What a night at The Embassy in London last night! This was what Delirious? have described as their first 'Living Room' gig. An exclusive, intimate and informal evening with the band. Just 100 fans invited (although nearer to 160 people once you add on the guests, industry and media) at a very up-market London club. Leaving the tube at Green Park, I walked past the Ritz and arrived at the Embassy. From the street it doesn't look much. A door, a restaurant style shop front, and a handful of people already queueing up. Unsure where to go or how to get in, I loitered until the authoritative figure of Mr Ian Cattle appeared at the door. He let me in, directed me to the lady with the passes and pointed me down a narrow flight of stairs.


On the below-ground-level floor I stepped off the stairs into a bar area, complete with plush leather sofas, tables and at one end a dance floor. Through the darkness I could make out a few people milling around and the sound of instruments being warmed up. I walked the short distance from the bottom of the stairs, to the far end of the bar where the dance floor was located, and realised with some surprise just how small this venue really was. The dance floor didn't look nearly big enough to house 100 fans, and the 'stage' (if you can call it that) nestled into the corner was already crammed full of equipment, instruments and two figures in the shadows who I identified as Stu and Jon.


After a brief chat with Jon, I watched as the whole band squeezed onto stage to sound check. Somehow they'd managed to fit a few lights into the room and the occasional spot light shone down on the band to reveal their glistening instruments. Stood, side by side, the guitars of Stu, Martin and Jon almost collided as they shared the small stage.


Sound checks are often not as interesting as they sound. Usually, as was the case here to start with, there is nothing but the sound of drums being banged, guitar notes being played, all incoherently played, individually rather than as a group. This isn't me being rude about how Delirious? play, it's just the nature of setting up, tuning up, warming up and checking everything works and sounds right. Eventually they played a few songs in unison, and it was then that I noticed things sounded wrong. Although I could hear the drums, hear the sound of Jon's bass through his rig and Stu's guitars through his amps, I couldn't hear Martin's voice. His mouth appeared to be moving, so perhaps he was saving his voice for the concert and just singing gently to himself.


I started chatting to a few familiar faces who were also standing around waiting and watching. Half of the Furious? Records office team were there so I chatted with Paul (merch), Mark (design), Clive (office manager) and Chris (web). Plus others such as Jamie (friend), Brett (very tall), Tim and Trev (crew). Through these conversations I discovered the reason for the lack of sound. No PA. Hmm. Turns out that the band had intended to use the in-house sound system, only to discover on arrival that it wasn't up to their high standards. Solution? Send a man in a van on a frantic last minute dash across London in rush hour traffic to Romford to collect a 'proper' sound system. It was now 7pm, 15 minutes after the doors were due to have been opened to the ticket holding fans, and still the new PA hadn't arrived.


As the band continued their somewhat muted sound check, I took the opportunity to take as many photos as possible, unsure how easy it would be to get good pics during the gig itself since everyone was going to be very cramped. (All of the photos in this post are from sound check) With the time slipping away several of the band members went out onto the street to try and apologise to the waiting fans for the lengthy delay. Eventually, at 7:30pm, a flurry of activity erupted as a series of large black boxes (aka the PA) were carried down the stairs and wheeled in. They were frantically stacked either side of the stage, plugged in and the band returned to the stage for a brief final sound check.


By 7:45pm the doors were open and the fans started to drift in, collecting a rather nice free CD (in paper back with Delirious-style receipt) on their way. The dance floor quickly disappeared and shortly after 8:30pm Delirious? squeezed their way through the crowd, onto stage and started their 10-song set. It was over all too soon, but unlike your average gig, the band didn't disappear from sight, they mingled, chatted and gave fans a superb opportunity to meet and greet the band.

So Delirious? are back on tour in the UK with their 'Omnisonic Tour' so on Friday night I headed over to Horsham. My first mistake was planning a route to Horsham based on the postcode for the venue as listed on PuraTickets. I followed the directions provided by the route planner and found myself in the middle of a housing estate. Hmm. I saw Delirious? at the same Horsham venue back in 2005 and I had a vague recollection of a warehouse style venue in the middle of an industrial estate. Somehow this groups of houses did not look familiar. Unfortunately it turns out that PuraTickets had listed the wrong postcode. Luckily for me it was only 5pm. But still, I spent the best part of the next hour driving around Horsham with no idea how to find the venue. As I neared desperation I drove past the 'Smith & Western' restaurant and had one of those light bulb moments where you think "that looks familiar!". I was pretty certain I'd driven past that same distinctive eatery on my previous visit to Horsham. And as I passed it, sure enough there was Tim Jupp escorting his family inside for dinner. With a new sense of confidence I drove on and finally stumbled across the venue.


