“You’re not singing, you’re not singing, you’re not singing anymore”….. There it is, as sang on Monster Bobby. A song which wasn’t played at Birmingham Academy. In fact, neither were a lot of the more vocal ‘songs’ from the futu-robotic sex noiseniks we know and love as Add N to (X). You see the problem was a classic one. Half-heartedness. To make the Add N to (X) sound more full on, the band had grown from a three piece to a full on quintet, but this didn’t make up for the lack of interest shown on the band’s behalf. So there were five, but still, Ann Shenton was missing. Where was she?? When asked by the audience, the reply was telling, a firm “shut up”.

This was about it for band-audience interaction. What was to follow was some moments of vinyl genius played with the same amount of passion that Shane MacGowan shows for dentistry. Something was amiss. "Metal fingers in my body" , once a wall of sound, now came across like Jamiroquai attempting Kraftwerk. This was the problem with the gig. It just didn’t sound like Add N to (X). And it didn’t look like Add N to (X). There was one parting shot from Barry 7 before they left the stage. “Thanks for coming to the last Add N to (X) gig in Birmingham, EVER”. With a fantastic comeback album being mauled in front of our very eyes and ears, would that be a problem??