Thunder - London Astoria - Sunday 2nd December

A late afternoon departure - slightly delayed due to Richard getting the timetable mixed up with Saturday! Went to the "Beehive" in Vauxhall for a couple of beers and the 2nd half of Spurs v Birmingham. Good entertainment and a cracking winner from Birmingham in injury time. Then a quick trip up to Waterloo (despite Richard trying to board the southbound Surbiton service!) and a bus across the bridge (Waterloo Sunset - the best ground-level view in London?).

First port of call, the Nell Gwynne, was unfortunately closed.. not sure if this is permanent (which would be a shame) or just for Sunday. So, instead, a mini-International crawl visiting the Maple Leaf (Canada), Walkabout (Australia) - with Steinlager on draft and Bok Bar (South Africa) before a bit of live Jazz (nice!) in the historic Lamb and Flag. After another swift half, it was off to the venue (we'd been informed by the guy who answers the phone for the Astoria - he's been there for years and knows everything!) that Thunder would be on at 8.25. They were!

Venue was very busy - must have been pretty much sold out. We just squeezed onto the floor on the left where the view was OK and the sound pretty good. A solid show - albeit slightly reliant on more recent material. Certainly a fair few of the people near us didn't seem to recognise much of it. Danny Bowes (vocals) was on good form and the band were as on the ball as ever - some great solos from Luke Morley and Ben Matthews. In the absence of "Dirty Love", Richard and I had our "Higher or Lower" bet on "Can't Keep A Good Man Down". Richard went for 12 minutes. I went "lower" and won - it was around 9 minutes 30 - could have made all the difference if they'd gone into "Get It On" as sounded likely at one stage. A 16 song set in just over an hour and 45 minutes shows that some of the songs are quite lengthy compared to the studio originals.

At the end of the show we made a quick getaway (via the stairs to the Ladies toilet! and the attractive female security - "Yes, of course we were told to come out this way") and were home in good time via Victoria. All in all, a good evening - looking forward to the Christmas Party in Nottingham.

Set List:
Dirty Dream
Last Man Standing
Higher Ground
I'll Be Waiting
The Devil Made Me Do It
Robert Johnson's Tombstone
River of Pain
Flawed to Perfection
Like A Satellite
Chain Reaction
Backstreet Symphony
Love Walked In
You Can't Keep A Good Man Down
+
(Somebody Get Me A) Spin Doctor
Low Life In High Places
I Love You More Than Rock & Roll