NME Tour 2004

Har Mar Superstar
Queens of Noize

live at the Sugar House, Lancaster
4 October 2004

Reviewed by Sherry Currington

SUIT OF HAR MAR

The Sugarhouse had not changed a great deal since my student days (14 years ago) and I found myself in a throng of very young students, all bright eyed and excitable. It was great to see the enthusiastic and obligatory dancing on to the dance floor in a manner only found in the young and uninhibited.

While I was waiting for the first act "the Queens of Noize' I was curious exactly who the 3 people on stage were dancing around to the disco and assumed they were friends of the Queens of Noize. I was however (as I discovered as I left) very surprised that they were the Queens of Noize. Their show was to DJ and dance on stage to their own selection of music, which consisted of 90's hits as well as a few hits from the 60's.

Finally it was time for the main man himself and everybody surged to the front as he came on stage with his band of 2. Yeni provided bass (proved to be a great hit with the male members of the audience) and Burt who was on drums. The rest of the accompanying music was from a backing track, manned by Har Mar.

Even though I have seen Har Mar on TV it was fascinating to see what a stage presence and charisma this funny, little hairy man had on his audience.

To call him interactive with the audience is an understatement, especially with the female members. It took him only 2 songs before he gave one responsive girl a full on snog. This man has no shame and quite refreshingly didn't seem to lack any confidence despite his appearance.

Musically we were treated to a 40-minute set which included hits off his new album "The Handler' and some old songs which the crowd delighted in and welcomed with huge cheers. It was difficult for me to try and describe what I was listening to, but I can only call it 70's trashy disco pop. Interesting titled songs such as "Elephant Walk', "Drop the Camel' and "Body Request' were received warmly and with enthusiasm, even though (as the man himself confessed) there was some distortion with the monitors which was obviously frustrating for Yeni.

As the set moved on Har Mar removed an item of clothing between songs again to the delight of the crowd, screams from the girls and calls of "you fat b*****d' from the boys.

Har Mar's confidence is awesome and during "Body Request' he had no shame in offering himself to the crowd to touch and in some cases do as they will to him, which he relished. Other antics included tweaking his nipples and pulling out a clump of pubic hair over the top of his pants, again to a rapturous audience.

His last song was "Power Lunch' which was his first UK release but he returned for an encore and treated us to "Easy Pass' during which the stage was raided by some audience members to the horror of the security. Har Mar in true style relished every moment but seemed relieved when security cleared the stage of "those pesky kids'.

I made a final attempt to appeal to the good nature of the security to let me have a few moments with Har Mar but there was absolutely no chance. My final spotting of the man was through some frosted glass as he was changing, all I could make out were the silver pants of a very short, cuddly superstar!