Photo: Jodie Strachan
By the time, FFS actually appear on stage, the crowd is already a bit boozy after listening to funk by new London band Pure Beauty, looking at T-shirts with ‘FFS Piss Off’ logos at the gift shop, and hanging out between three bars.
The gig starts off with ‘Johnny Delusional’ – the first hit single from their self-titled album. To be honest, it's one of these gigs where the tallest people always make an effort to stand right in front of you ,so you end up jumping up on your tiptoes to catch a glimpse of the checked shirt Alex Kapranos is wearing.
FFS arrive on stage, go through four mutual creations and, half an hour in, the whole crowd is already jumping to ‘Do You Want To’. That’s when I realise that The Forum is filled with Franz Ferdinand fans wearing ‘Franz Ferdinand European Tour of 2000-and-something’ T-shirts. Usually a new band formed by someone that well known is very strict about performing old hit songs.
It’s like going to see Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds or Beady Eye and hearing them play ‘Wonderwall’ – you feel happy and confused at the same time. So there were four Sparks and four Franz Ferdinad ‘covers’, including ‘Sherlock Holmes’, ‘The Number One Song In Heaven’, ‘Take Me Out’ and ‘No You Girls’.
"You know how sometimes it is very important to say two simple words to each other?" asks Kapranos seconds before the starting riffs of ‘Piss Off’. After that the band and the crowd reunite in uncontrollable jumping and crazy dances. FFS disappear for a little bit before encore and finish the gig with cheeky ‘Collaborations Don’t Work’.
"Have you ever seen a band where every member has a fucking beautiful voice?" – that’s another quote from stage. And it’s very true.
