Slady - Sunday 15 October - Boogaloo, Highgate

Brief review:  This show was moved from a paid event at the Dublin Castle - cancelled without explanation by the promotor. The first part of the show was an author being interviewed about his new Slade book - I was very impressed by how bassist Wendy effortlessly took on the interviewer role. Then a slimmed down Slady (Dani, Wendy and "their friend Stan" David Woodcock) played an acoustic set. Excellent as always and the bands love of the material clearer showed through.

Venue and View:  Seated front-right

Setlist
Cum On Feel The Noize
Look Wot You Dun
Cox I Luv You
Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Wonderin' Y
When The Lights Are Out
Know Who You Are
Dapple Rose
Far Far Away
Everyday
Gudbuy T'Jane
Get Down and Get With It

Dani Cox ("Gobby Holder") Acoustic - Sunday 13th August - Marquis, Covent Garden

Brief review:  Acoustic performance from Dani in a small London pub. Her performance was delayed slightly by a bloke running in to grab a chair to try and attack someone outside whilst shouting "I am not a f***ing p***phile!". He was apprehended by the bar staff and presumably the police called. 

With typical humour the incident was mentioned during Dani's set of largely Slade and glam covers.

Venue and View:  At the bar, but very much to one side.

Status Quo - Friday 9th September - Union Chapel

Acoustic Quo as a warm up for Sunday's Hyde Park show. Rick still not well enough to perform, so the "Aquostic" Quo are a man down. They've decided to stand for this one in the most intimate venue they've played for years. A good choice of up tempo numbers for a festival set seems a good choice and we get the bonus of hearing the "new" songs twice. It works - just.

Setlist
Pictures of Matchstick Men
Paper Plane
Caroline
What You're Proposing
Claudie
That's a Fact
Hold You Back
Rollin' Home
Down Down
Whatever You Want
Rockin' All Over the World
+
Burning Bridges
+
That's A Fact (repeat)
Hold Ya Back (repeat)

T'Pau - Thursday 14th April - Royal Vauxhall Tavern

My second ever visit to the RVT and my second seeing of a T'Pau acoustic show there! We dragged along some friends who I think were more intrigued by the venue and it's reputation than the band, but they left having enjoyed the show. Carol and the boys were on good form and the acoustic format suits some of the songs pretty well. The encore song was a strange choice, but all in all a very pleasant hour and a bit.

Setlist

Heart And Soul
Valentine
I Will Be With You
Monkey House
Bridge Of Spies
Secret Garden
Island
Walk On Air
Purity
Make Love To Me
Wing And A Prayer
Read my Mind
Nowhere
China In Your Hand
+
Made Of Money

Status Quo - Thursday 30th April - Royal Albert Hall

Back for more Quo? Why? Well one, I know it'll be good and two, there were some amazingly good tickets came online well after the front blocks had sold out.

We'd always wondered what it would be like to be in the 2 seats at the front row of the stalls, next to the stage. Well the answer is that you are effectively on the stage and almost feel part of the band. And for an acoustic show like this there are no sound issues either.

You won't be surprised to know that the setlist was the same as on Sunday, but the band seemed quite relaxed - I think they are getting used to playing the material in this way.

My personal highlights in this format are Rock 'n' Roll, All The Reasons, Reason For Livin' and the brilliant Nanana.

Setlist
And It's Better Now
Break the Rules
Again and Again
Paper Plane
Mystery Song / Little Lady
Rock 'n' Roll
Caroline
What You're Proposing
Softer Ride
Down Down
Pictures of Matchstick Men
Down the Dustpipe
All the Reasons
Reason for Living
Rollin' Home
Don't Drive My Car
Claudie
Rain
Marguerita Time
Nanana
Whatever You Want
Rockin' All Over the World
+
Rock 'til You Drop
Burning Bridges (On and Off and on Again)

Status Quo - Sunday 26th April - Hammersmith Apollo

Whilst enjoying the debut "Aquostic" gig at the Roundhouse last year, I wasn't certain I could justify the high price for seats this time around. That little issue was solved by the availability of rear-stalls standing tickets at a much fairer price, so we opted for those. I remember doing the same for Chuck Berry tickets years ago and (depending on the gig and security attitude), you are sometimes allowed to stand at the side of the venue rather than really at the back. That's what we did here.

The show was good, but in typical Quo style, they made zero changes to the setlist. Yep, all the same songs, in the same order as last year. Now that I could understand if it hadn't been for the fact that the new record is a recording of that show - the same songs in the same order. C'mon guys, throw us a curve ball - swap 2 songs over! Would it have been too much to ask that they learn another song?

Still - there's probably only a fraction of us that moan about such things. The sound was good, the songs were good and I really enjoyed the evening. Just as well, as I'm going again next week!

Setlist
And It's Better Now
Break the Rules
Again and Again
Paper Plane
Mystery Song / Little Lady
Rock 'n' Roll
Caroline
What You're Proposing
Softer Ride
Down Down
Pictures of Matchstick Men
Down the Dustpipe
All the Reasons
Reason for Living
Rollin' Home
Don't Drive My Car
Claudie
Rain
Marguerita Time
Nanana
Whatever You Want
Rockin' All Over the World
+
Rock 'til You Drop
Burning Bridges (On and Off and on Again)

Quireboys - Sunday 19th April - Esquires, Bedford

Spike, Keith & Paul

A sort of "hometown" gig for the Quireboys (well, Griff anyway!) at Esquires in Bedford. Now that's actually a fair trek from south of London, but as we missed out on seeing the boys at the end of last year due to a clash of dates, it seemed a worthwhile jaunt to see them in a tiny venue.

