Kingdom of Madness - Friday 28th October - 100 Club, London

Brief review:  I'll be upfront and say that I had low expectations for this one and if Rhino's Revenge in Carshalton had not been cancelled then I wouldn't have been here. I've not seen Mark Stanway's new outfit before, but the constant lineup changes and postponements didn't bode well.

I'm pleased to report that it was excellent from start to finish with a decent selection in the 100% "Classic Magnum" set. Vocals, guitar and everything else were excellent. What a pleasant surprise - I shall return.

Venue and View:  Front and central (by centre pillar). 2 yards from the stage.

Setlist
Changes
Back to Earth
Just Like an Arrow
Wild Swan
The Prize
Need a Lot of Love
Les Morts Dansant
Love's a Stranger
Start Talking Love
Rockin' Chair
Soldier Of The Line
The Tall Ships
Only in America
[Micky Barker] Drum Solo
Midnight (You Won't Be Sleeping)
On a Storyteller's Night
Kingdom of Madness
+
The Lights Burned Out
Sacred Hour

Dr Pepper's Jaded Hearts Club Band - Monday 3rd June - 100 Club, London

One Liner: A charity bash for the all-star covers band - last seen supporting Roger Daltrey at the Royal Albert Hall. Even got some non-Beatles songs this time around. Sold out in about a nano-second, but we managed to snag a pair of tickets. Expensive, but good fun.

Setlist
I Saw Her Standing There 
Please Please Me 
Have Love, Will Travel 
Money (That's What I Want) 
Back in the U.S.S.R. 
Gloria 
You Really Got Me 
Can't Buy Me Love 
Hey Bulldog 
I Can't Explain 
My Generation 
Bad Boy 
Sunshine of Your Love 
Twist and Shout 
Paint It Black 
Why Don't We Do It in the Road? 
Helter Skelter 

Tom Robinson - Wednesday 25th October - 100 Club, Oxford St

One Line Review: Excellent all round - surprised by how much of the material I knew.

Setlist
Up Against the Wall
Grey Cortina
Too Good to Be True
Ain't Gonna Take It
Long Hot Summer
The Winter of '79
Man You Never Saw
Better Decide Which Side You’re On
You Gotta Survive
Power in the Darkness
+
Martin
(Sing If You're) Glad to Be Gay
2-4-6-8 Motorway
Don't Take No for an Answer

Rhino's Revenge - Friday 12th May - 100 Club, London

Rhino's Revenge (Rhino is Status Quo's bassist) at the famous 100 club on Oxford Street. Rhino gave us the normal mix of Quo tracks (some co-written by him) and a selection from the 1st and 2nd Rhino's Revenge albums. The latter isn't his best work in my view, but the live show is always good fun. Could have done with being able to hear his chat in between songs a bit clearer, but even though the backing band was without the normal family members, the music was loud and clear. Unlike the red lighting which ruined all attempts at a decent bit of photography! He seemed to be enjoying himself as we even got an unscheduled second encore of "Roll Over Beethoven". On the basis the band needed to work out keys and rhythm, I guess this had not been rehearsed!

Setlist (approximate!)
Rocker
My Name Is Stan
Belavista Man 
Two Way Traffic 
Famous
Busy Doing Nothin'
Get Out of Denver 
Obstruction Day 
Spend Spend Spend
Lucinda 
Mine All Mine
Secretary
Bad News 
+
Paper Plane 
Jam Side Down 
+
Roll Over Beethoven

Thunder - Wednesday 27th January - 100 Club, London

3/5 of Thunder at the 100 Club

A bit of a bonus show for January. Thunder announce a short notice show at the small 100 Club on Oxford Street in aid of the Childline Charity. It sold out quickly (as Danny said, "you snooze, you lose"), but we got lucky with tickets. I would imagine this was a handy run through of the set that will be performed at Wembley in a few weeks - and very good it was too.

As always at this venue, if you are in front of the stage, a large pillar splits it in two, meaning only half the stage is really visible at a time. Despite that restriction, the sound quality was good and the crowd had enough space so as not to be uncomfortable. From what we could see, Ben was looking in good health also.

Particular current favourites include Wonder Days, Black Water and Resurrection Day and these came across well.

