Guilty pleasure (with Dobly)

To the Scala last night for an evening of semi-enjoyment. Thomas Dolby was doing a warm-up for his Wireless Festival appearance on Sunday and I had to catch the old geek for old times' sake. A short set composed of all the hits (Hyperactive, She Blinded me..., Windpower, One Of Our Submarines, The Flat Earth, Hot Sauce, Airhead, Heading North, I Live In A Suitcase etc etc) went down well with the balding audience. It was 50% pure nostalgic guilty 80s pleasure and 50% cheese. Like a cross between a nerdy electronics convention demo (as he used a head mounted camera to show us what all the boxes did on the big screen) and a poignant revival of post industrial techno pop. He even got his three kids up on stage at one point (dressed as mini Dolbys). One couldn't help but be won over by the warmth of the reception the crowd gave him, but the trouble was the whole one-man schtick. After the first number the software crashed and from that point it all felt a little too precarious and like watching a man recreate epics in his bedroom. Bleepy noises tended to crash the mix too loudly. Midi is clever, sure, but it doesn't really make up for a BAND. Still, gawd bless him...