by Shadowflower/olivia vdw

Birmingham Academy – 09.04.06

2.30 pm and already the street leading up to The Academy in Birmingham
was lined up with people eager to get to the front of the Placebo show.
People in sleeping bags were sitting at the front of the queue and other
people were wrapped in tin foil trying to keep warm. It snowed, it rained and
it hailed and even at 3 degrees the fans stayed firmly in the queue so
that they did not lose their places. People had travelled from France,
Scotland and destinations quite far away from Birmingham to see Placebo. This
shows how dedicated their fans are. At 7pm the doors opened and a buzz of
excitement filled the air as the audience entered the venue. The
Placebo concert was completely sold out, and inside the venue was packed, right
to the back of the dance floor. The balcony was full of people too.
Looking down onto the dance floor from the balcony all that could be seen was a
sea of people looking eager for the concert to begin. Some looking in awe
at the stage in the hope that one of the members of Placebo might appear.

The Support band for the Placebo gig was White Rose Movement, a band
From London. They played a lively set, some of their set list included Girls
in the back and Alsation. Influenced by the 80s they used a variety of
keyboard sounds and electronic music. They interacted well with the audience and encouraged everyone to join in at some points in their set. They then
asked the audience if they had been to London, and told them not to go there
as it was awful! The set they played was very active with the singer Finn
Vine and the bassist Owen Dyke moving quickly around the stage.

When White Rose Movement’s set finished, and after a long wait, Placebo
came onto the stage, greeted with cheers and screams and claps. The crowd
moved forward and soon there were crowd surfers making their way across the
audience towards Placebo. This was supposedly not allowed in the venue
but people still persevered to do this. Placebo dived into their first song
Meds followed by Infra Red. The lighting for the show was
good, with many different lights bouncing around the stage causing an
explosion of colour. Placebo played a mixture of older songs such as 36 degrees and Nancy boy and also songs from their new album Meds, such as Infra-red and Space Monkey. The combination of both old and new was a good mixture for the audience and also for people who had not bought the new album yet, to
hear some of the songs from it.

Since Placebo first formed in 1994 they have attracted a huge fan base
of young and old fans, and also fans who have stuck by them since the
beginning. At the Placebo gig in Birmingham there was such a variety of
people and many in the audience were singing all the songs back to
Placebo. They ended their first set with Twenty Years. The guitars and other
equipment were then checked and then Placebo came back on stage to end
their final set with Nancy Boy, and then they said goodbye and threw
drumsticks and set lists into the audience, and Brian took a bow. Many people
stayed for quite a long time after Placebo had finished. The audience were
shouting Placebo, and clapping slowly in the hope that they might enter onto the
stage again. But this was just in vain as soon the main lights came up
and people were asked to move on by security.