FAITHLESS + ANTONY SZMIEREK – BRIGHTON CENTRE 9.11.24
Astonishingly, it’s been 29 years since the quartet of Ayalah Deborah Bentovim (‘Sister Bliss’), Maxwell Alexander Fraser (‘Maxi Jazz’), Rowland Constantine O’Malley (‘Rollo’) and James David Catto (‘Jamie Catto’) got it together and formed Faithless and dropped their first ‘Salva Mea’ and ‘Insomnia’ singles back in 1995, both of which cracked the UK Singles Top 10. Since then, the band have left an indelible mark on the dance music landscape.
It’s fair to state that they are one of the most influential electronic acts of the 21st century! They’ve sold in excess of a staggering 20 million albums, three of which (‘No Roots’ 2004), ‘Forever Faithless – The Greatest Hits’ 2005) and ‘Faithless 2.0’ 2015), have hit the UK Albums No.1 slot. They’ve cracked the UK Top 40 singles no less than 16 times, and have amassed over a billion streams to date, so it’s no wonder they were voted the 4th greatest dance band of all time by Mixmag, narrowingly losing out to The Prodigy, Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers, but beating the likes of Underworld, Fatboy Slim, Orbital, Moby, Leftfield, Kraftwerk, The Shamen and The KLF to name a few.
Faithless have had a few absolute bangers in their time, that today are still giving joy to clubbers all over the planet, including the aforementioned ‘Insomnia’ from 1995, 1998’s ‘God Is A DJ’, 2001’s ‘We Come 1’, 2002’s ‘One Step Too Far’ which features Dido who is Rollo’s sister. Although down the year’s the personnel has changed somewhat, with Catto leaving the fold first back in 1999 in order to form 1 Giant Leap, Maxi Jazz sadly departing this world on 23rd December 2022 at the tender age of 65, and Rollo permanently remaining a studio bound member of the band, and thus leaving Sister Bliss to face the public and fly the flag for the outfit.
Earlier this year the band announced their much-anticipated return to the live arena with their first run of shows in eight years, taking in London’s iconic Roundhouse on 14th June, and further dates in Belgium, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, and not to mention a string of headline festival performances. With Sister Bliss at the helm alongside a full-live 7-piece band, Faithless proved they are very much a force to be reckoned with as they traversed through music old and new, delivering world class production and unforgettable scenes.
Since then, the band have confirmed plans for their eighth studio album, ‘Champion Sound’, and on 12th July they dropped the first single ‘Find A Way’ which is signature Faithless in all their glory – infectious classic house, piano loops and peak-time beats.
Following rave reviews of this year’s performances at Glastonbury (28th June), Wilderness (2nd August) and Bestival (18th August), this month is seeing Faithless currently on the road for no less than 21 dates across the UK and Europe, including a homecoming show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, and further shows in Brighton, Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, Antwerp, Zurich, Milan, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, amongst others. The Brighton show is date six of the tour and is happening this evening at our city’s largest concert venue, the Brighton Centre and looking around the arena it’s as close to a sell-out night as you can get!
Sister Bliss and her six touring chums take to the stage at 8:59pm accompanied by backing videos on the giant screen to the rear of the stage. Bliss is as you would expect centre stage and on a riser and is in charge of multiple keyboards. To her left is a female percussionist on tom toms and the like, as well as offering the occasional vocals. To the right of Bliss is the drummer and out in front are a guitarist and bassist, who are eventually joined by a male vocalist and then a female vocalist. It’s worth noting that the screen to the rear shows images of Maxi Jazz at the relevant vocal parts as if he is singing down from heaven for us! The performance has a duration of 94 minutes and concludes at 10:33pm.
The night is at times almost like a live version of a DJ mixtape and some of the tunes are grouped together in mixes which sync into each other, and some of these were not released under the Faithless banner, but are well-known dance classics, and some of them are just sections of the tunes, which makes it rather difficult in spotting all of the songs for our tracklisting below.
The party gets started with a cover of Guinean recording artist Mory Kanté’s ‘Yé Ké Yé Ké’ which was an international hit and one of Africa’s best-ever selling hits. As well as being a European No.1 in 1988, it was the first ever African single to sell over one million copies. The mood in the Brighton Centre is already euphoric and it’s apparent tonight is going to be a good one!
