Ed Harcourt - Stockholm China Teatern - 31/3/03
4/5
By: Julian Sewell
I believe it was the moment halfway through the third song of the show when Ed proceeded to play his fifth different instrument of the evening that it suddenly dawned on me that what I thought was a richly fulfilled youth of burning down bus-shelters, doing wheelies on my Raleigh Grifter and managing to do a hundred keepy-ups with a football may have been slightly wasted. And if Harcourt wasn't such a nice bloke, I'd have been up on the stage giving him a Chinese burn or a crow-peck, the bloody show-off.
China Teatern is a beautiful all-seated venue right in the heart of Stockholm. Holding about four-hundred people, it's Ed's largest show to date here in the region and you can tell he's relishing the affair; enabling both the downstairs and balcony to cheer one after the other, he's milking the crowd, who this being Sweden, understandably need warming up a little.
Not familiar with the album prior to this show, if it's a track-by-track description you're after, you're reading the wrong 'Wheelie-king' review; but, certainly at least, with extravagant past single 'All of Your Days Will Be Blessed' and upcoming 45 'Watching The Sun Come Up' it's the moment where our Harcourt 'rocks out' to allow himself and the band to get the place (figuratively) swinging that his arsenal-repertoire particularly shines. And would glow a whole light brighter if we weren't all sat down in comfy armchairs.
Relatively... A downbeat number emblazoned 'Sleepyhead' ,which - though painstakingly gorgeous - did get a certain other rockfeedback reporter (Mr Andy Willson on tour) to start doing the nodding dog impersonation; don't take it personally, Mr H - more to do with prior beer-consumption and luxurious seating arrangements than anything else.
So a great initiation for many - inclusive of your scribe - to the intricate, diverse and quite magical world of Ed Harcourt. I still reckon I could beat him in a keepy-up competition, though.
Artists in this article: Ed Harcourt
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