Indeed:
An absolutely incredible Skunk Anansie performance at Rocking The Daisies, which was topped off with their iconic lead singer doing some upright crowd surfing, and standing on my shoulders while (probably unironically*) giving Weak a bit of a blast:
Photos via my wife’s Nokia N95, if I remember correctly. Wow.
* I’d like to think so, at least.
A bit of acoustic Skunk Anansie to get you through your Thursday afternoon.
I’d love to have shared my favourite one from this album Because of You, but there’s no video available for that one, so this, almost equally pretty song is what you get.
Memories of THAT NIGHT at Rocking the Daisies have come flooding back.
Not the Skunk Anansie one, although that would have been pretty apt, given that it was about a year ago that she rocked us at Rocking The Daisies. Their lineup this year is underwhelming at best.
But I digress. Often.
Quota photo time, lest there be no chance of getting anything up later (careful now) and I rushed to my Flickr and somewhat randomly chose this one:
Folds of giraffe skin, still very much on the giraffe, at Paarl’s Giraffe House earlier this year. This was a fully grown giraffe, but it still appears to have a fair amount of spare skin. I thought that was something that animals grew into, like Colin has been doing.
Unsurprisingly, if memory serves me correctly, it did seem quite taut on his neck though.
It’s probably just full on exhaustion, coupled with the disbelief of what actually occurred last night, but I’m not really able to function today. That said, we did take the opportunity to enjoy a childless meander back from Rocking the Daisies. And I’m back home in one piece, so it can’t be that bad.
Suffice to say, Skunk Anansie’s performance last night comprehensively knocked the Manic Street Preachers’ 2003 Glastonbury set from its comfortable spot on the throne of Best Gig I’ve Been To Land.
Being right down at the front is always a bonus, and I was ready to be impressed after dreary Alt-J and the zany warm-up from The Hives. But Skin and the boys made it extra special, with a breathtakingly energetic and interactive performance, including her standing on my shoulders and holding my hand – this one here, goddammit! [holds up left hand] – while she belted out Weak.
I went back 15 years in an instant.
There was stage diving (some organised, most not so much), there was power and presence, and there was even some classic rock’n’roll violence as Skin ended the band’s one year tour by putting her microphone stand through the drum kit after their final song.
The gaggle of disbelieving road crew gathered round the damaged kit pointing and taking cellphone pictures afterwards suggested that it was a wholly impromptu and unexpected act.
This morning, I woke up with this in the room:
A piece of memorabilia that I will certainly cherish and quite possibly frame.
If you look carefully, you can even make out the print of Skin’s studded silver boot. Sadly, having checked, there’s no such print on my jacket, but I’ve still got the memories.
I Hope You Get To Meet Your Hero they sang; last night, I kinda think I did.
For obvious reasons, this has been a Skunk Anansie week on the iPod. But much like it’s perfectly acceptable to add a bit of solo Morten Harket to your a-ha, it’s equally reasonable to slip a bit of solo Skin in amidst the Skunk Anansie.
Here’s Lost Without You from her debut album Fleshwounds, and as heartbreak songs go, it’s actually fairly positive:
Yep. She seems to have got over that one pretty quickly.
Sorry for the poor video quality. It looks like EMI were still using VHS back in 2003.