Dublin Olympia: April 16th, 2000

olympia-theatre-on-dameSet Listing


01. Introduction
02. I Remember That
03. Bonny
04. The Sound of Crying
05. Machine Gun Ibiza
06. Andromeda Heights
07. We Let the Stars Go
08. Life’s a Miracle
09. If You Don’t Love Me
10. Jordan: The Comeback
11. Faron Young
12. Couldn’t Bear to be Special
13. Dragons
14. Appetite
15. A Life of Surprises
16. Electric Guitars
17. Cars and Girls
18. Cruel
19. I’m a Troubled Man
20. Carnival 2000
21. Moving the River
22. Hey Manhattan
23. Lions in my Own Garden (Exit Someone)
24. Swans
25. Nightingales
26. One of the Broken
27. When Love Breaks Down
28. Goodbye Lucille #1
29. Cowboy Dreams
30. Looking for Atlantis
31. Where the Heart is
32. Prisoner of the Past

A recording of this concert exists. Excellent audience recording.

Issued as a bootleg CD “A Bananarama Moment”



“Ladies and Gentlemen, will you please welcome on stage Prefab Sprout”. The lights go down, the hands go up and Paddy, sporting an image similar to that of Roy Wood in his Wizzard days, walks on stage to tremendous applause.

“This is a song called ‘I Remember That’ says Paddy. A voice in the crowd shouts “I remember Trinity” a reference to their concert here in ’84. “I’d rather forget it” Paddy quickly replies. This sets the tone for the evening as a relaxed Paddy has to defend his appearance on numerous occasions.

His back catalogue of ballads dominates the early part of the show, ‘Bonny’, ‘Andromeda Heights’, and ‘Life’s A Miracle’ being the most melodic. “What’s the story with the beard Paddy” someone shouts. “Do you not grow hair here in Ireland or is it a cultural thing” he replies. The pace quickens for ‘Faron Young’, and ‘Appetite’ and ‘Life of Surprises’ brings the first half of the show to an enjoyable end.

The singles ‘Electric Guitars’ and ‘Cars And Girls’ open the second set before ‘Cruel’ slows the tempo down again. “This next song could have been the number one for the Millennium, only Westlife got there” says Paddy. “I mean Terry Jacks obviously wrote ‘Seasons In the Sun’ for the Millennium. How stupid of me to write a song called ‘Carnival 2000′” he added.

He was now enjoying himself. It was the last city on their tour, their first in 10 years so why shouldn’t he. His mother smiled down from the balcony while Paddy did his best Billy Joel impression at the keyboard for a lovely version of ‘Swans’.

The following night he remained at the keyboard to play ‘Nightingales’ for me as I’d told him it was my wedding song. It wasn’t really rehearsed, although you wouldn’t have known. Martin and Neil just stood back and let Paddy and Jess compete with each other on keyboards.

‘When Loves Break Down’ brought the loudest cheer from the packed auditorium before ‘Goodbye Lucille No. 1’ and ‘Cowboy Dreams’ brought the show to an end after two hours.

The crowd weren’t leaving so back came the quartet to complete the encore with ‘Looking For Atlantis’ and the new single ‘Where The Heart Is’ . ‘A Prisoner Of The Past’ brought the set of 31 songs and 140 minutes to an enjoyable climax. It was certainly the carnival of 2000.

Mick Lynch


“I saw them at both Dublin gigs in April 2000 and they were brilliant. Met them afterward and got my complete album / cd collection signed, and to top it off, i asked him on the first night to sing ‘Nighingales’ (my wedding first dance song), but he didn’t.

“When i shouted for it the second night he replied “you were here last night, that’s your wedding song” and while he was at the keyboards for ‘Swans’, he sang ‘Nightingales’ after it and dedicated it to me and my wife. How cool is that !”

mick, sproutnet discussion board 

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