The Blue Aeroplanes at Lafayette London, July 27th 2024

The Blue Aeroplanes made a triumphant return on Saturday at a packed-out Lafayette in London, their first live performance since frontman Gerard Langley’s recent emergency surgery. As always with the Aeroplanes, you never know what line-up you are going to see or what songs culled from their impressive, sprawling back catalogue you are going to hear. First of all, the line-up was the same as last year’s excellent show at the Electric Ballroom with the addition of a young, enthusiastic chap on keyboards and acoustic guitar, sorry I didn’t get this name. Gerard was flanked by guitarist/vocalists Bec Jevons from iDestoy and Singer-Songwriter Rita Lynch and then there's Mike Youe on lead guitar. The rhythm section comprised the spiky haired Chris Sharp on bass and longtime drummer John Langley. And then of course, there’s Wojtek who is still dancing full-on throughout the whole set – how he gets the energy I’ll never know. At one point, he even leaps down into the audience to push and pull the crowd and show them how it’s done. 

 

The set-list is predictable in its typical Blue Aeroplanes unpredictable style – the regular crowd-favourites such as “Jacket Hangs”, "Yr Own World" and “… And Stones” are joined by a selection of deep-cuts and unexpected delights. Tonight, I’m particularly happy as we get “Missy Lane” with Rita on lead vocals and “Mis-Firing,” which has one of my all-time favourite guitar riff intros, and from the band that specializes in killer guitar riff intros, that’s saying something. Bec takes lead vocals on the energetic and punky “(An Unexpected Hit of) Adoration” which is augmented by some great sax from Wojtek’s son, Alexander. They also play “Building An Ark For the Anthropocene” and a blistering “Bulletproof Coffee & A Snake-Oil Shot” from the excellent current album “Culture Gun”, which goes to prove that, despite the many personnel changes over the years, the sheer quality of the songwriting never drops. 

 

Gerard looks extremely well considering the seriousness of his recent situation and is on fine form vocally, he thanks us for being there, and admits he is happy to be here too, as he didn’t think he would make it. Admiration and emotion are buzzing round the audience and the atmosphere is fantastic. But then things take another unexpected turn when Gerard introduces a very special guest during the encore. Yes, it’s Rodney Allen, who has also had to deal with his own life-threatening illness and it was wonderful to see him take the stage. Gerard takes a break to allow Rodney to bask in the outpouring of relief at seeing what a remarkable recovery he has made and the band launch into his signature song “Fun”. Fun is probably not something The Blue Aeroplanes have had much of over the past few years, what with Gerard and Rodney’s health situations and the extremely sad and untimely passing of their genius guitarist Angelo Bruschini last year. However, tonight proved how important a top night of live music can be, it’s almost a transcendental experience. I think there were a few lumps in throats and tears in the eyes of many of the crowd as “Fun” drew to a close and we cheered for Rodney. 

 

Of course, to close the show we get the now traditional chaotic take on Tom Verlaine’s “Breakin’ In My Heart” and the ‘see how many musicians we can get on stage to join in’ competition peaks at thirteen people in all. These include former Blue Aeroplanes guitarist Gerard Starkie, who had opened the show with a short but impressive set of solo songs and a couple of excellent numbers from his other project, The Jesus Bolt. Tonight was a celebration, when the band and audience connect in such a way, it can be cathartic and emotional, there’s just nothing else like it. It was definitely one of those “I’m bloody glad I was there to witness it" shows that’s for sure. 

 

 

The night was even more special for me personally as the band asked to use one of my photos for the advertising in the run up to the show, and I was truly honoured. For more news, updates and merchandise, please check out The Blue Aeroplanes official website here. You can see more videos from the Lafayette show at our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here and lots of Blue Aeroplanes reports, photos and videos from previous shows in our archive.