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).