Goldfrapp @ The Roundhouse

Being on the Goldfrapp mailing list, I was given the opportunity to purchase pre sale tickets for last nights gig at the Roundhouse. When the presale tickets went on sale however, they were sold pretty much instantly so I had to go through the official sale where I managed to get tickets despite them selling out quickly too.

Whilst I always encounter ticket touts on my way to a gig venue, there seemed to be more of them than normal last time. Taking a look around the venue when Goldfrapp came on stage, whilst it wasn't exactly empty it clearly didn't look sold out, something really needs to be done about ticket touts but I'll save that rant for another time.

Goldfrapp have a new album coming out on Friday so inevitably there would be tunes I didn't know that would be played. I'll be honest, I wasn't a fan of their last album "Tales Of Us" but was such a fan of their previous five albums that I still went to see them back in 2013 when it came out.

The set began with "Utopia" followed by "Lovely Head" from their debut album "Felt Mountain". Then came the first of their new material "Anymore". Was definitely an improvement on their last offering having more of an electronic sound.

After hearing a few more old and new tracks I was quite surprised to hear them play "Dreaming" from their "Head First" album. I read somewhere that Goldfrapp themselves were not too keen on the "Head First" album so either they changed their mind or that article was a load of nonsense. Anyhow I am a fan of that album so all was good.

After a few more new tracks Alison seemed almost apologetic about playing the new material, saying she knows it can be difficult listening to something you've never heard before. There was a time when the likes of "Utopia" was new to me so definitely no bad thing there. What I can say is I think I'll enjoy the new album more than their last one and time will tell if it turns out better than the others.

Then came the anthems starting with "Number One" followed by "Ride A White Horse". At this point it wasn't even 10pm and they left the stage, but thought maybe it's an extended encore. They came back out and played "Black Cherry" then "Shiny and Warm", another track from the "Head First" album. Then came "Ooh La La" and I was thinking the only big number they were yet to do was "Strict Machine" which is what they did next and that was the end. Being a Monday though, the early finish perhaps wasn't such a bad thing.

So the new material sounds promising, the old tunes as good as ever and nothing from the "Tales of Us" album was played so the gig was as good as can be expected.