Tommy Vance Tribute - Royal Albert Hall - Friday 31st March

OK Let's Rock! A tribute to Tommy Vance, DJ most famed for his legendary "Friday Rock Show" on Radio 2, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Featuring the might of Judas Priest, The Scorpions, Ian Gillan & Friends and Boned, you would have thought that this would have been an instant sell-out. It wasn't! I suspect the £50+ price tag was a problem, and the advertising beforehand maybe wasn't the best, but it was nowhere near full. People in the choir seats were moved to better front-of house seats for "production reasons" (ie "we need to fill them up!") and the circle looked sparse. Anyway, this didn't bother us and we were lucky to have an excellent 5th Row view. 

We decided against getting there for "Boned" (we checked out the "Gloucester" pub instead - not bad), so can't comment on them. We also went to the Queens Arms and DID see the legendary "three legged dog" (check out http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/65/6520/Queens_Arms/South_Kensington) to see what I'm on about!)

Mr Gillan & Friends were next and we were in plenty of time to see them. The band featured Harry James from Thunder and Dean Howard. Now I'm assuming he is the guy who used to be in T'Pau, but he looked very different, so if someone could confirm that, I'd be grateful. They played a selection of material, some of it OK, but at this sort of event you really don't want to be hearing the words "... and here's another one from my new album...". ZZzzzz. Still, "Black Night" finished things off and finally got the audience up and running. 

 Next up were The Scorpions, introduced by Bruce Dickinson. I saw them at Hammersmith last year and thought they were pretty good - here they were excellent! Lots to please the crowd and I managed to snaffle a drumstick (thanks Klaus!) and a plectrum (thanks Rudolph!). Richard even nabbed the setlist afterwards which showed that they played the following:- 

1. COMING HOME 

2. BAD BOYS RUNNING WILD 

3. THE ZOO 

4. LOVEDRIVE 

5. WIND OF CHANGE 

6. TEASE ME PLEASE ME 

7. BLACKOUT 

8. BIG CITY NIGHTS 

9. ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE 

After that excitement, Richard and I went off for a bit of "celeb" spotting around the venue (did I ever tell you about the time I met Archbishop Desmond Tutu here? No? Some other time then...), but with no joy. Dave, in the meantime, was chatting with his mate, photographer Ross Halfin (check out his excellent site and diary... http://www.rosshalfin.co.uk ). Ross is a fan of JP and the Scorpions and was working for the night - there are some comment on his diary. 

Back just in time for Judas Priest. After a brief speech from promoter Harvey Goldsmith and a touching film about the work of the charity, they were introduced by Roger Daltrey "You all know what's coming next", and the band started. Rob Halford appeared 3/4 of the way through the first song and seemed on good form. "It's Friday night at the Royal Albert Hall and the the Priest is BACK!" he roared to much approval. A solid set (motorbike included!), running well over the allotted 45 mins meant the big get-together of all the bands for the final number, Take On The World, finished around 11.30. 

Judas Priest Setlist

Electric Eye

Metal Gods

Heading Out to the Highway

Judas Rising

The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)

Diamonds & Rust

Turbo Lover

Breaking the Law

Hell Bent for Leather

Living After Midnight

Take On the World

Dave scuttled off for his last train, complete with a set of back-stage passes in his pocket. Oi !!! Our night was not quite over though. Outside the venue it was raining heavily, so we jumped on a bus to Kensington High Street, A quick beer there and off to the tube for the 12.30 train... errr what train? OK then, the last train to Wimbledon, the 12.50... errr right! Finally turns up at 01.35! Home via nightbus about 02.45 - lovely! Texted Dave whilst we were on platform waiting for tube and he was already home (with the passes!).

Anyway, a good but expensive and tiring night out. Check out the charity website here:- https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/main/

Thunder – Hard Rock Cafe London – Wednesday 15th March

Sounded great – a free acoustic show by Thunder and a new venue for me – I didn’t even know the Hard Rock had a basement music venue. Having missed out in the ballot for the 50 spaces on the guest list, the advice was “get there early” to have a chance of getting in. H’mmm – doors were at 7.00pm and I couldn’t leave work much before 5, so would that be early enough? The answer was a resounding “yes” – got to the venue at 5.35 and was 2nd (yes, 2nd!) in the queue! Well done to George for getting there first around 4.30, shame you had to stand for so long!