I was met at the door by Tim Green, assistant to tour manager Ian Cattle, who pointed me in the direction of the bands dressing room (aka 'Catering'). I walked in to discover Jon and StuG deeply engrossed in their Mac laptops, Jon concentrating hard on a game of Facebook Scrabble. It turns out my arrival was perfectly timed, as Tim Green then arrived with an armful of Chinese take-away (yes, it would definitely have paid for someone's drugs). After a very enjoyable meal I chatted with the guys for a while. For those of you who have commented on the Living Room Blogs, be assured that the band do read the comments. They were busily reading them, with some competitiveness regarding which band member was receiving the most comments (Martin currently in the lead). Oh and if you happened to have been on Delirious.co.uk at that exact time, you may have spotted me on their webcam for a few minutes. Fame at last.


The rest of the band turned up with a few family members and friends and before long it was time for Dave Payne (legendary d: roadie) to say the pre-gig prayer. Then out we marched to the stage. Despite the low ceiling and low stage, the venue looked impressive, tightly packed with an excitable crowd. I stood and watched from Tim's side of stage for a while, before heading to the pit to take some stage photos. Then I move round to Jon's side of stage where I spent most of the gig.


Lee, the d: tech, was kept pretty busy throughout. First of all he had to deal with a troublesome drum, removing it completely for a while to carry out some running repairs. I was amused to watch a drum stick flying backwards out of Stew's hand during one highly energetic piece of drumming. Without missing a beat he immediately reached to his strategically positioned stick bag, pulled out a replacement stick and continued. You wouldn't even have noticed from the front row. He caught my eye as I watched all this, and shrugged at me, pulled a face, then carried on grinning.


Later Jon's bass suddenly went silent mid song, and he frantically tried a few adjustments on his rig before Lee came striding across the stage, ripped out the cable, swapped it with a different one, fiddled with a few buttons and solved the problem.


As I stood a few feet off stage level with Jon, I suddenly noticed Jon's wife Kristen and his Dad, stood next to me. Later on a group of d:'s children, led by Stu's daughter Eden, strolled onto stage to dance during Paint The Town Red. Definitively a family night, not surprising since Horsham is only a short hop from their Littlehampton homes.


There was some concern among the stewards (for some reason they're never called 'security' at a Christian venue!) when Martin climbed over the crowd barrier with his red megaphone and proceeded to trample onto the shoulders of the crowd - well beyond the safety of the stewards out stretched arms. Somehow he made it back safely, but I feel sure that one day he's going to be swallowed up by a large crowd and not manage to get back on stage in time for the chorus!


The concert ended with a blistering piece of guitar work from Stu G during Investigate. I watched with amazement as he broke practically every single string in his guitar by the time the song finished. Back in the dressing room I was asked which of the new songs I liked the most. 'My Soul Sings' I said, which prompted Jon to say "You're getting old Dave". Hmm.

So, the superb new Delirious.co.uk V3 website has gone live, and what a treat it is. Lovely new design, additional features, lots of interaction and perhaps most exciting of all, the Living Room and its Sofa - home to the band's personal blogs. There are some additions still to be revealed which will continue to make it a superb resource for d: fans on the web.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Where does the future lie for Delirious.org.uk? Already people have started to ask that question on the forum, and I've avoided being too specific as there are a few things yet to be announced. However, I think it's pretty clear that Delirious.org.uk needs to change. The goal of my site has always been to provide a source of up to date Delirious? information for fans, giving them things they couldn't easily find elsewhere. The official site will always be the definitive source of information, but there tended to be a gap that I was able to fill with my site. That is until now. Now the excellent V3 is a lot more fluid, more up to date and more interactive. Time will tell how things work out, but early indications show that the band are more keen than ever to keep fans updated on what is going on.

That is exactly what an official band site should be about. So, where does that leave Delirious.org.uk? Is there still space for an unofficial site alongside such a splendid official site? To be honest, that is a question I've been asking myself recently. It would be nice to hear your opinions too. At the very least I think it is time for Delirious.org.uk to have a little facelift. Under the shadow of V3 it suddenly feels very old fashioned and out dated. So, what should change? What would you like to see added or changed with Delirious.org.uk? Simply a new paint job, a whole new design, a complete rebuild? I'm open to suggestions. Or perhaps you feel that Delirious.org.uk is no longer needed. Perhaps V3 fills the gap that Delirious.org.uk once filled, and now as a fan you can get everything you need from V3.

This isn't about my ego (honestly!). I'm not writing this to get a flood of comments saying how much you want me to keep my site. I'm not saying I'm going to act on every piece of feedback I get here. But it would be interesting to know what visitors to the site really think. Change or no change? Future or no future? Let me know. I can take it. I hope. (Well, be gentle with me otherwise I might get grumpy, ok?). Add your comments below.