen of Eyes
- The Pigworker
- Underwater Moonlight
- Old Pervert Robyn Hitchcock, Kimberley Rew, Morris Windsor, Matthew Seligman
- Hear My Brane Hitchcock, Windsor, Davies, Metcalfe
- Where are the Prawns?
- Insanely Jealous
- Kingdom of Love
- Give it to the Soft Boys Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Lamb
- Acid Bird
- Only the Stones Remain
- Zipper in My Spine
- I Wanna Destroy You
Reviews
Online review (written in 2010) by The Glass Walking-Stick
The Soft Boys reformed a few times in the '90s and I went down to that there London town in '94 to see the band, with a workmate, Hippy Mark. We met up with some of Mark's family and friends, had a quick drink in a typically packed-out London pub and then went into The Astoria to see The Man With The Lightbulb Head and his mates. The old Astoria was a large, gone-to-seed venue with a Bloody Expensive bar, which kept me provided with medicinal brandy as I was fighting off a stinking cold. The Soft Boys came on to the strains of the instrumental Do The Chisel and proceeded to rip through such old faves ( or new ones, in my case ) as Underwater Moonlight, Old Pervert, The Queen Of Eyes and I Wanna Destroy You, all excellent. Although missing Kimberley Rew the band played well, without quite lapsing into muso-hell, and seemed to feature the late Andy Warhol on maracas (!) - strangely appropriate. Robyn kept the inter-song babbling to a minimum, but did encourage us to ring Cones Hotline for some reason, and explained that the band's name was a merger of Burroughs' The Soft Machine and Warhol's Chelsea Boys. Although we all bellowed for Brenda's Iron Sledge, they didn't play much of Robyn's solo material, but never mind, it was all good fun.
-----
The three Soft Boys albums were given UK CD reissues in 1990, all with bonus tracks, and in 1993 came an excellent boxed set, The Soft Boys 1976-81. One welcome side effect of all this CD reissue activity was the unexpected Soft Boys reunion tour in January 1994. Rew, Seligman, Metcalfe, and Windsor had already played alongside Hitchcock at a benefit concert for Bosnia. This time 'round they played a clutch of dates as The Soft Boys, minus Rew, but with Metcalfe and Seligman's duelling basses, extra guitar splashes from Sean Lyons, and the added delight of Jim Melton's powerhouse harmonica. Their sell out at London's Astoria was a triumphant return after all those years in the wilderness. Hitchcock has suggested that more reunions could well be in store: after almost 23 years of influential obscurity, The Soft Boys saga is far from over.
Rough Guide - Soft Boys Biography
The Soft Boys reformed a few times in the '90s and I went down to that there London town in '94 to see the band, with a workmate, Hippy Mark. We met up with some of Mark's family and friends, had a quick drink in a typically packed-out London pub and then went into The Astoria to see The Man With The Lightbulb Head and his mates. The old Astoria was a large, gone-to-seed venue with a Bloody Expensive bar, which kept me provided with medicinal brandy as I was fighting off a stinking cold. The Soft Boys came on to the strains of the instrumental Do The Chisel and proceeded to rip through such old faves ( or new ones, in my case ) as Underwater Moonlight, Old Pervert, The Queen Of Eyes and I Wanna Destroy You, all excellent. Although missing Kimberley Rew the band played well, without quite lapsing into muso-hell, and seemed to feature the late Andy Warhol on maracas (!) - strangely appropriate. Robyn kept the inter-song babbling to a minimum, but did encourage us to ring Cones Hotline for some reason, and explained that the band's name was a merger of Burroughs' The Soft Machine and Warhol's Chelsea Boys. Although we all bellowed for Brenda's Iron Sledge, they didn't play much of Robyn's solo material, but never mind, it was all good fun.
-----
The three Soft Boys albums were given UK CD reissues in 1990, all with bonus tracks, and in 1993 came an excellent boxed set, The Soft Boys 1976-81. One welcome side effect of all this CD reissue activity was the unexpected Soft Boys reunion tour in January 1994. Rew, Seligman, Metcalfe, and Windsor had already played alongside Hitchcock at a benefit concert for Bosnia. This time 'round they played a clutch of dates as The Soft Boys, minus Rew, but with Metcalfe and Seligman's duelling basses, extra guitar splashes from Sean Lyons, and the added delight of Jim Melton's powerhouse harmonica. Their sell out at London's Astoria was a triumphant return after all those years in the wilderness. Hitchcock has suggested that more reunions could well be in store: after almost 23 years of influential obscurity, The Soft Boys saga is far from over.
Rough Guide - Soft Boys Biography