Steven Wilson at Newcastle City Hall.

My own blog reminds me that it was in October 2013 that I last saw Steven Wilson at this very same venue. On that occasion he was promoting his great album 'The Raven That Refused to Sing...And Other Stories'. I decided there and then that if the opportunity presented itself, I would return to see him perform live again. This decision was reinforced by the fact that he is currently promoting the even more ambitious work 'Hand. Cannot. Erase' which was one of my favourite albums of 2015. 

Once again upon entering Newcastle's City Hall on Saturday evening, I was transported back to my teenage years when I was a regular at that venue, seeing the likes of Jethro Tull, Family, Terry Reid, Savoy Brown, Ginger Baker's Airforce  and Yes. The venue still retains a certain aura for me and although I cannot claim to be a regular visitor these days, I am always enthralled to enter, take my seat and just soak up the atmosphere of the place.

The show began as last time out with a video showing on the giant screen at the back of the stage. Slowly the band took to the stage in pairs and launched into the opening of the album 'Hand. Cannot. Erase'. They then performed the album in it's entirety before taking a 15 minute break.

When they returned we were treated to a selection of older songs including three from Wilson's most recent project 'Four & a Half' which as he explained is a mini album of songs which didn't fit into any of his past projects. He went on to say that he hates the term mini album but explained that it was only 37 minutes long, which just happened to be the average length of an full album when he was growing up. He also during the evening made reference to David Bowie who of course has a great song 'Lazarus' on his current album. By way of tribute, Wilson performed his own song of the same title. 

I won't document the whole setlist here, as there are other ways for you to find such information. However I should mention particular highlights for me which included 'My Book of Regrets' and the Porcupine Tree song 'Don't Hate Me'.

Throughout the whole show, the performances were superb as one would expect from such a fine set of musicians. I am loathe to single out any individual but I was particularly impressed with Nick Beggs who played bass guitar, Chapman Stick, keyboards and sang backing vocals. And yes, it is the same Nick Beggs who hit number one in 1983 as part of Kajagoogoo.

To finish, Wilson performed another Porcupine Tree song, 'The Sound of Muzak' followed by what he regards as his finest song, 'The Raven that Refused to Sing'. I wholeheartedly agree with him. It was a great ending to a great night.