Richard joined me about ten past six after I’d redirected countless tourists (invariably American!) to the restaurant entrance at the front. Suffice to say we got in easily (could have turned up at half eight and strolled in) and got a good viewing spot in this tiny venue. After a couple of outrageously priced pints of Fosters (£3.25), support band “The Rymes” took the stage. Pleasant enough acoustic guitar playing and singing from 2 twentysomething guys and a couple of catchy tunes. 

At 8.40, the band we’d really come to see took the stage and played the following set (all acoustic)

Stand Up 

Amy's On The Run 

I'm Dreaming Again 

Higher Ground 

River Of Pain Low 

Life In High Places 

Everybody Wants Her 

I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll 

The band were on good form (even though Danny made a few mistakes – e.g. expecting a guitar solo when there was a harmonica one etc – maybe he forgot it was acoustic). Ben and Luke got a bit confused as to who was doing lead vs rhythm in a few places, but ultimately this was a good fun 45 minutes worth of quality material. For those of you who didn’t bother going – you missed out. The audience certainly enjoyed themselves and we saw a few familiar faces (hello to “Blondie-girl” from Guildford!). Also apologies to Luke if you are missing a plectrum or two – I have one of them! Still not entirely sure what the point of the show was, or indeed what it was to promote, but I'm not complaining !! 

The show was followed by a mini-crawl around Shepherd’s Market and saw the end of the West Ham – Bolton Cup tie. All in all a nice evening. Booked to see “The Answer” at Camden’s Barfly in a couple of weeks. Saw them support Deep Purple earlier this year and they were pretty good, so should be interesting. At last a good value show too - £6 is much more like it (as opposed to me refusing to pay £75 +b/f for the Eagles at Wembley).

Upcoming Gigs

Reasonably quiet for a couple of weeks. Here are the shows I have lined up so far:- Tommy Vance Tribute Night (Royal Albert Hall) - Features Judas Priest, Scorpions, Ian Gillan & Friends and Boned. This is part of the series of concerts for the excellent Teenage Cancer Trust (https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/main/). Got good seats (5 rows from front). A bit more than we wanted to pay, but should be good fun - hopefully a few guests (c'mon Roger, you know you want to!) - and it is for charity. 

The Who Convention (Bush Hall, Shepherd's Bush) - A couple of Who tribute bands and the Casbah Club (feat Simon Townshend)

The Pretenders (Camden) - should be good, never seen them before.

John Fogerty (Hammersmith Apollo) - At last !! Been waiting to see him for years. Hope I'm not disappointed!

Bon Jovi (St Mary's, Southampton) - Not until June, got much better (and cheaper) seats than could have at yet-to-be-finished Wembley.

Robbie Williams (Wembley Stadium). It may be finished by September (?) and we'll be up in the "gods" on the last night. Also, must get round to deciding whether to go to Bob Catley at the Camden Underworld at Easter.

I was thinking of going to see Gretchen Peters in Camden last week (on the off-chance Bryan Adams may show up), but got the date wrong and missed it. Never mind, he didn't show! Considered buying Whitesnake tickets yesterday for Hammersmith, but decided £32.50 + rip-off Ticketmaster fees (making it over £40) made it a bit expensive, although I did enjoy last year's show. 

Tony Jepson is playing a small gig in New Cross next month and I can't make it. Pity! Now what I'm really waiting for are some Who dates (although the rumoured Hyde Park festival style show is not really my thing - intimate warm up show anyone?) and hopefully, some Billy Joel UK dates for the first time in over a decade once his US East Coast tour finishes. Oh, and if Bryan Adams gets closer to London than Norwich (!), I'll be up for that too. Also, Status Quo seem to be likely to do Epsom Racecourse for the third year running in July, so that should be good.

Thunder - Hammersmith Carling Apollo - Saturday 4th February

What a difference! For Thunder, the same set (almost), a full crowd (downstairs only) and this was great! Everything seemed to flow better, sound was good - vocals and guitar excellent and what a great show. Strange how it sometimes works like that. 

