Delores and The Turtle > The Bootlooker > Download MP3 Files Carling Homecoming Live Thursday 18th September, 2003 The Wellington Club, Hull, UK Text and Music Provided by Carling After a comical intro tape, The Beautiful South appear on the tiny stage, which nevertheless still manages to take up about half of the venue, and the crowd are elated. Paul Heaton swaggers round the stage looking like a cross between Liam Gallagher and Shaun Ryder, all the style of the former but with the hardened attitude of the later. Starting off looking slick in a pair of shades and a stylish jacket, he quickly follows the rest of us in bursting into a sweat and after a handful of songs he’s stripped down to a soaking t-shirt. The tiny room in the Welly Club is packed with 500 devoted fans who are all literally dripping in sweat halfway through the set. At one point Heaton even quips, “it’s like a Christian concert” when the bouncers start handing out free water to the fans packed in the front row, just inches from the band. After the intial footie-style chants of ‘Heaton, Heaton' die down, it’s new girl Alison ‘Lady’ Wheeler’s turn in the spotlight and the crowd show their recognition as the chants turn to 'Wheeler, Wheeler'. She easily fills the shoes of her predecessors and them some – this girl can sing, and what a way to make a first appearance, in front of 500 dedicated fans of the band. The set is about as ‘great’ a ‘greatest hits’ set could be with the skilful band reeling out classic after classic. ‘A Little Time’ gets its deserved reaction as the band suddenly find themselves with an extra 500 backing singers; ‘Old Red Eyes’ continues the arm-in-arm sing-a-along before ‘Song For Whoever’ just brings the house down. With a new album ‘Gaze’ out in mid-October, the gig is also the first chance for fans to hear the new material. Out of the new tracks the forthcoming single 'Just A Few Things' is the obvious stand-out with a thumping Motown style beat which gets everyone’s approval. By the time we get to ‘Good As Gold’, after back-to-back classics ‘Don’t Marry Her’, ‘Rotterdam’ and ’Perfect 10’, the whole band are dripping in sweat, and incredibly enough, in some kind of David Blane style trickery, Dave Hemingway has managed to get through the whole gig in a huge yellow anorak. After furious screams and shouts from the crowd, manically urging the band to return to the stage, they come back for a couple of numbers followed by a big surprise. ‘Woman In The Wall’ is closely followed by ‘Keep It All In’, before the band launch into a fun-filled version of S Club’s ‘Don’t Stop Movin’ which the sweaty masses effortlessly do. 1 Pretenders to the Throne 2 We Are Each Other 3 Dumb 4 A Little Time 5 Pretty 6 Old Red Eyes 7 101% Man / Life vs. Lifeless 8 One Last Love Song 9 Song For Whoever 10 Just A Few Things WMV 11 Blackbird on a Wire WMV 12 Don’t Marry Her WMV 13 Rotterdam WMV 14 36D WMV 15 Perfect 10 WMV 16 Good As Gold ** Encore ** 17 Woman In The Wall 18 Keep It All In 19 Don’t Stop Movin’