1998: Roisin's not a doctor

Blog reader Baz sent me two unique and unseen pictures of Roisin performing live as part of Moloko. They were taking during the I Am Not A Doctor promo tour in 1998.

Here's what Baz had to say about Roisin and the pictures:

"I've been a fan of Roisin and Moloko since seeing their wondrously weird performance on The White Room in 1996, so compared to many fans, I've been one since almost the beginning. That TV performance made a huge impression on me... it was totally different to anything else I'd seen or heard on the show and I was rather enamoured by this beautiful yet scary redhead and her strange stuttering dance movements singing Dominoid with a woman either side of her holding lights and moving them about as she sang. It had bags of moodiness and mystery. The following Monday, I bought the single. Then 3 days later, the album!

I got to see Moloko just once, on October 29th 1998 here in Liverpool at a venue called The Lomax and it remains the best live performance I've ever seen. They were touring I Am Not A Doctor and were supported by Belgian band Hooverphonic. Kid Loco was supposed to do a DJ set but that never happened. The venue was a rather small and intimate one and of course the massive success of Sing It Back was still to come hence being able to see Moloko in an intimate setting and so up close, Roisin was literally a couple of feet away from me.

I was writing a journal at the time and looking at it right now, here's various facts I logged down...

I do vividly remember Eddie trudging across the stage to his keyboards in his cowboy hat and tartan dressing gown! Bless him! Roisin's entrance came as a shock actually because this was the first time I'd ever seen her as a blonde... I was expecting the redhead and her hair was rather short too. She wore a basic black top which had a couple of panels on front of it... it was an LCD counter which counted from 1 to 99 and in reverse "seemingly at random". Quite unusual and visually impressive.


They opened with a moody rendition of Boo. The journal records that Roisin was in full mysterious mood but between songs, she would smile and her face would literally light up. I was rather taken by her genuine beauty!

My fave song was - and remains - Where Is The What If The What Is In Why? and they did a brilliant version of it, much more laid back and slower, similar to the sublime BBC session version they did in 1996. It was so quiet in places and I was so close to Roisin, I swear I could hear her pure vocal as she sang into the mike.

The setlist showed 15 songs... 3 for the encore. Sadly I didn't list all the songs they did (I was beaten to grab the setlist!). The first encore number was a bouncy and quirky instrumental... I recall it being in a similar style to Indigo and Roisin treated us all to a manic dance that was both dazzling and amusing. Mark brought out the stylophone during the encore and was amused by him taking a solo on it. I'd never seen a performer as energetic as Roisin and during the encore she really let herself go and was clearly having a great time.

Of course Roisin is known to be clumsy and accident prone and sure enough on the final number this came right to the surface... she stumbled and somehow got her foot tangled in some wires and all of a sudden, one of Mark's keyboards went crashing to the stage. I remember Mark mischievously waving his fist with a look on his face saying "you swine!" and Roisin merrily carried on laughing all the while!

They went down brilliantly and the following months newsletter from the venue reported on it saying that Moloko had "played a blinder" and a blinder it most certainly was."

About the pictures: "There's one of Roisin and Mark and the one of Roisin solo is from the first encore number and she's in mid dance... a great amusing photo."