Toby Jepson seemed to be trying a bit too hard - his vocals were a bit dodgy - guitarist still hadn't has a reality check. But as I say the night belonged to Thunder - well done guys. A nice touch was the jam with the support bands on Elton's "Saturday Night's (Alright For Fighting)" (strangely, Toby's guitarist was the only one missing - still in the dressing room admiring himself presumably) and an epic (18 minutes!) Dirty Love.

Classic Stuff!

Setlist

Loser

Amy's on the Run

Higher Ground

I'm Dreaming Again

You Can't Keep a Good Man Down

Like a Satellite

Ball and Chain

Empty City

Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)

Love Walked In

Fade Into the Sun

I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll

+

An Englishman on Holiday

A Better Man

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (with Toby Jepson and Roadstar)

Baby, Please Don't Go

Dirty Love

Thunder - Brighton Dome - Friday 27th January

Another half day from work to allow an exploration of the establishments of Brighton. Had a pleasant crawl (in the snow !!) of the Kemptown area - all of which were new pubs for me. Some highly impressive pool playing was shown too. 

First time for me at the Dome - very impressive venue - not so the bar prices - OUTRAGEOUS! Thankfully after the afternoon, we weren't too thirsty! 

We skipped the option of the first support - seen them when they were "Hurricane Party" - not bad, but not really my thing. Toby Jepson was good, with a set full of Little Angels material. Only annoyance was his guitarist. The word "tosser" springs to mind. How can someone fancy himself so much? The girls around us were in 2 camps - either laughing / fake vomiting or feeling very uncomfortable with his posturing and leering at them. Top tip - keep your shirt on and play the music! Oh, actually there was another annoyance. The 2 guys who thought it was acceptable to mosh into everyone around them for "Too Much Too Young" and knock half the crowd over (it wasn't as if there wasn't plenty of room).

Anyway, once another guy and I had errr.. educated them on their behaviour they calmed down a bit. Suffice to say, security were useless. Next up Thunder. On paper, a decent set. In reality, something missing for me. I've seen Thunder a lot of times and they are always good. There was just something tonight that meant it was OK, but not great - couldn't put my finger on it why. Still - An Englishman On Holiday is always one of my favourites. The last train to Croydon from Brighton (23.05) meant we have to leave "Dirty Love" mid-way through. 45 minutes in Croydon waiting for a connection meant a total journey home of nearly 3 hours - no fun!

Setlist

Loser

Amy's on the Run

Higher Ground

I'm Dreaming Again

You Can't Keep a Good Man Down

Like a Satellite

Ball and Chain

Empty City

Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)

Love Walked In

Fade Into the Sun

I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll

+

An Englishman on Holiday

A Better Man

Dirty Love

Toby Jepson Setlist

Breakdown

Kicking Up Dust

Boneyard

Forbidden Fruit

Don't Pray for Me

Unwind

Young Gods (Stand Up, Stand Up)

Radical Your Lover

Too Much Too Young

Deep Purple - Astoria - Tuesday 17th January

My first live viewing of Deep Purple. Got in early for a change and witnessed that great rarity - a half decent support band. Called "The Answer", they may actually have a future ahead of them, with some Plant-esq vocals and a hint of AC/DC in the sound. A couple of catchy songs too - new EP out soon apparently.

I was quite impressed by Deep Purple. However, a lot of the regular fans seemed upset at the amount of "new album" material and there was a fair bit of heckling. It probably didn't help that Ian Gillan clearly didn't know the words for the first few songs! One of the things that is always a bit of an issue is the set mix for new and old fans. The regulars are probably sick of the "hits" churned out year after year, but as a "newbie", I was delighted to hear Highway Star, Smoke On The Water and Black Night. Indeed, I'd have been happier too if they'd done Woman From Tokyo and Strange Kind of Woman, whereas for someone like Status Quo for example, I'd happily miss out some big hits, for some more "hardcore" classics. 

Anyway, I was impressed by the musicianship of Deep Purple - especially Steve Morse. A couple of Amstels in the Tottenham (previously Soho's worst/smokiest pub?) rounded off a nice evening.

Setlist

Pictures of Home

Things I Never Said

Wrong Man

Vavoom: Ted the Mechanic

Living Wreck

Rapture of the Deep

Back to Back

Before Time Began

Contact Lost

Guitar Solo [Steve Morse]

The Well-Dressed Guitar

Lazy

Keyboard Solo

Perfect Strangers

Junkyard Blues

Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming

Space Truckin'

Highway Star

Smoke on the Water

+

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

Black Night / Bass Solo

Status Quo - Brighton Centre - Friday 9th December (Cancelled)

Found out this was cancelled on the morning just before travelling. Rick Parfitt had been diagnosed with probable throat cancer - sad news indeed. That may have also explained him being "out of sorts" somewhat last week at Croydon. (Happily a few weeks later, after laser surgery, he has been given the all clear) - although unhappily it sounds as if Mike Peters of the Alarm may not have been so lucky. Best wishes to him too.

Magnum - Astoria - Thursday 8th December

Earlier in the year Magnum celebrated the 20th Anniversary of release of the "On A Storytellers Night" album with a couple of shows showcasing the entire album. The show at the Astoria in April was packed and filmed for a DVD - "Livin' The Dream" which is worth buying. Judging by the size of the audience, maybe going for a repeat performance so soon was a mistake - the venue was barely half full. Still, that doesn't detract from some excellent music, with the delights of Tony Clarkin's song writing and under-rated guitar playing. Something similar for "Vigilante" next year maybe? 

The early kick-out from the Astoria meant we were able to visit a couple of bars. Garlic and Shots was its normal gothic-self and for a bit of variety we followed this up with a "camp" half in the Admiral Duncan (a famous gay pub in Soho) - some interesting "people watching" - complete with pink Christmas Trees! Then on to the Intrepid Fox for a bit of beer 'n' metal!

Setlist

Brand New Morning

Back Street Kid

Need a Lot of Love

Soldier of the Line

We All Run

Vigilante

Kingdom of Madness

Keyboard & Guitar Intro

Sacred Hour

+

How Far Jerusalem

Just Like an Arrow

On a Storyteller's Night

Before First Light

Les morts dansant

Endless Love

Two Hearts

Steal Your Heart

All England's Eyes

+

The Last Dance

Basement Jam - Sunday 4th December - The Boathouse, Twickenham

A rare treat. An invitation only show entitled "Basement Jam", This internet broadcast is the culmination of the last couple of years of the "In The Attic" internet video podcast from Rachel Fuller (often assisted by Pete Townshend).

The intimate show here features the normal guests from recent months (see Bedford Arms entry) and culminates with a fantastic acoustic set from Pete Townshend interspersed with a few stories and history of the room that we are in (Oceanic Studios at The Boathouse)

It's a bit like being invited round for tea by one of your musical heroes, so suffice to say I enjoyed my evening!

Setlists

Pete Townshend
Drowned
Greyhound Girl
Blue Red and Grey
In the Ether (with Rachel)
Just Breathe (with Rachel)
Sunrise (with Rachel)
Behind Blue Eyes
Let’s See Action

Rachel Fuller
Into My Heart
Ghost in Your Room
Imperfection,
Cigarettes and Housework
Happy to Be Sad
Spin
Pleasure Seeker
Jigsaw,
Shine (with all)

Simon Townshend
Save Me From Me
Comeback
Soul Searching
Girl In New York
The Way It Is
Sex Change

Foy Vance
Crosstown Traffic (Hendrix)
Gabriel & The Vagabond
Don’t Please Yourself
Indiscriminate Act of Kindness

Mikey Cuthbert
You
Tourist
Plasticine
Clever Girl
My Pigeon Friend

http://petetownshend.net/in-the-attic/attic-jams

Quireboys - Mean Fiddler - Friday 2nd December

A similar set to that played at the excellent Kingston Peel show earlier in the year. A sparse audience though, which was a shame. Spike rambled on between songs and was, as normal, encouraging the crowd to buy him a drink! Often the band would start the next song just to shut him up! All in all, a good show - the Quireboys are a real "good time" band with some excellent songs and deserve a bigger audience.