I Can't Get No Sleep. Faithless at Newmarket Nights. 08/08/25. A Review.

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Maxi Jazz's face dominates the screen, and his voice booms out over the crowd, lasers shooting overhead, "Let me dream of making mad love to my girl on the heath, Tearing off tights with my teeth..."
Faithless handle Maxi's absence well. Respectfully. No one can replace him on these anthems, which we have grown up hearing, so no one does. He is there on the screen, looking down on us all, reciting the words burnt into all our souls from opaque nights 30 years ago, like a monolith to our collective lost youth.
It seems fitting to be hearing it stood there on the grass, as I'm sure the first time I heard it was in a field or barn somewhere in Essex in late 1995. 
This time, it's in front of the stand on Newmarket race course as part of their Newmarket Nights sessions. It's a weird mixture of spectators, some who have been there all afternoon, dressed in suits, and dresses, there for the racing, and Faithless is their after-party. Then those of us who turn up for the music, self-conscious at first, feeling like we've gate-crashed a wedding. But then a couple of drinks in, and the bass kicks out across the course, drawing us all in like tune addicted bisto-kids. 
Faithless, now a seven piece mini-orchestra, have two new vocalists: Nathan Ball and Amelia Fox, both have great range and power in their vocal performance. 
Coolest of the cool Sister Bliss runs the show though, building us up to a climactic solo at the end of the show, she's been building us up slowly, steadily for the entire show. 
By the end of Faithless' set, most of the crowds phones are gone, and people are lost in the moment. 
There's a range of ages watching, lots of twenty-somethings, but also lots of people my age are there viewing it all through the lens of euphoria and nostalgia. 
Faithless do us, and Maxi proud. We are all young and vibrant again, even for just a few hours. 

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