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| Info | Setlist | ||||||||||
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01. Intro - Brennið Þið Vitar 02. Earth Intruders 03. Hunter 04. Pagan Poetry 05. Unravel 06. The Pleasure Is All Mine 07. Vertebrae By Vertebrae 08. Where Is The Line 09. Jóga 10. Desired Constellation 11. Army Of Me 12. I Miss You 13. Triumph Of A Heart 14. Vökuró 15. Wanderlust 16. Hyperballad 17. Pluto encore 18. Oceania 19. Declare Independence |
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| Pictures (email) Observe that there usually is a NO camera policy at these concerts. | |||||||||||
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| Reviews |
| Send in your own review here! |
| I thought she was amazing. And Leila Arab amazed me too! Dark yet astoundingly beautiful stuff like that fires my imagination no end, and I revelled in the lesser played Bjork songs that night, such as 'Where Is The Line'. But maybe I'm not as pop as some of you out there? hmm.. There is definately something to be said about the venue's shittiness, but I never thought she would even grace my craphole of a town with her effervescence in a million years, and take it from me; it was something else, other-worldly in fact, down at the front :D And yes, this 'no camera policy' thing was also annoying, but I just stuffed mine in my bra anyway & ended up getting some great photos! Oh ye of little faith! Maybe one day I will see her in Iceland, serenading me under the northern lights at my own private gig! i can dream, can't I?? /eva hertz - 3930 |
| Björk / Leila Wolverhampton Civic, 25 April 2008 Featured Artists: Bjork From the light of the bar I pushed through the crowd in the darkened venue, trying to avoid standing on too many toes while my eyes adjusted. Leila was on stage rolling out punishing, glitchy, industrial rhythms; electronic swathes draped over breakbeats, punctured by the occasional snatch of recorded speech. It was an awesome way to set the scene - a slightly intimidating and otherly noise. It was a little disappointing when the lights came up at the end of the set to reveal that we were still in the comparatively mundane surroundings of the Civic. The mundanity disappeared soon enough. The lights dipped again and a roar went up form those assembled - not a full-blooded sound but one tinged with tremulous excitement. Various people filed on stage - an Icelandic brass band/choir, Damian Taylor and LFO's Mark Bell taking positions behind electronics, Jonas Sen on keyboards and Chris Corsano on percussion - before the pixie-genius herself skipped on stage and kicked off 'Earth Intruders'. Then followed one of the most compelling gigs of recent memory. Pummelling martial beats gave way to ululating beauty. Accompanied solely by a harpsichord for one song and by a cacophony of voices, percussion, electronics and brass for another. The breadth of Björk's vision and talent is reflected in her palette of sounds. The scalp-tingling moments kept on coming - 'Pagan Poetry's heartbreak drama, Army Of Me's thrilling visuals and the segue from Hyperballad' into the relentless bass pressure of LFO's 'Freak'. Lasers, strobes, flames and glitter showers all added to the spectacle. The setlist drew from across Björk's back catalogue with a slight emphasis on the new. The parting shot was 'Declare Independence', the crowd trading chants of 'Raise your flag' and 'Higher! Higher!' with the instigator on stage. I'd been waiting a long time to finally see one of the most radical yet popular artists of this generation and left wonderstruck. I still am. /Chris Unitt - 3913 |
| BEING dull and predictable are words you can never use to describe Bjork and this amazing gig showed why. The Icelandic pop pixie literally bounced on to the Civic stage and into opener Earth Intruders, having been led on by her colourful horn section. Her set focused mainly on her latest superb album Volta, allowing her to showcase her gloriously unique songs to the sell-out crowd. And as you might expect the barefoot star's outfit - which appeared to be a yellow smock, silver leggings and loud make-up - isn't something you'll see many girls wearing on a Friday night. Latest single Wanderlust seemed to have the crowd transfixed but older favourites such as Army Of Me, which started with an explosion of shiny ticker-tape almost blew the roof off. She finished off with a rousing and perfectly apt Declare Independence before she and the band marched off the stage, leaving everyone baying for more. It was a wonderful return to the Midlands and let's hope she doesn't leave it another four years before she comes back. /Gurdip Thandi - 3912 |
| Lets get one thing clear. I don't care what the signs around the venue say, if I'm paying £40 for a ticket, I'm taking photos. Whether Bjork will stand still long enough for me to take a decent one, is a different matter entirely. Blur upon blur is captured as she dances, skips, creeps, bounds, swishes and wanders around the stage. Sometimes lost in the music. Sometimes directing it. But clearly enjoying herself immensely. As are the crowd. Rapturously receiving each song. Cheering ecstatically at each cute, polite "thank you" she offers in her endearingly Iceland via Camden accent. But a thought can't help crossing my mind. The cynic in me wakes and offers a niggling suggesting. That a fair few here have made up their mind that tonight will be amazing regardless of the actual performance. That they will applaud purely because of who is performing. Bjork. The icon. The artist. Their hero. Their inspiration. One who can do no wrong. And for the most part she can't. The lights go down. The cheers go up and as the brass band marches on, you can't help but feel a rush of excitement. This is an event. At least it feels like one. Bjork bounds on stage as 'Earth Intruders' burst into life. A tribal carnival of drums and electronic blasts. Her voice is startling. Known as much for her quirks and phrasing, her records fail to capture how extraordinarily powerful an instrument it really is. Able to whisper intimately one minute, blast out the next. Both versatile and impressive and only one song in. A gorgeous 'Hunter' finds Bjork stalking the stage. From one side to the next, invigorating each part of the crowd she nears. 