MJ Hibbett & The Validators - Live at The Bull & Gate, London - 29 January ‘05

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A wave of pleasure ran through me when I realised that the cancellation of a prior engagement meant that my plans to go to this gig were back on. This was my first jaunt into the live world of MJ Hibbett & The Validators and, to my great joy, the group lived up to all expectations.

The audience were treated to four new songs in the nine songs set, the first being the opening song, Gay Train, a tale of a visit to the Gay Pride festival in London. It proved to be a great start to proceedings and showed that Mark’s songwriting talents are showing no signs of waning. As did the other three new sings, Never Going Back To Aldi’s (about shopping in better supermarkets), The Fight For History (about the filtering of all negative memories of a politician when they die - Ronald Reagan, in this case) and Quality Of Life Enhancement Device (I think the title says it all, really).

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In addition to this, we were treated to a selection of classics from the band’s back catalogue too, including Hey Hey 16k, Things’ll Be Different When I’m In Charge and the storming closer, The Symbol Of Our Nation.

The band were on top form as they played to a packed room, and great sound made it all the better. You can’t beat a few good songs and MJ Hibbett has bags of them.

Setlist: