Welcome To The Beautiful South - The Beautiful South

You can tell its been a great gig when you come away with a piece of your apparel missing. Anything less than a missing item of clothing and it wasn't riotous enough.

Admittedly we weren't expecting anything of the sort when we turned up to see The Beautiful South at the Mayfair in Newcastle. They'd just released their debut album and, although it contained well written and melodic pop tunes, it could not be described as an adrenaline rush. There were a few uptempo tunes on the album but these were by far outnumbered by thoughtful ballads. Yes this was going to be a fully clothed gig.

So it came as a bit of a shock when the band took to the stage and launched into 'You Keep It All In', one of the quicker songs on the album and a recent hit. The crowd went mental and the whole room started to pogo in unison. It was during this chaos that shoes were lost and I made the mistake of trying to pogo whilst under a set of stairs. My head clanged against a steel beam and the beam won.

Thankfully things calmed down after the opening number but the damage had already been done. Shoeless with a sore head.

It was a great gig and they rattled through the entire album, and then had to play it again as they didn't have enough songs to fill the set; Paul Heaton refusing to rely on his back catalogue with The Housemartins.

But as the songs are so good, it would be churlish to complain. Who would want to hear 'You Keep It All In' a second time? I still had a shoe to spare. The best track on the album by far is 'From Under The Covers'. A blast of a guitar pop song with a great lyric. Then there is the achingly beautiful ballad 'I'll Sail This Ship Alone'. It's a great debut.

If we are indeed put on this planet to learn from our experiences, then that night in Newcastle I added three vital lessons; don't make assumptions, keep your laces tied and look up before pogo-ing