Kinetik embarked on their first UK tour in April 1998, taking in The Queen's Hall, Narberth, Wales on the 3rd and then the Electric Cafe Music Club at the Flowerpot in Derby on the 5th. I was present at both concerts and I am pleased to be asked to write reviews of such great performances.
Kinetik started their debut tour at a local location (for them!) - Narberth's Queen's Hall. Kinetik had played at this venue before for 1995's Burning Issue event and were very welcome for a return visit. The concert featured the usual Kinetik line-up of Shirleyann Davies, Colin Jordan and Andrew Slegt. The band had the luxury of actually having curtains at this concert which added a nice Kraftwerk touch as the introduction electronic voices filled the hall, introducing the band and they parted to reveal the band logo behind Kinetik's concert set up with the group in front dressed in black.
Kinetik's set began with one of their dance numbers 'Dance Machine'. As at previous Kinetik concerts, all the music was accompanied by sequenced computer graphics or video footage projected onto a huge screen behind the group. This first track encouraged many of the audience onto the dance floor at the front of the stage. 'Dance Machine' was followed immediately by another up tempo track 'Generation'. This was followed by 'Kinetik Energy' and 'Pipeline'. Then a new arrangement of 'Sounds Of Industry' was delivered to the audience. Instead of its usual industrial arrangement, this track had been reworked into a rave/techno version which was really different to how Kinetik had played it before and I found it a very refreshing feature of their set. My personal favourite was next - 'Trans Continental' which had some new and revised stunning video graphics in the background of the track. As usual, Andrew took lead vocals on the vocoder for this song.
'I.S.D.N.' was the next track to follow as it had done at Kinetik's appearance at EMMA in 1997. 'Net Working' was next which featured Colin using his customised hand held mini mixer drum machine for the track. Throughout the concert, the video screen had shown many different sorts of graphics ranging from TV show clips to sequenced computer images. Everything that was shown was very entertaining and accompanied the music well.
The next track was a real surprise. As Kinetik's next live date was at The Electric Cafe music club in Derby, the band had decided to incorporate a cover version of the Kraftwerk track 'Electric Cafe' into their set. This track made its debut that evening and was excellent. I remember thinking that if Kraftwerk were to perform this track today live, then this is exactly how they would have done it. The bass and drums were perfect for a live version of this track. The whole sound of the concert was very good coming from the speakers around the large hall.
Kinetik closed their set with 'Refined' which concluded as previous Kinetik concerts with each band member performing a solo piece before walking off. Andrew played his bass controller, Shirleyann her WX11 wind instrument (for the first time that evening) and then Colin concluded the set playing his keyboards and then leaving the equipment to finish the track by itself.
Two evenings later Kinetik played their second date in the tour at the Flowerpot in Derby to the Electric Cafe music club. This time however, the surroundings were not as luxurious - the stage was very tiny, no screen for video backdrops and the room was small, but the audience like at EMMA was to appreciate Kinetik's music. The band were introduced onto stage by Radio Derby's Ashley Franklin whom had interviewed Colin and Andrew on his BBC Radio Derby show a week earlier.
Kinetik's set was almost the same as for Narberth except the sound was more compact and the audience did not dance, but took in what they were watching or listening to - very dignified but this did not appear to phase the band at all. The only change to the Narberth set was the addition of 'Haven's Lament' which followed the new version of 'Sounds Of Industry'. In this, Shirleyann played her WX11 beautifully. All other tracks were in the same order as at Narberth.
However, unlike at Narberth and as the concert was in full gear, the Gremlins struck with a vengeance during the new version of 'Sounds Of Industry'. Once the track was re-started, the band gave it everything and this turned out to be the track of the evening. The band seemed to be enjoying themselves during the track as big smiles could be seen on Andrew's and Shirleyann's faces. The other highlight of this concert was 'Refined'. This was given everything by the group and the closing solos were superb.
The audience really appreciated this concert along with the hard work involved in producing it. Many took time to chat with the band afterwards and took interest in the structure of the tracks and the equipment used by the band. During these live concerts, Kinetik used a new piece of equipment called the SuperNova, (these concerts being its first use worldwide) and it has greatly enhanced their set, being responsible for (among other things) the excellent drum sounds used on the track 'Electric Cafe'.
| SET
LIST - NARBERTH 3/4/98
KINETIK INTRO / DANCE
MACHINE SET LIST - DERBY 5/4/98 KINETIK INTRO / DANCE MACHINE |
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