Paul Draper - The Citadel, St Helens, 20/4/2024

  by Paul Clark

published: 19 / 12 / 2024

Some albums fade away and then there are those, with a mystique that grows around them over time. Mansun’s ‘Six’ is one of those albums. Mansun is no more, so it is left to the band’s frontman and driving force to keep the band’s flame burning. This is the second run of 25th-anniversary dates celebrating the album. The opening act was the Liverpool band Woo! They had the swagger and the tunes to back that up. Their sound is reminiscent of early The Verve. At the end of their set, it felt like the audience had disappeared with them. Given they were local they had brought family members out to see them on a high-profile support slot. Thankfully most of their fans stayed to watch the headline act and a decent crowd awaited Paul Draper as he walked on stage. Paul Draper and his band initially came out to run through songs from his recent solo albums. The progressive sounds of ‘Six’ can be heard in his newer material. So, the leap from the newer to the older material is not that stark. He bookended the run-through of solo material with ‘Cult Leader Tactics’, the title of his last album and ‘You've Got No Life Skills, Baby’. In between we had the solo singles, the pick of which is ‘Omega Man’, a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on the ‘Six’ album. Then it was off for a quick break before they plunged into the album in full. To do anything from Mansun’s second album is such an undertaking. It was an album when the spiky punk indie songs gave way to something more progressive. There are still a few spikier numbers across the 90-minute album, but several weigh in at the 8-minute mark. The opener ‘Six’ is epic in itself, there are many twists and turns in its nearly 9-minute duration. It was played in full tonight and not the brutal edit released as a single all those years ago. It’s something of a highwire act trying to replicate the ‘Six’ album in full. To be fair to Draper and his excellent band they never stumbled once. What is very much a studio album, is replicated well in the live setting. It all feels seamless and whatever backing tracks are being triggered don’t seem that obvious. Like the album they play the run of ‘Inverse Midas’, ‘Anti-Everything’, ‘Fall Out’ and ‘Serotonin’ as a continuous suite of songs. Sadly, there would be no guest appearance from Tom Baker whose familiar voice narrated the poem ‘Witness to A Murder, Pt. 2’ on the album. Instead, his melodious tones were relayed to the audience via the PA. This gave the band a well-earned breather. ‘Television’ is another one of those intricate winding songs that populate the album. There is a tricky falsetto in the chorus, which Draper tackles with aplomb. He’s been coaxing the audience all night to help him with some of the backing vocal tasks and to good effect too. He was nursing a mug of something all night to protect his voice. It was doing the trick, as he was in good voice all night. It is noticeable that he doesn’t play his guitar as much these days, its strummed occasionally, but the musical heavy-lifting is done by the rest of the band. ‘Legacy’ is one of the stand-out Mansun singles. There are many. Tonight, it seems to be the popular choice among the enthusiasts. It sounds as good live, as it does on record. It’s another one that’s difficult to sing, especially at the end of the set An epic album needs a big finish and ‘Being a Girl’ is that number. Again, it has many elements that they had to replicate from the album. They could be forgiven for playing an edited version of the song, they don’t. They play it all its glory. It’s the song that probably condenses all aspects of the band’s sound into one song. Paul Draper leaves the stage with the promise of new material and more revisiting of Mansun’s back catalogue. That will keep the Mansunites happy.

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