So this is it. After all these years, My Life Story are splitting up, to not a great deal of general wailing and gnashing of teeth. The amount of tears shed will not cause flooding in the Camden area. Perhaps the weight of knowing that their blueprint of drama and orchestra was largely responsible for the awful, awful Divine Comedy was finally too much to bear.
While up the road, past collaborators and mentors, The Wonder Stuff play host to every man, woman and child old enough to remember 1990, Jake Shillingford plays host to three nights at the cavernous Camden Underworld, with almost enough musicians to outnumber the audience
Preceding the main set with an acoustic mini-set, the band open with a stripped down version of the autobiographical 'You Don't Sparkle', displaying the essence of the band in a single song.
The main set opens with 'Forever', and rattles through the assembled history of the years, singles and album tracks alike. Hanging from the fixtures and fittings of the Underworld, dressed up and dragged down, Shillingford gives it all he has left to give.
Reprising long abandoned classics such as 'The Penthouse in the Basement', scattering them amongst the barely noticed newer numbers from last chance album 'Joined Up Talking', 'Empire Line' and 'Neverland', My Life Story soundtracked a moving picture life of heartache and regret, hope and despair, elation and emotion, like there was no alternative. Now there really isn't.
Closing with the heartbreakingly beautiful 'Angel', it's almost too much to bear. They really were the best band you never knew.