'Pagan Poetry' follows, sending the crowd into near ecstacy. It's chiming intro sparkling out around the hall. Beginning as gentle ballad, the brass band backing the mantra of "she loves him, she loves him", the song ends with the kind of pounding electro beats you'd find down your local rave. It's a moment that encapsulates everything the whole night does. The extremes within Bjork's records. Impossible to pigeon hole, her music strides across genres effortlessly. But while it pleases some of the people some of the time, does it please all of them all of the time? Personally, I'd say not. There are definitely moments where the night is testing. There's a definite mid set lull where it feels like the momentum drops. The crowd seems to lag a little. Attention wanders during 'Vertebrae By Vertebrae' which leads into a version of 'Where Is The Line' which is hard going, sludgy and feels like it will never end. Not until a thundering 'Army Of Me' does the performance pick up. It charges out of the speakers. Reawakens the senses as they delight in it's aural and visual glory. Beats explode as the bass rumbles aggressively. Dazzling lights flare like lightning. Lasers slice through the air, flickering and scribing on the back wall. It signals a re-energising of both crowd and performers. But the night is not flawless. There are imperfections. The sound isn't great. Much of the beauty and intricacy of Bjork's music is lost to a soundsystem that favours volume over clarity. There are moments when the sheer force of the beats threatens to destroy your hearing. They drown out other delicate sounds as they thunder from the speakers. The vocals of 'Triumph Of A Heart' are all but lost amid the melee of sounds. While 'Wanderlust' just sounds muddled and awkward. But on the night's softer songs, no fault can be found. 'Vökuró' is beautifully played. Bjork's voice alone with a tinkling harpsichord. 'Hyperballad' offers the surprise singalong moment of the night. Bjork offering the mic out as they holler the lyrics back to her. The fragility of the song lost to a moment of unity. And the encore of Oceania is simply divine. Bjork, now surrounded front of stage by the brass band, delivers a reworked version of the song. It is a magical moment and as Bjork pulls poses towards the end she beams with delight. It only remains for 'Declare Independence' to end the night. And it does it in style. Silver ticker tape explodes in the air and fills the room. It's an incredible sight. Falling back to the ground like a million glitter balls as the energy in the room rises and rises in sync to the beats and pumping fists on stage. It's an exhilerating end to a show. It reminds you that while Bjork will may challenge you in one way or another, she will ultimately always entertain you. /coxon le woof - 3911 |
| Back at my sister’s house after the gig, Vessel on the TV, going through the ‘are you obsessed with Björk?’ quiz in the book that came with Vespertine. ‘Of course I’m obsessed with Björk,’ she declares, irritated that anyone could suggest it was open to question. But she doesn’t have the Japanese release of Debut, or the pink vinyl Post. She pretends not to know her surname, in order to have me say it, several times, with increasing uncertainty (‘what’s that? “Goodman’s Dottir”?’) Here’s one though, question 76: ‘Have you been to a Björk or Sugarcubes concert? ‘Yes!’ ‘2 concerts?’ ‘Well...’ ‘4 or more? 2 or more in the same week? 2 or more in the same week and in different cities?’ ‘Oh, come on!’ Maybe we’re not so obsessed. But we do love Björk and, strange to say, had never seen her play before. Which made this gig the Most Exciting Thing Ever. What also helped with this were the massive vertical flags hanging above and to the sides of the stage, decorated with drawings of animals (a frog, a rabbit, a crocodile) and one side view of something’s skeleton. It felt a bit like being in Robin Hood, about to see a jousting competition. Instead of which, at length, tumbled onstage a hyperactive warrior brass band (Wonderbrass), some electronic musician types, and Björk herself in fierce face paint invoking ‘Turmoil! Carnage!’ This was the Most Exciting Thing Ever, too. She wasn’t joking, was she, when she said that Volta was a return to performance, after the relative calm of its two predecessors? My favourite Björk album was always Homogenic (I remember seeing the ‘Bachelorette’ video for the first time and thinking, ‘there is a Scott Walker’), and from the set she played, she seems to agree: ‘Hunter’ came second, the lights cooling from their angry red to reveal Björk’s dress to be yellow, flowing like one of Beefheart’s capes. ‘If travel is searching / And home what’s been found’ is so perfect as a statement / question of her intent. We are also blessed with ‘Jóga’, ‘Unravel’ and ‘Pluto’. No ‘Bachelorette’, sadly, but a fine ‘Vertebrae by Vertebrae’, which is kind of the same thing, crushed unpleasantly together with The Drift. I love that song. It was possibly during ‘Pagan Poetry’ that Björk was one second dancing around and the next spinning silly string Spiderman webs twenty feet across the stage. And was it ‘Hyperballad’ that had the whole height of the hall illuminated with reflective strips bathed in a golden glow? Any light aircraft which might have chanced to pass through (it wouldn’t have been that surprising) would have been safe from radar detection. There are probably many big pop shows around, with many daft effects, but how has it come about that there is only one properly massive pop star left who considers it her duty to fuck with the formula at every turn, to be big and bright, brash and subtle? Shouldn’t that be what they all do? Or did I just miss them, wrapped up in books? Whether or not, The Gummy Stumps would not have stood a chance against this onslaught. ‘Hyperballad’ getting thoroughly raved up towards the end, subsequently joined by ‘Pluto’ and the song the stage set is all about, ‘Declare Independence’. For which the large TV screens at the front of the stage showed an overhead shot of a live! real life! ReacTable creating a live real life exciting pop noise, and I remembered back a few years to when I thought I was going to be a scientist (don’t laugh) and came across the same invention, or at least a paper on it, in an altogether more academic context. Björk is probably the only person who could bring the two worlds together. Cherish her. /Chris - 3910 |
| Björk @ Wolverhampton Civic Hall - 25th April 2008 From the light of the bar I pushed through the crowd in the darkened venue, trying to avoid standing on too many toes while my eyes adjusted. Leila was on stage rolling out punishing, glitchy, industrial rhythms; electronic swathes draped over breakbeats, punctured by the occasional snatch of recorded speech. It was an awesome way to set the scene - a slightly intimidating and otherly noise. It was a little disappointing when the lights came up at the end of the set to reveal that we were still in the comparatively mundane surroundings of the Civic. The mundanity disappeared soon enough. The lights dipped again and a roar went up form those assembled - not a full-blooded sound but one tinged with tremulous excitement. Various people filed on stage - an Icelandic brass band/choir, Damian Taylor and LFO's Mark Bell taking positions behind electronics, Jonas Sen on keyboards and Chris Corsano on percussion - before the pixie-genius herself skipped on stage and kicked off 'Earth Intruders'. Bjork - Wolverhampton Civic HallBjork - Wolverhampton Civic Hall Then followed one of the most compelling gigs of recent memory. Pummelling martial beats gave way to ululating beauty. Accompanied solely by a harpsichord for one song and by a cacophony of voices, percussion, electronics and brass for another. The breadth of Björk's vision and talent is reflected in her palette of sounds. The scalp-tingling moments kept on coming - 'Pagan Poetry's heartbreak drama, Army Of Me's thrilling visuals and the segue from Hyperballad' into the relentless bass pressure of LFO's 'Freak'. Lasers, strobes, flames and glitter showers all added to the spectacle. Bjork - Wolverhampton Civic HallBjork Wolverhampton Civic Hall The setlist drew from across Björk's back catalogue with a slight emphasis on the new. The parting shot was 'Declare Independence', the crowd trading chants of 'Raise your flag' and 'Higher! Higher!' with the instigator on stage. I'd been waiting a long time to finally see one of the most radical yet popular artists of this generation and left wonderstruck. I still am. /Chris Unitt - 3909 |
| It wasn't Leila Arab was it by any chance, she was the support at the Manchester gig and i agree with you, she was terrible. She was also support at the Hammersmith Apollo at one of the dates and she was pelted with missiles when she gave the crowd the finger. Is this the same Leila Arab i have watched on a brilliant DVD, MTV Unplugged where she was playing keyboards, it cant be, but yes, it is. Leila, what the hell has happened. /kpeecee - 3877 |
| My initial reaction after this show ended was that I really wanted to see Bjork live again! I was amazed at her energy onstage and hearing her powerful voice live was an extremely special experience. What was surely so great for the fans was that she looked like she was having a great time - laughing, smiling, dancing and generally enjoying being Bjork! The show itself was pretty varied, ranging from moments when her vocals had minimal accompaniment, to all-out dance heaven with lasers and loud beats. I enjoyed it all. I was pleased to hear some songs from Medúlla, especially Oceania which sounded incredible. The version of I Miss You was probably the best live performance of that song that I have ever heard. Pluto was astounding, and Wanderlust sounded gorgeous. The finale was a great visual and sonic spectacle, as Bjork performed Declare Independence surrounded by her female brass band, who danced in unison with flags attached to them. The audience was then showered with shiny silver confetti as Bjork roared out the song to an uplifting level. Great! The only bad side was that the sound at the venue wasn’t perfect, but this did very little to dampen that beautiful voice. Thanks so much to Bjork and her band for a great performance. /Cheriecloud - 3873 |
| Just a quickie cos I'm tired. That was just the best night ever despite the godawful DJ who bored us for an eternity. Bjork, you are amazing!! /bobbins - 3872 |
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