Fifteen minutes into the performance, the first of the vocalists takes to the stage and he sings the lead on ‘I Need Someone’. After which we are treated to the epic ‘Insomnia’ with Maxi hovering behind the band on the screen. I’m a tad surprised that the band isn’t actually finishing the set with this tune, but I’m mighty glad to hear it. After this the male vocalist returns to the stage and we get ‘Synthesizer’ and then the female vocalist appears and we get ‘Crazy English Summer’. The beats then take a massive upswing with the arrival of a mashup of Chuck Roberts ‘In The Beginning (There Was Jack)’ vocals mixed with Gat Décor’s epic ‘Passion’. This section with the booming ‘Passion’ synth notes, is for me the equal best part of the whole set.
The songs are coming at us fast and furious now, with the awesome ‘God Is A DJ’ being followed by their slow ballad take on Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’. The dance beats were back for the echoey guitar and drums led ‘Drifting Away’, which many will recall was used as the recurring theme music for the spy skit on Trigger Happy TV. We were then treated to their take on Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ which was a surprise to me. I enjoyed it, but the original is the best! Another cover followed in the form of a drums and percussion heavy take on Celeda and Danny Tenaglia’s ‘Music Is The Answer’. We were then informed that they were now going to perform a new tune, which they failed to introduce the title of! It started slowly and quietly and built as it went along. And the dance tunes continued with the arrival of ‘Take The Long Way Home’ followed by equal set highlight ‘We Come 1’ with its magic keys riff.
The seven musicians vacated the stage for a short while in order to return and play a couple of other numbers, the funky ‘This Feeling’ followed by the better ‘Thank You’ with its electronic bleeps which I’m a sucker for. This final number slowed up and then went into drum and bass mode, and at 10:33pm that was our lot and the punters showed their appreciation via deafening applause!
Faithless setlist:
(Intro) ‘Forever Free’
‘Yé Ké Yé Ké’ (Mory Kanté cover)
‘Salva Mea’
‘Plastic Dreams’ (Jaydee cover)
‘I Need Someone’
‘Insomnia’
‘Synthesizer’
‘Crazy English Summer’
‘Passion’ (Gat Décor cover)
‘Dawn Of The Dead’ (Leena Punks cover)
‘God Is A DJ’
‘Crazy’ (Gnarls Barkley cover)
‘Drifting Away’
‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ (Joy Division cover)
‘Music Is The Answer’ (Celeda and Danny Tenaglia cover)
“Unknown” (New song)
‘Take The Long Way Home’
‘We Come 1’
(encore)
‘This Feeling’
‘Thank You’
Support duties on the tour has fallen to Mancunian former teacher Antony Szmierek with the assistance of his brother, Martin, on guitar. We are in their company for half an hour, from 7:59pm to 8:29pm, during which time we are given seven songs. It’s a varied aged crowd in this evening, so Antony utilizes all of his teaching skills in order to get everyone on board, beginning with opening statement “Brighton, you ready to dance?”.
Antony refers to his set as being “Poetry over dance music” and I won’t disagree with him on that. It’s a talky style delivery, with electronic backbeats that Antony sets off, with Martin adding the live guitar vibes. All of the compositions are rammed full of many lines and he does well to remember and deliver them all. He begins with ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Fallacy’ and then ‘The Great Pyramid Of Stockport’. After which we get the only cover version, ‘Step On’ (Happy Mondays), which goes down rather well. ‘Angie’s Wedding’ is his next selection and it’s here that I note the similarity with The Example. We are informed that his ‘Service Station At The End Of The Universe’ album will be dropping next year. He’s touring it as well, but sadly there’s no Brighton date.
He ups the performance and clambers off the stage and over the crowd barrier and has a wander throughout the crowd whilst singing ‘Twist Forever’. After which we had the faster bouncier ‘Rafters’, and he signs off with a tune that he wrote on New Years Eve, (‘The Words To Auld Lang Syne’), where we all had to pretend it was actually New Year’s Eve and we had to count in the new year from 10 to 1. It’s a booming choon and overall Antony was a great warmup act and a rather likeable fellow, and most importantly for Faithless, he got the crowd seriously in the mood!
Antony Szmierek:
Antony Szmierek – vocals, electronics
Martin Szmierek – guitar
Antony Szmierek setlist:
‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Fallacy’
‘The Great Pyramid Of Stockport’
‘Step On’ (Happy Mondays cover)
‘Angie’s Wedding’
‘Twist Forever’
‘Rafters’
‘The Words To Auld Lang Syne’
