The Police 3.0 - Acoustic Couch, Bracknell - 27th June 2025

Once upon a time, I was a huge Police fan.

I never really stopped liking them (and enjoyed Sting's solo stuff in the main), but somehow they dropped off my musical radar for a long while.

Recently, though, I spotted that a Police (and Sting) tribute band were playing in a venue near me, one I'd not been to before. The price was right, so I went along.

I hadn't been to Bracknell for decades, even though it is only about 15 miles from my home and I used to work there for many years - It was pretty unrecognisable to me and I had to use Google Maps to navigate the extensive shopping centre to reach what claimed to be the location of the venue.

All I could see was a very non-descript door, that looked like the outside of a fire exit from a shop or access to a machinery room, but a man standing outside asked if I was looking for the music venue and pointed at the door when I said I was.

Inside the venue is very basic, a large stage area at floor level dominates one end of the room, with a dance floor in front of it and seats and tables (some upturned cable drums) are around it. On the left, as you look at the stage, there was a reasonably large bar area, with very reasonably priced beer (£4 for a pint bottle of Doombar).

I'd arrived about 8:15, so had a half hour wait for the band to appear. I was stood by a pillar and didn't notice, but behind me the venue had filled up reasonably well, with probably 100-150 people by the time the 3 band members made their way onto the stage.

Thankfully (in my view), the 3 men make no effort to pretend to be 'The Police', just concentrating on playing the music.

I'm not a musically trained person, but the tunes sounded pretty decently played. The vocals were a little mixed, though, some sounding very Sting-like, others much less so.

I think 'mixed' is a good summation of the performance, some tracks (especially the more energetic, older ones) captured the spirit and energy of the originals while a few missed the mark.

They started with a Sting solo song, "If I Ever Lose my Faith in You" and then followed it with the Police hit "Message in a Bottle", which got a loud applause.

Most of the songs were singles (the gig was advertised as "The greatest hits of The Police and Sting", so fair enough) and of course, everyone knew them.

Some songs, "Walking on the Moon", "An Englishman in New York" (possibly the highlight for me), "Roxanne", "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "De Do Do" (a song I never liked) were really well performed and got a fantastic response.

I also particularly liked "King Of Pain".

A couple of songs fell a bit short, for me "Fields of Gold" and "Don't Stand So Close" particularly, but overall the songs were well performed and captured the energy well.

The sound wasn't great where I stood. Whether I picked a poor spot, they'd not done a great soundcheck or the venue's solid concrete walls, floors and ceilings don't help, I can't say. It wasn't so bad that the tunes weren't easily recognised, but the vocals were sometimes lost and some harsher notes seemed to dominate on some songs.

The band, though, were likeable and the gig had a very 'feel-good' atmosphere, with people clearly enjoying themselves.

The crowd wanted more and they came back for a last song "Next To You".

For a modest outlay, the Police 3.0 are well worth going along to see if you like the Police and/or Sting and I will keep an eye on the venue's website for future gigs.

Setlist:
If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
Message In A Bottle
Synchronicity II
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
(Spirits in the Material World)
Walking On The Moon
It’s Probably Me
Can't Stand Losing You
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Don't Stand So Close to Me
So Lonely
King of Pain
Driven to Tears
Wrapped Around Your Finger
Seven Days
Fields Of Gold
Every Breath You Take
Englishman In New York
Roxanne
Bring On The Night
ENCORE
Next To You
Setlist Courtesy of Police 3.0

Johnny Marr - 1865, Southampton - 19th June 2025

I can't pretend I was ever a great Smiths fan in period - I found Morrisey a bit of a tit (waving his gladiolis around, his fake hearing aid and his droning voice) and time has only soured me on him further, but I have come to appreciate Johnny Marr's contribution to the sound of the Smiths and also to Electronic, the New Order/Smiths spin off, and so it was that I found myself back at 1865 less than a week after seeing Heaven 17 there

Like Heaven 17, there was no support and I think this, too, was a pre-Festival season 'test' gig.

The schedule said the band would be on stage at 8, but it was about 8:15 (not too bad) before the 4 musicians appeared.

I'm guessing Johnny Marr dyes his black hair these days, but he still looks trim and fit.

I didn't expect to recognise many of the songs, having scanned back through previous setlists and never, to my knowledge, having heard any solo material.

That didn't really matter, though, as the songs performed where energetic rock performed with vigour and instantly catchy.

He started with a solo track "Generate! Generate!" and then a less well known Smiths track, "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" before some more solo material including a couple of new songs, which sounded good and fitted the set well.

He then said "I'm going to play another new one" and we got the opening chords of "This Charming Man" to a roar of appreciation from the crowd, who I suspect were mostly Smiths fans, although quite a few obviously knew many of the solo tracks.

The set continued with a mix of solo and Smiths' tracks, all being greeted enthusiastically, but the latter far more so.

The sound, if I'm honest, wasn't the best, certainly not as clear as Heaven 17 had been the previous week and very loud (writing this the following morning, my ears are still ringing and muffled), which probably didn't help. I was probably about 6 or 7 rows back, further than I'd been at Heaven 17.

That said, the overall effect was energy packed and feel-good and all the songs were well performed and fitted together well. Overall, it was a 'rockier' set than I'd expected, but certainly enjoyable.

The set ended on "How Soon Is Now?" and "Getting Away With It" (the only Electronic song, which was a bit of a disappointment for me).

Obviously, we had the charade of them leaving the stage, although I'm sure a drink was needed, the venue's air conditioning was doing a good job on a very hot evening, but even so it was sticky in the audience and I'm sure not much better on stage.

