Fun Lovin Criminals - Manchester Apollo - 12.3.01

Sometimes you look and wonder if certain people just fell into the music business by accident. You get the impression that Huey fell into this business and just looked around in total bemusement. After the classic album that was "Loco" is disappointing to say that the most entertaining part of the show was Huey's banter. Maybe its just sound problems or maybe its the fact that the band are out of their heads that makes it so atrocious but you start to wonder whether they really should be allowed outside the studio.

Various jokes and of the legendary Huey's Acting School are easily the highlights of the night. The acting school taking Star Wars 4 if they'd have featured Robert De Niro and Al Pacino is as funny as you'd imagine - to explain them any further would lose out in the translation.

Maybe its that we just don't care anymore. Maybe we care too much and that when when we are let down tonight it cuts deeply with a knife. Perhaps we put our faith in a band we knew would ultimately fuck up because of the elements that made them cool. That New York drug chic has obviously caught up on men, who to be honest are not that young anymore, men who just can't can't handle it anymore. Saying that though "Kings Of New York" and "Love Unlimited" still sound as fresh as the day they were committed to vinyl and "Loco" is easily on of the best tracks on display.

With all the outside business interests don't you get the feeling that this could be the last FLC tour. Still we have the records to chill out to on a Saturday night. Surely that's enough from one of the most exciting bands of the past few years.

Alex McCann