Hard Fi, Billy Bragg - Brixton Academy, London - Monday 15th May 2006

Five consecutive nights at Brixton Academy for Hard Fi, something that only 4 bands before, including The Clash, had achieved (although many other obviously could if they wanted to). This was the second night, and "special surprises" were promised.

Support act for all 5 nights was Billy Bragg, the legendary political protester. Most of his songs are either social poetry or political protest songs, mainly the latter. I had never seen him before but had always wanted to, even though I was aware that a Billy Bragg gig is as much a political lecture as a concert.

I really enjoyed Billy Bragg, even though many of the crowd (of Hard Fi fans) clearly didn't really get into it too much. The lyrics of his songs are amusing, thought provoking and clever, and he has been doing this for long enough to put on a great show. The electric guitar that he plays shows strongly that he is more a fan of The Clash than of Bob Dylan (and solo singer/guitarists pretty much have to take after one or the other).

After a good interval DJ, who was actually on stage with decks, Hard Fi arrived. They had invested in some big projection screens, and some good visuals to show on them - lots of pictures of Brixton for one song.

Although this was clearly a triumphant show for a band that have quietely become really quite big, for me it lacked the magic of some of the earlier shows, whilst they were on the way up. Richard Archer's voice sounded very strange throughout the show, like he was deliberately singing off key. Many of the songs had been rearranged for the occasion, either to be an octave higher, or to sound different in some other way. The number of chavs there also confirmed that Hard Fi are no longer a niche indie band.

A few new songs were played, a couple of which sounded very good indeed, but it was the (one year) old classics that hit the heights - Hard To Beat a particular winner this time.

I guess that expectations change as bands get bigger. Hard Fi had the expanded stage set, which is surely ready for yet bigger shows later in the year. The new rearrangements of the songs were OK, they may grow on me but I doubt it. But the masses have discovered this band now, and they seem to have graduated to an entirely different league of popularity.