Jerry, Adrian And Mike

Before this blog becomes a never-ending series of obituaries, let's celebrate Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew, out on the road with their Remain In Light Tour.

Guest contributor Mike saw them at The Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton last Friday (6th). What did you think, Mike?

Apologies already for the backstory – but some gigs are a personal journey and others less so.

I firmly believe that Stop Making Sense is the greatest gig on film. There will be more naysayers than supporters on this but nobody has ever come up with an argument for something else that has swayed me. Therefore with no way of seeing Talking Heads live in the past 35+ years we minions have to think of ways to get as close to that experience as possible.

I have seen David Byrne twice. I have seen Tom Tom Club. But like many I never got to see Talking Heads live. So with all 4 original members in their 70’s the chance to recreate the 1983 Stop Making Sense experience is dwindling.

Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew have been peddling their wares in the USA for a while now. Belew played on the 1980 European Tour for Talking Heads and there is footage of this that can be found relatively easily of a gig they played in Rome. Whilst the sound quality is ropey I find that I go back and watch this more often than revisiting Stop Making Sense. When you watch Stop Making Sense, the production values are like a movie from the time Byrne walks on with his ‘tape he wants to play’. With the 1980 footage it looks sweaty, barbaric – more like an actual gig. So whilst I love both it is the Rome 1980 gig I want to be at.

Therefore when the tickets went on sale I had to go. I bought one ticket – I’m going on my own if need be; if others want to come then fair enough. I had to see Jerry if nothing else to complete the set! 

(NB That’s a lot of preamble so lets get on with it)

I live near Bristol so it’s about a 190 mile round trip. Luckily I had friends in Cheltenham who also wanted to go so we shared the ride. I had only gone to 2 gigs before in Wolverhampton and they were both for Blur – 2012 and 2023. Both were fantastic and effectively in the same building but not the same stages. Blur played in the bigger hall whilst tonight’s gig was in the smaller of the two. Both venues have had money spent on them since the pandemic and both to me seem splendid venues to see a gig at.

The thing that hit us as we entered is that this gig wouldn’t be full. The gig was on a Friday night but the place had lots of space… anyway Cool Cool Cool came on and I could see from previous YouTube views that they were essentially the backing band for the final act. The sound was impressive and a definite 80’s vibe abounded. A cover of Brass in Pocket was (I think) song 4 of a 6-song set and whilst I wouldn’t be seeking out their work again the support went along breezily enough.

So the main act came on just before 9pm and launched into Psycho Killer. Many of you may have seen last week the new video for the song involving Saoirse Ronan as the main actor. Whilst her performance is excellent what shines through is how fresh and exciting a 48 year old song is. Adrian Belew takes over vocals here and he is in good voice for a man who turns 76 this year.

Crosseyed And Painless came next – at this point you split the audience into the ones who have come for the hits versus the deep cuts. Remain In Light’s first three tracks make the album unique – at a time when the band could have come up with obvious singles to sell units the band hit a funkier groove which would have lost some of their ‘route one’ fans. But it’s tracks like Crosseyed And Painless that make them unique and it was a great version.

Houses In Motion followed – I’ve seen various blogs which comment on the possible influence of A Certain Ratio on The Heads sound after they supported them on a European Tour - certainly ACR’s cover of Houses In Motion hints at a reciprocal appreciation. The added horn section live really gives it added ooommpphh and raises the song above the recorded version.

Then we get 3 big hitters in a row – I Zimbra, Born Under Punches and Cities. 

For Born Under Punches, Josh Schwartz takes over vocal duty. My friend Liam noted that before his performance Josh went off and tried to take on the ‘Byrne preacher’ character – TBF his vocals were spot on and wholly in tune with what Talking Heads would have done in their Imperial phase.

Adrian Belew takes on the vocals for Cities and what was brilliant is they obviously discussed beforehand whether they could mention ‘BIRMINGHAM’ in the lyrics. Someone backstage has had the sense to tip off Belew (or maybe he knew himself!) that mentioning THAT PLACE in Wolverhampton may not be for the best so he very sensibly changed the lyric for a rollickingly tight version.

We’re tired now as all 3 of us have been dancing since the start of the gig so pleasingly the next songs are a Jerry Harrison solo number [1987's Rev It Up] and a King Crimson song [1981's Thela Hun Ginjeet]. They were fine and delivered well but gave us a bit of respite before Slippery People. 

Now I’m going to be slightly controversial here – I rarely play Speaking In Tongues as I think it is Talking Heads worst produced album. The songs are good – I just feel they are deadened by poor 80’s production. Therefore I had no real appreciation of the songs off that album until they appeared in Stop Making Sense. On this version the main vocals are taken up by Shira Elias and Sammi Garett and I feel this makes it a better version than the normal Talking Heads version. Female vocals are so important for that unique sound and these 2 performers were excellent throughout.

Then we have the final 3 tracks – Once In A Lifetime, Life During Wartime and Take Me To The River. All great songs – Josh taking on lead vocals once again in Once In A Lifetime, whereas back to Belew for the final two tracks. All as good as you would hope them to be. 

The band go off and return for a 2 song encore – Drugs first with a chance for Adrian Belew to go all screechy guitar (in a  good way) and show why he was such an important part of the Talking Heads touring band in the early 80’s. Julie Slick’s bass playing is also a highlight throughout the whole performance. They finish with The Great Curve which again is an acknowledgment that it wasn’t the singles which made Talking Heads great but the unique sounds off of Remain In Light.

So was it worth the 190 mile round trip? Abso – bloomin – lutely! 

Was I sad that the venue was two-thirds full? Yes! 

Was I chuffed to see Robert Fripp post on social media that he was there also? Yes I was!!

We’d danced ourselves dizzy and I’ll look back in future years and think "What A Day That Was" (and no they didn’t play that..)

Wow, what a show! Thanks as always for your words and pictures, Mike. 

I saw Mike at another gig on Wednesday and it's fair to say that he was still buzzing from the experience.

I decided not to recreate a Dubhed selection for the Wolverhampton setlist as it would inevitably comprise the Talking Heads originals and I don't want to invite comparisons with these unique live interpretations.

Instead, get yourself over to that there Tube of You and you can find extracts and/or full shows from the current tour. I plumped for their concert at Carlswerk Victoria in Cologne on 23rd May 2025. Jerry, Adrian and Cool Cool Cool are back in the USA for 7 dates later in July.