There had also been a charity acoustic show earlier in the evening (available by donation and lottery) - unfortunately we missed out on that (by not knowing about it in time), but this was enough to make a great evening on its own. Bring on Wembley.

Setlist
Wonder Days
Black Water
River Of Pain
Chasing Shadows
Broken
The Devil Made Me Do It
Backstreet Symphony
I'll Be Waiting
Resurrection Day
The Thing I Want
Love Walked In
I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll
+
The Rocker 
Dirty Love / (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

https://www.childline.org.uk/pages/about.aspx

Belinda Carlisle - Saturday 10th October - Indigo2

More Belinda Carlisle, this time at the Indigo2 in London. Decent 4th row seats acquired meant no need to be in the venue especially early, meaning time for a nice meal at the Prospect of Whitby in Wapping and a quick drink in the "rooftop" bar of a restaurant in front of the O2.

As at Brighton, Belinda's audience was mixed - with a predominantly middle aged crowd mixed with some fabulous campness!

She was once again on great form - although it is a shame that the setlist was shorter than many of the recent US shows. "Mad About You" was included which was a highlight and there was much singing throughout from the audience - apart from maybe during "Bonnie & Clyde" which was possibly the only lull in proceedings. 2 really enjoyable shows from the former Go Go's star - let's hope there are more on the horizon. Rumours of some shows with Susanna Hoffs - now that would be great!

Setlist
Runaway Horses
(We Want) The Same Thing
I Get Weak
Circle in the Sand
In Too Deep 
Bonnie and Clyde
California
Vision of You
La Luna
Summer Rain
Valentine
Mad About You
Leave a Light On
Heaven Is a Place on Earth
+
Big Scary Animal
We Got the Beat
Live Your Life Be Free

Rhino's Revenge - Friday 6th March - 100 Club, London

Reverting to the Rhino's Revenge moniker (from Woodedz) in support of their new CD, an entertaining evening at the 100 Club started with Quo tribute band "State of Quo" delivering a brief but fun set of Quo classics and obscurities.

Rhino with family and friends then took the stage to showcase their new CD which meant the set had a few less covers and Quo songs than normal. All were delivered well - as mentioned on these pages before, Rhino must know he's no vocalist, but that sort of misses the point of the band. People were here for a good time and in the main that's what they got. There are a few duds in the set - the perennially awful "Secretary" always grates with me personally, but some fun light hearted ditties such as "Stan The Man" provide balance with the rockier numbers. The band do a good version of Jam Side Down which is much heavier than the Quo version for example.

So, all in all a good night. The Quo collector in me was tempted to buy the CD - signed copies of what looked like a CDR were available, but they were £15 - about the same as the price of the show. In a rare moment of reasonableness, I weighed up spending the cash now on a CD which is likely to enter my CD player approximately once against waiting and picking up a bargain bin version at some time in the future. The cash stayed in my pocket.

That sounds harsher than it should, as I enjoy seeing the guys play and will happily spend money to see them again (and on a different night may have a different view on buying the CD - especially a factory produced version), but when it comes down to it will I pick "Piledriver" or "Rhino's Revenge 2" off the shelf when I next listen to some classic rock at home? I'll leave you to ponder.

Dan Baird & Homemade Sin - Sunday 1st December - 100 Club

Disaster! We found the venue this time, but the CD was sold out (bloke in front of me got the last one - grrrr!) I consoled myself with a DVD which Dan kindly signed later. Much emptier than last night and a support band too, meaning a shorter set from the headliners, which was a shame.  They mixed the set up a bit and a few songs were quite a bit shorter - indeed neither of us could recall the last time we heard 'Sheila' played without snippets from other songs in the middle. Still, another good show - hopefully more of the same for 2014?

Setlist anyone?

Dan Baird & Homemade Sin - Saturday 30th November - 100 Club

Now, how difficult can it be to find a venue on Oxford Street? Particularly one you've been to before and know where it is? And know it's number 100. "Very" would appear to be the answer as we walked past the narrow, unlit entrance 3 times!!!

Once in however, a full house was craning for a decent view of the side-on stage. Not easy with 2 massive pillars in front, but we found a central point with a half decent view. The show was good (it always is with this band) and the songs from the new CD ("Circus Life") went down well. Will look to purchase the standard version of the CD tomorrow and get it signed.