The Streets + Sway
The Guildhall, Southampton - May 2006Image: © 2006 Kid 73
Written by Kid 73
“SWAAAAAAAY” shouts the Southampton crowd unanimously, at the request of DJ Turkish. “I can’t hear you!” he retorts. “SWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY” and as if by magic Sway appears with the trademark Union Jack masking his face and pulls a pose, centre stage. Always the showman and a perfect warm-up act, Sway barrels through the likes of ‘Little Derrick’ and the massive ‘Up Your Speed’, to great effect judging by the crowd going nuts. “Southampton up your speed” = crowd participation, something Sway is a master of between rhymes and tracks - so the crowd at Sway gigs love it! They get to hear the hottest MC in the country and the show is personalised – the man's a genius.
The Streets' Mike Skinner is rocking some sort of Miami Vice image at the moment and when he runs onto the stage I get blasted away. The last two times I've seen him he has, quite bluntly, sucked. Not tonight though. His game has been raised and by the time he gets to ‘When You Wasn’t Famous' I'm sold. He worked the stage for all it was worth and when his tracks are given the live band treatment, it blossoms from boy racer music to a more funky-house-almost-disco type of cloud that engulfs everyone and transfixes their gaze. A 19-track set list and I shudder to say it but almost all of them were fuckin' marvellous. (Yes, but are those man boobs? - Ed)
