Goldie Lookin Chain, Newport Leisure Centre
Even though this blog is named the Musipedia Of Metal, I think there is still room for other styles of music – and even more so I think there is always room for a bit of comedy. So, when local comedy rappers Goldie Lookin Chain (who are from “a town called Newport, which is in Newport” apparently) rocked up to play the Newport Leisure Centre (which is also in Newport apparently) on Black Saturday dressed in their shiniest tracksuits and bling I thought I’d go along too. The group brought quite a few friends with them as well, as I could count a total of fourteen (!) different members on stage during their set, whereas according to Wikipedia the band only has ten full-time members. Having that many people on stage at once made the show a whole lot of fun to watch, even though it also made it practically impossible to follow who was doing or saying what at any given time.
Another couple of friends they brought were also the warm up act – who consisted of Rhondda rapper Andrew “Biggie” Drew Morris (4) (who the headliners have written a song about) and a chap who’s name I didn’t catch. Their act consisted of them both rapping over other people’s songs and trying to gee up the crowd in a style reminiscent of an overly talkative club DJ. I can honestly say that I did not enjoy their performance but to be fair it certainly wasn’t aimed at me even though I enjoy listening to rap and knew most of the songs they were performing over. I guess I just didn’t get it; oh well.
The lads in GLC (8) hit the stage to what they claimed was going to be a “nine minute intro” during which they helpfully updated the crowd to inform them what stage the intro was at (“make some noise for the middle of the intro”) as well as informing the crowd throughout the show of the current “level” of enjoyment we had attained – you will no doubt be relieved to hear that we just hit the highest level (five) right at the last song, thank goodness for that! After what I’m sure wasn’t actually nine minutes the proper set began. As this show was the final one of the “World Tour Of Wales” the band had embarked on to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of their major label debut Greatest Hits a decent amount of the set was pulled from that album.
The likes of Half Man, Half Machine, You Knows I Loves You and the top 3 hit single Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do all went down very well with the extremely partisan audience in the room. As did all the local references (Baneswell Express to give just one easy example) and in-jokes that are frequently peppered throughout the bands’ lyrics. “Biggie” from the support act also made a second appearance during GLC’s set as they performed their song named after him (called ABM, in case you couldn’t guess). It is kind of strange to see the band – most of whom will be in their late-30’s or early 40’s by now – still performing some of their more immature numbers such as Ice Ice Dildo, Soapbar or set-closer Your Mother’s Got A Penis, but those songs are GLC mainstays so I guess they’re not going anywhere.
Overall the bands set was very entertaining and thus represented good value for money in my eyes. The only criticism I have is that after all this time some of their jokes are beginning to wear a little bit thin but there’s still some mileage left in their Adidas trackie bottoms yet I reckon.
Even though this blog is named the Musipedia Of Metal, I think there is still room for other styles of music – and even more so I think there is always room for a bit of comedy. So, when local comedy rappers Goldie Lookin Chain (who are from “a town called Newport, which is in Newport” apparently) rocked up to play the Newport Leisure Centre (which is also in Newport apparently) on Black Saturday dressed in their shiniest tracksuits and bling I thought I’d go along too. The group brought quite a few friends with them as well, as I could count a total of fourteen (!) different members on stage during their set, whereas according to Wikipedia the band only has ten full-time members. Having that many people on stage at once made the show a whole lot of fun to watch, even though it also made it practically impossible to follow who was doing or saying what at any given time.
Another couple of friends they brought were also the warm up act – who consisted of Rhondda rapper Andrew “Biggie” Drew Morris (4) (who the headliners have written a song about) and a chap who’s name I didn’t catch. Their act consisted of them both rapping over other people’s songs and trying to gee up the crowd in a style reminiscent of an overly talkative club DJ. I can honestly say that I did not enjoy their performance but to be fair it certainly wasn’t aimed at me even though I enjoy listening to rap and knew most of the songs they were performing over. I guess I just didn’t get it; oh well.
The lads in GLC (8) hit the stage to what they claimed was going to be a “nine minute intro” during which they helpfully updated the crowd to inform them what stage the intro was at (“make some noise for the middle of the intro”) as well as informing the crowd throughout the show of the current “level” of enjoyment we had attained – you will no doubt be relieved to hear that we just hit the highest level (five) right at the last song, thank goodness for that! After what I’m sure wasn’t actually nine minutes the proper set began. As this show was the final one of the “World Tour Of Wales” the band had embarked on to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of their major label debut Greatest Hits a decent amount of the set was pulled from that album.
The likes of Half Man, Half Machine, You Knows I Loves You and the top 3 hit single Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do all went down very well with the extremely partisan audience in the room. As did all the local references (Baneswell Express to give just one easy example) and in-jokes that are frequently peppered throughout the bands’ lyrics. “Biggie” from the support act also made a second appearance during GLC’s set as they performed their song named after him (called ABM, in case you couldn’t guess). It is kind of strange to see the band – most of whom will be in their late-30’s or early 40’s by now – still performing some of their more immature numbers such as Ice Ice Dildo, Soapbar or set-closer Your Mother’s Got A Penis, but those songs are GLC mainstays so I guess they’re not going anywhere.
Overall the bands set was very entertaining and thus represented good value for money in my eyes. The only criticism I have is that after all this time some of their jokes are beginning to wear a little bit thin but there’s still some mileage left in their Adidas trackie bottoms yet I reckon.