Moby

Homelands England 2000 review

Moby has been around for quite some time (he's 35) and does know how to put on a show. The Main arena was jammed and even tho' it was still light the crowd were there and ready for it. I'm not a great one for early starts, but standing on the side of the main tent, with an amazing view down into the bowl, which was a heaving, swaying mass of arms, bodies and glo-stixs, did the trick and got my dancing boots moving.

Nice man that he is, he complimented us on our resiliance, as if a bit of rain would put us off!

The first track I caught was Go. Played pretty close to the early 90's original, it didn't seem out of place, now thats either cos it is timeless or because dance music hasn't really moved on, take your pick, personally I don't care its just a good tune and does bring back a few memories.

Moby is quite a frail figure when seen in the flesh, but on stage he comes alive and is on the move all the time, singing, playing the guitar, percussion and synth. Backed with a fairly straightforward set up of guitar, singer and drummer, it's the tunes that really stand out. He mixed in a couple from Play, Natural Blues and Why Does My Heart Feel so Bad, with the onstage singer doing the vocals and 15,000 of us joining in the bits we could remember. Jumping off speakers and leaning right into the crowd, the man really is a comsumate performer, he brings you into the music.

He followed up with a couple of 90's rave standards, which he dedicated to the rave crew - thanks Moby we love you too. Its refreshing to see a muso who actually does what he wants, without reference to fashion or convention, the tracks from Play for instance, made up of tracks sampling early 20th century Gospel and Spiritual songs, yet it still gets us jumping. This highlights the uniqueness of the man (for an american ;-), in a week when US Rock Poseurs the Smashing Pumpkins have given up on the Music scene because of the all pervading "Britney" culture (hah, more like the bottom dropped out of the Goth Grunge Rock Scene), Mobys' message to you? I reckon it would be "get a life, cheer up and do something original".

In typical style he dedicated Bodyrock to Public Enemy, who, he claimed, set he stage for a whole generation of purveyors of dance music - in which case thank you so much! It's a mental track, and really got the tempo sky high.

His last 2 numbers were Money ("my sexiest song") and Feeling so Real, which he reckons is the greatest ever Disco track. A man of few words, he last address to the crowd was simply," thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou" I got the feeling he meant it!

And then it finished, silence, disorientation and then the crowd cheered and hollered for more, but no luck.

An interview with Moby at Homelands is available here, and more photos here.