secondSight back in Croydon

Amazingly it is almost three months since I last saw secondSight when they rocked the Scream Lounge in Croydon at the end of December. Deep in to March they returned, and so did I.

The routine worked well last time so I repeated it this; wore smart-casual to work, went to The George for a beer and some food before hand, went for the Nachos and walked to the venue early to get a good seat.

Then I turned tradition on its head and went to the right of the stage instead of the familiar left.

My main motive for this was to take get a different view of the stage so that I could photos from a different angle and of different band members.

Unfortunately Julian Veasy (keyboards) anticipated this and moved from his usual front-left to back-right where the lights could not get to him and so my point-and-press camera could not get any decent close-ups. I'll get you next time Julian!

The other advantage of being on the right is that I could see lead singer, Chris Baboon, without having to peer over the music stand he uses to remind him of some of the lyrics.

The only problem then is to try and catch when he is not moving too much, which is not easy. I have lots of rejected photos with blurred head, arms and legs. But that's fine, I'd much rather an active hard-to-photograph front-man than somebody in the Val Doonican mold.

On the far right you can just about see Norman Leader on lead guitar, sadly playing his last gig with secondSight before moving on to other projects.

That leaves the flamboyantly dressed Nick Loebner on bass at front-right and Mike Lane on drums in his new position behind him.

The minor tweaks to the staging were echoed in the set with one small change making quite a difference. Gone was the one Yes song, Siberian Khatru, to be replaced by another Pink Floyd song, the marvellous Wish You Were Here. It is a great song but it made most of the set a battle of the bands between Genesis and Pink Floyd (Pink Floyd won!).

The battle was broken up with songs by King Crimson, Radiohead, Jethro Tull and The Cardiacs. Of these The Cardiacs song, The Whole World Window, is the one that I know the least, though it is becoming more familiar. It also got the most positive reaction from the crowd who needed no encouragement to sing along.

Oddly, the same people were equally enthusiastic about Supper's Ready.

The final surprise of the evening was the guest appearance of a saxophonist for Money. Good plan!

One of the best things about secondSight is that they play some of the less expected songs of the famous bands.

So, for example, the Pink Floyd numbers included Dogs and Echoes. We had Money and Comfortably Numb too, but nobody is going to object to that.

Add to the evening the opportunity to mix with the band, to be part of an appreciative audience, the opportunity to catch up with some other fans and you have another great night out.

The only disappointment was having to leave very promptly at the end to catch my train to Clapham Junction, which I made with just a minute or so to spare. So even that worked well.

I'm not sure what happens next with secondSight with Norman's departure but I hope that they get back on stage before too long. And I hope that I'm there too.