Faithless - review by : Nigel Mee

Jazzworld, Friday 25th June

This was a classic Faithless gig. The band are playing at their peak with their current live material taken from the 2 CDs Reverence & Sunday 8pm. The 4,000 (my estimate - not official) crowd absolutely loved it! They used Maxi Jazz on vocals with the 2 synthesisers, guitar, bass, 2 backing singers, drums & percussion - the standard 9 piece set up they have been using for over a year now. They played the crowd favourites, starting with Take The Long Way Home and then (from memory but not in order): Salva Mea, Insomnia, She's My Baby, Bring My Family Back, Hem of His Garment, Reverence, God is a DJ, Dirty Ol' Man and for the encore: Postcards and Take the Long Way Home (again). Each song was played perfectly. If you have never seen Faithless live then you should know they do not play the songs exactly like the CDs but different. They sound better live somehow. And it is interesting to hear. For example on God is a DJ there is a drum solo. This night it just worked so well. The crowd sang and danced and held up their beer cans in all the right places. OK, maybe the version of Postcards was too slow and the new CD single version of Bring My Family Back confused the audience I think, but these are the ONLY negative criticisms I can think of. Yeah! It was a classic Faithless performance showcasing exactly where they are at in June 1999 and proving to me they can only go on and up. Watch out next year I reckon they will be headlining the main stage!!

Footnote: they also played an acoustic set for the BBC TV at Glastonbury but I did not see it yet. I have been told it was brilliant with just Maxi and an acoustic guitar player!