WORDS AND IMAGES SAM HOLT
On a cold December evening I entered the warmth of the ‘art deco venue’, The Assembly, a venue originally known as The Bath Assembly Rooms, no doubt a link to this spa town.
I’m here tonight for The House of Love, a band formed back in 1986 by Guy Chadwick and Terry Bickers,one of the first bands signed to Creation Records, the band have gone through many line-up changes through the years that followed, for tonight’s line up, Guy is the only remaining member of that original line up. The House of Love are playing select dates as part of the ‘Burn Down the World Tour’, a compilation album released last year.
Support act for the evening was Billy Saunders [ex The Spitfires] who recently launched a solo career, and released an album ‘Paper Dream’. He had fantastic stage presence, he and his band delivered a high energy set. The set was over way too soon but for me my favourite song was “Don’t Look Back” with its foot stomping beat and pounding bassline, it was a great song to get the audience ready for the main act. Billy asked the audience “are you ready for The House of Love”, replying himself “I should hope so”, they were and after a short break the main act took to the stage.
The House of Love played a blistering set that comprised mainly of material from their first three albums, something that went down very well with the audience. Demographically speaking the audience age varied coisderably, many remembered the songs from way back in the late 80’s and 90’s. After playing “Hannah”, it was obvious it had been well received. The band then launched into “Shine On”, followed by “The Beatles and The Stones”, all three in succession went down a storm and as Guy thanked everyone, a big beaming smile came over his face, but it was the beautiful solo played by guitarist Keith Osborne, ok maybe not Terry Bickers, but he played superbly and is a great addition to the band. There wasn’t a lot of talk in between songs, but when Guy did talk in between he spoke fondly of a song they’ve not played for a long time that they played last night, “Se Dest”.He also introduced the title track of their current release “Burn Down the World” .Unfortunately, before I knew it, we were at the last song on the set list “I Don’t Know Why I Love You”, a quick look around the audience I could see many singing along. It wasn’t a sell-out, but it was a good appreciate audience and very well attended. Was that it though, the cries for more rang out and Guy came back for a solo short 3 song set, as he left it was obvious the crowd wanted more, the band returned and played a further 3 songs the ever-popular “Christine”, the one that someone had been shouting for “Destroy the Heart”, and finally closing with a great rendition of “Love in a Car”.
All in, it had been a great night, it may have been cold, foggy and miserable outside but inside it was warm, the music flowed freely, was it a nostalgia trip, maybe but an enjoyable one and from a band that should have been bigger than they were.
Set list
1/ CRUEL
2/ IN A ROOM
3/ MARBLE
4/ HANNAH
5/ SHINE ON
6/ THE BEATLES AND THE STONES
7/ SAFE
8/ FEEL
9/ INTO THE TUNNEL
10/ THE GIRL WITH THE LONELIEST EYES
11/ CRUSH ME
12/ BURN DOWN THE WORLD
13/ SE DEST
14/ I DONT KNOW WHY I LOVE YOU
ENCORE 1
15/ PHONE
16/ BLIND
17/ FADE AWAY
ENCORE 2
18/ CHRISTINE
19/ DESTROY THE HEART
20/ LOVE IN A CARE
FOLLOW HOUSE OF LOVE
My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago
