From the Melody Maker,painstakingly typed by myself and Manic Street Depressant!!! :)
ORLANDO:SPLASH CLUB, LONDON
"Of seeing each other for an eternity of touch,of wishing you'd fall out and in with me,of taking bad tidings gladly,of wishing again,hopelessly in something,
and then,a time to dance,and a chance!"
(Steven Male:"Truth and lies")
Oh,God,absolutely. Tonight felt like a last chance, a constant desperate gasp,
A final conflict, A VICTORY. And afterwards,when the band have left the building,
The amps are dead but the streets are moving, you won't hear another human voice
for seven hours, so you walk home and try to sleep but you are tingling, you
are glowing. So, you just cling to yourself and grin and almost giggle, a
light year away from smugness, drowning in pure, sparkling love.
Orlando are pop stars in a world that seems to have forgotten about pop stars.
Tonight is, at last, believable. o.k,then, graspable facts: Almost too many hooks
("Don't Kill My Rage");Synths and strings more perfect (That's not logical nonsense,it's a
paradoxical fact) than anyone this side of Archive and Mark Morrison("Nature's Hated");
The most unblinkingly final finales ("Happily Unhappy","Furthest Point") to have deluged
your heart in months; Dickon scares me,all glowers and scowls and blond intimidation;
Tim's voice is so Marc Almond-lithe, so defeated and demanding you want to reach into the
swell and hold it close, his stage persona gliding from Swanson style, close-up drama to pure,
unmediated joy. What's immediately obvious is that the reason Orlando have outlasted Romo
lies in the depth of their desire, the intent of their mission, the way they already seem to have gone
beyond the emotional range of most bands to reach a plateau of misery from which move,every moment
of hope they express,takes on the immensity and importance only pop can effectively dramatise.
Orlando know there are only three pop responses to life's unendurability.There's commerce (ie business),
survival,popularity contests and lucrative death.There's 99 per cent of the pop we know and love and listen
to,searching for the sublime and sometimes finding it,in feelings and knowledge and moods,understanding,
explanations,always stopping shy of idiot faith.And then there's what goes on here tonight,which is so far
gone,so tired and hungry and impetuously horny for it,snatching something from nothing,believing at last,
sneering and being spat at and IMMORTAL,leaping into unknown space,opening the door and diving into hell,
riding high on love's true bluish light.It's called SOUL,and Orlando can do nothing else.
What's incredible about "Just For A Second",which closes tonight,is that it dramatises precisely that
moment of emotional failure- "Deep down/I fear/I might actually be/...unremarkable"-that is so
completely overthrown by the song's own sacredness.Orlando are absolutely remarkable.Because the best
thing about Saturday night is the getting ready,the hope.And that's what this band floods you with.
There's no better thing in the world-truth made beautiful by the best white soul band we've got.
Surrender.
NEIL KULKARNI