The first song of the encore was an excellent cover of Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" and then he rounded out with The Smiths' hit "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out".

Marr commented a few times that this was the first gig in a while, but it didn't really show in any rustiness (perhaps it was apparent in the energy?) and I definitely left feeling glad I'd come along to see an artist who I may well not have considered before.

Most of the audience, though, were diehard fans and probably would have cheered as loudly if the gig had been awful.

Setlist:
Generate! Generate!
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before (The Smiths song)
Armatopia
Hi Hello
Spirit Power and Soul
Bring On the Noise (Live Debut)
How Come (Live Debut)
This Charming Man (The Smiths song)
Somewhere
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (The Smiths song)
Down on the Corner (Johnny Marr + The Healers song)
Panic(The Smiths song)
Walk Into the Sea
Bigmouth Strikes Again (The Smiths song)
Easy Money
How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths song)
Getting Away With It (Electronic song)
Encore:
The Passenger (Iggy Pop cover)
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths song)
#JohnnyMarr #TheSmiths #electronictheband #NewOrder

Heaven 17 - 1865, Southampton - 13th June 2025

About halfway through the first song, the instruments all died!

I was back at the 1865 for the second time to see a band I've listened to for 40+ years and who I've seen a couple of times before, but not for 13 years - My last time was in Bournemouth in 2012.

However, I kept seeing reviews saying how good Heaven 17 were in recent gigs and when I saw they were playing a 'pre-Festival' gig at the 1865 (where I'd enjoyed seeing Nouvelle Vague) I snapped up a ticket.

There was no support (rarely a loss) and the schedule said Heaven 17 would be on stage at 8:30PM.

I arrived about 45 minutes earlier, treated myself to a decent pint of beer at pub prices (If only more venues offered this option!) and found myself a few rows back from the stage with a decent view.

As the 8:30 'on stage' time drew nearer the venue filled up and, while I can't say for certain, it looked near capacity to me.

At 8:30 sharp, 3 women appeared and took their places, one behind a large keyboard setup at the rear of the stage and the other two behind microphones to the right (from our viewpoint).

A few moments later a man in a silver suit and a glittery fedora appeared, followed by a taller man in a baseball cap. Obviously most of the audience recognised them as Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory respectively.

Martyn doesn't look that healthy, if I'm honest, despite only being 2 years older than Glenn, who looked quite good, despite the long departure of that mop of golden hair that once was as much part of his persona as his voice.

However, Martyn has always been the background maestro of Heaven 17 (and BEF and the Human League!) and Glenn very much the 'front man'.

Quickly the beats started and I recognised a favourite of mine, "Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry".

Things were going well, Glenn's voice sounded strong, the music was hard to resist moving to (but few seemed to fighting the urge anyway) and then Glenn and the backing vocalists were signing acapella, accompanied by much of the audience.

I (and I'm sure much of the audience) thought this was deliberate, but then Glenn stopped singing well before the end ofthe song.

It seemed the master sound console had 'died' - Not a great start, were we going to get half a song for making the trip?

Luckily not, a few minutes of fiddling upstairs, while Glenn chatted with the audience and the keyboards came back and then the vocalists were singing into their mics and audible and then so was Glenn.

Sadly, they gave up on "Crushed..." and moved onto their next song in the set, although few complained as it was "Fascist Groove Thang" and the glitch was forgotten.

Glenn talked a lot between songs (by his own admission), but we got a set full of old favourites (most were from the first couple of albums), which was probably to be expected and suited a Friday night audience familiar with the band and keen to enjoy themselves.

The set seemed quite 'front loaded' with many of their best known songs early on.

We had "Play To Win", "Geisha Boys and Temple Girls" (with an explanation that it was about going out in Sheffield!), "Come Live With Me" and "We Live So Fast".

As at Bournemouth all those years ago, Glenn and Martyn performed "You've lost that loving feeling" as a duo, something Martyn and Phil Oakey did in their Human League days. I could probably have done without that, to be honest, but it seems to be a bit of a 'party trick' for the duo.

After that, we had lesser known tracks "This is Mine", "And That's No Lie" and "I'm Your Money" and then the main set rounded out with "Let Me Go", a very energetic performance of "Penthouse and Pavement" (possibly my favourite H17 track) and then the inevitable "Temptation".

I'd have to say the female vocalist on this wasn't as good as the one had been in Bournemouth and it's not my favourite track, but the crowd loved it and it was energetic.

Glenn said they'd be back if we made some noise, to which the crowd loudly roared and Glenn joked "Not that much noise!"

The encore was 3 covers, sort of.

The keyboard player and Glenn returned first, to perform a slowed version of The Associates "Party Fears Too" in honour of Billy Mackenzie along with the revelation that Billy had given Glenn a whippet!

This was followed by a lively rendition of Bowie's "Let's Dance" and finally "Being Boiled", a song from Martyn's time with the Human League.

The audience loudly cheered and applauded and the lights came up.

So, had they still got it? Definitely! Glenn sounded good and, no doubt, the electronic nature of the music ensures that aspect doesn't disappoint.

An energetic, lively performance, enhanced by an enthusiastic audience meant this was a great night out.

#heaven17

Setlist:
Crushed by the Wheels of Industry
(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
Play to Win
Geisha Boys and Temple Girls
Come Live With Me
We Live So Fast
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
This Is Mine
And That's No Lie
I'm Your Money
Let Me Go
Penthouse and Pavement
Temptation
Encore:
Party Fears Too (Associates cover)
Let's Dance (David Bowie cover)
Being Boiled (The Human League cover)