Now Then . As we all know there comes a time once in someones life when they are to experience something huge, something so dramatic, it changes their way of life forever. This dramatic change usually occurs during and after a Kula Shaker concert. Where previous admirers become converts and previous fans become obsessed. Such was the atmosphere on Monday the 6th of April.

I got to the venue and there was a queue of about 200 people in front of me... Wow. I thought, this was meant to be low-key and small venues and all that. There was in fact around six hundred Kula Fans present. Anyway I joined the queue, and presently Paul turned up. He is a friend of mine who went with me..,we got to the front of the queue and we were checked for cans and stuff and admitted.

Without wasting anymore time we got ourselves some drinks, The road crew were setting up the stuff for "The Soundtrack Of Our Lives." When they came on I thought the singer was weird, he had on a big black robe from his neck to his knees, and he was wearing sandals. These guys were loud believe me. The fact that we were standing next to a gigantic speaker didn't help much. There were six guys. Singer, bassist, drummer, Keyboardist and 2 Guitarists. They played about six songs, in all fairness they were good, very good, but No one could work out the lyrics. After 20 mins they went off. And the roadies were in again taking away all the equipment and bringing out the Kula Stuff.

Man did they take their time......It took them a whole hour to bring out the stuff, slowly the drum kit was brought out, then the Hammond, Then Lonza's Bass and finally a newish Guitar. I haven't seen it before, I'll tell you about Crispian's Guitars in a minute. I thought right, everything is ready they have wasted an hour, Here they come.. The Music died down, every body came forward, voices went silent, eager anticipation dudes.......Then another song started. I couldn't believe it . We had to stand through another song, Paul went for another drink. When this song finished everybodies eyes went straight to the stage in awe. No.... Yet another song..You should have heard the commotion ... shouts of " Come on Kula " and " Hurry up man " on my part were heard all over. Finally after another song, the lights died down and an Indian female voice was heard chanting some Mantra or other... What an enterance I thought, This was going to be.

And I was right. Alonza came out first and strutted his stuff all the way over to my side of the stage, next came Crispian, then Paul and finally Jay who was the furthest away.. The crowd went wild it was more deafening than " The Soundtrack To Our Lives." intro. Without further a do and without saying a word. They picked up their relative instruments and drumsticks, ( In Jay's case he just sat down) and played " The Sound Of Drums. " From this point i didn't mind them being loud. The magic had taken effect. There was definatley something wrong with Crispian's voice, it was different, throat infection, but it didn't stop him. After the first song they played a new song, i couldn't work out what.

So two songs already done and Crispian is thanking us for being there, huge applause, deafening in fact. Then they went straight in to " Hey Dude. " And I have never heard a better version than that which they played. The banging of the drums was so loud the plastic cups in our hands were shaking and the ground was moving. Alonza was dancing in his usual cool style up and down the stage, Crispian was never in the same spot twice. In the end he run out of stage so he jumped on Pauls area and later on top of The Hammond. I failed to mention that they had two huge screens behind them and throughout the songs images were being shown to accompany the songs, There were Two huge clown faces like the ones on The Tour posters for " The Sound Of Drums." There were Two Animations of a guy on a motor bike moving on down the road on yes you've guessed it " 303. "

I think im rambling on here but i just can't describe it all in two paragraphs, I'll try my best not to waffle. Right after " Hey Dude." Crispian changed Guitars to another one i have not seen before and explained that " This song is a song that is sung in the ancient art of numbers..." yep I knew " 303." what else?? After that they played " Greatfull when your'e Dead and Jerry was there " Crispian made full use of his Wah-Wah on Greatfull ... "Jerry was There," was started with " One man went to moe, went to moe a meadow ....Brilliant!!