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ANOTHER triumphant gig took place at Morecambe's Dome with the arrival of British Sea Power last Wednesday night.

This is a band at that great stage of being well known enough to have a true following, but not so big that they make over-produced, bland albums (You know who you are Chris Martin).

No Radio One playlist material, just interesting, original songs and you can still just about get a ticket to their gigs.

Having read up on the band before going to the gig, I found out that high energy gigs in some unusual places are apparently one of their
trademarks.

And this one certainly did not disappoint.

While an accompanying friend of mine told me they had ditched some of the stage decorations (well who needs a dozen stuffed animals with them?), they did have a few props to compliment the music and keep the audience entertained.

An air raid siren was put to good use by the band and the crowd on a number occasions much to our delight.

And over the course of the evening they put in a genuinely good effort to get the crowd involved.

Much of the audience chanted 'Easy! Easy!' along to the popular Go Lucifer, and an enthusiastic section of the crowd carried and even more enthusiastic band member through the audience in a valiant attempt at crowd surfing.

At one point another band member explained they had forgotten their dad's 84th birthday the previous week but the old fella come to watch the gig – cue an impromptu rendition of happy birthday (Many happy returns once again, Ronald).

The music was a touch of class with soothing violin, guitar and keyboards rising to a wonderful crescendo of music through each song.
The vocals, originality of music and the ease with which each song could sound so different from the last reminded me a little of the band Belle and Sebastian, which is no bad thing.

Superb gig, brilliant music and a great effort.The band even milled about in crowd for a while afterwards chatting to fans.

I just wondered why the gig wasn't a bit more packed. There was a decent number in but for a band of this calibre I just thought people could've made a bit more effort to turn out.

I'm pretty sure a group near me at the front didn't even watch the band but just got drunk, shouted loudly at each other and annoyed everyone.

That said, the rest of the people who did turn up seemed to have really enjoyed it, especially a group of around half a dozen young chaps right at the front who enthusiastically bounced along to every song. Go on lads.

The people of the Lancaster district have a good thing on their doorstep with the Morecambe Dome. Great bands are making the effort to play there.

Keep an eye out and make the effort to get along to see them, even if they're not off Chris Moyles' morning playlist. It's not very expensive and certainly cheaper than a night in the pub.