Status Quo – Saturday 14th February – Portsmouth Guildhall

Quo in February? Yep, rescheduled from December due to illness and on a Saturday. Sounds like a plan - albeit after a bit of negotiation with Mrs B about missing Valentine's Day!

Richard and I headed down on the train in the afternoon and had time to visit some of the local hostelries - a mix of very pleasant and pretty rough! The venue itself, the Guildhall, was quite impressive and it was nice to be at a Quo standing show again - even at halfway back the view and sound were excellent. 

A good fun day was completed with a bonus half hour in Woking on the way home, where there seemed to be a shortage of clothes on many people at 23:30!

The Answer – Thursday 12th February – Dingwalls

It's been a little while since I've seen the boys from Northern Ireland and with a new album coming out and hot off the back of supporting AC/DC in the states, this gig in compact Dingwalls seemed too good to miss. A "record" crowd of 6 of us braved the snow and joined the throng of people down the front - we didn't even have to flog Dave's ticket to a tout this time!

The Answer seem to be Classic Rock Magazine's favourite "up and coming" band at the moment. There's no doubt they are very competent musicians and vocalist Cormac Neeson has a strong voice for the music being played. The catch is in the songs. Most are standard "classic rock" fayre and perfectly listenable to. The problem is that very few have that catchy chorus that you want to sing along with. Exceptions include "Under The Sky", "Never Too Late" and (unfortunately not performed here) "Sometimes Your Love". I just feel to get to the "next level" they need a few singalong stand out tracks. All in all, a perfectly adequate, albeit 6/10 gig.