The handful of pubs nearby seemed functional and very quiet (some were suffering from a power cut). In the Ship, I managed to win the pool 3-2 on the final black. I was also quite pleased to find a chippy open on a Sunday.

The venue itself had 2 rooms - a nice bar and small stage in one and the "Holy Moly" room where the boys were playing. Social media from the boys had promised a prompt 8:30 start - predictably this slipped to 8:45. Spike appeared to be particularly "refreshed" after a spending time with Phil Mogg apparently the night before. The show was acoustic again - no drummer or bass - and the songs strangely missed nearly all the material from their new album. That meant we knew most of them and an enthusiastic sing-a-long was had by all. The late start meant we had to leave before the encore, but catching the fast train meant being home at a civilised hour at least.

Nice to see rock and roll being kept alive in Bedford! Yee-ha!

Setlist to follow.

From The Jam - Friday 16th January - Under The Bridge, Chelsea FC

My first show of 2015 and it's at a new venue. Under The Bridge is part of Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground - under one corner of the massive East Stand.

I'd heard that it is used more often as a nightclub than a music venue, but I was really surprised and impressed by what a nice venue it is.

After a quick game of darts in a nearby pub (the Fox & Pheasant) where the 2 guys on the board very kindly let us challenge them (and we sneaked a 2-1 win), we got in pretty early as we were keen to catch the support in the form of Simon Townshend. Simon was on good form, mixing in new material with a couple of oldies, although surprisingly not "The Way It Is". Unfortunately his set was pretty short - we'll certainly look out for any solo shows later this year.

So confession time - I was never really a massive fan of The Jam and wouldn't profess to know much of their material. What I did know was that the 3 piece here included original Jam member Bruce Foxton; the show was an acoustic one; and after that I was taking a bit of a leap into the unknown.

An hour and a half later, that had all changed. Turns out I know (or at least recognised) many more Jams songs than I thought I knew and I had a great time.

Guitarist / Vocalist / Stuart Pearce look-a-like, Russell Hastings, did a great job. He wisely didn't try to replace Paul Weller in a note for note style, but stamped his own personality across the songs. The audience seemed to have a great time, singing along enthusiastically. I had wondered if it may get a bit boisterous, but with a primarily middle-aged audience and with looking security the type you wouldn't mess with, there was no hassle at all - even with our vantage point (the standard front and left). To make the evening even better, we got a Who song - So Sad About Us.

I shall return - both for the band and the venue.

Setlist
Saturday's Kids 
When You're Young 
David Watts 
To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time) 
Thick as Thieves 
Man in the Corner Shop 
It's Too Bad 
Smithers-Jones 
Strange Town 
Burning Sky 
So Sad About Us 
Little Boy Soldiers 
That's Entertainment 
The Butterfly Collector 
Slow Down 
Start! 
Town Called Malice 
Going Underground 
+
The Eton Rifles 
Heatwave 
Down in the Tube Station at Midnight 

Dan Baird & Homemade Sin - Wednesday 3rd December - St Pancras Old Church

So, this is the year of the acoustic shows. I've seen Bryan Adams and Status Quo recently "unplugged", but there's probably none more surprising to see in this format than Dan Baird & Homemade Sin, playing their first ever acoustic concert.

The setting is the St Pancras Old Church - a real operating church with a seated capacity of 110!

We got there early before the doors opened and were able to grab a front row seat on surprisingly low church chairs. The evening was to be split into 2 sets (to allow an interval to use the outside portaloos!) and gather drinks from the "refreshment table".

The sound was good, although maybe the drums had a bit of an echo - it must be a nightmare being the sound guy somewhere like this. The material was obviously carefully chosen to match the instrumentation (guitars borrowed from Ian Hunter apparently), although there were a number where Warner E. Hodges swapped to an electric telecaster. His playing was exemplary as normal, as was the rest of the band, although they all fell about on the odd occasion there was a mistake. You got a true sense of the band enjoying playing together.

The second half got off to an emotional start as Dan had just received word that Faces musician and friend Ian McLagan had died in the US, one day after another friend, Bobby Keys. A solo version of "Another Chance" was a fitting tribute.

The rest of the set was really enjoyable. If you were ultra-picky, you could say that a couple of songs were a bit too long and others could have been added if they'd been shorter, but I didn't see any faces who didn't seem to have really enjoyed the evening. Dan and Warner were kind enough to sign CDs and setlists at the end too. Top guys one and all.

Setlist
Myth of Love
Little Darlin
Crooked Smile
Trivial As The Truth
Love And Rockets (Mauro on vocals, Dan on Drums!)
Knocked Up
Runnin' Outta Time
Younger Face
Thousand Little Pieces
Six Years Gone
+
Another Chance (Dan solo)
Golden Light
Two For Tuesday
Sweet Blue Midnight
Hell To Pay
Long Way Down
Hard Luck Boy
Lazy Monday
Julie & Lucky
Damn Thing To Be Done / Goin' Down The Road

Status Quo - Wednesday 22nd October - Roundhouse

So this is a bit different - Status Quo acoustic (or "Aquostic" if you go by their new album). A trip to the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm and he were not quite sure what to expect having not yet heard the album. Predictably, the "hardcore" on the Quo message boards had been ripping the concept to shreds without even hearing anything, but a full house turned up to watch a performance being beamed around the country on Radio 2 and the via BBC red button service.

The venue was pretty packed, so we settled for a spot under the moving camera arm - controversially on the right (but with no electric bass, this wasn't really going to be an issue!). And guess what? It was a really enjoyable evening. I think 99% of the people there seemed to enjoy it. Some songs worked really well - I particularly enjoyed "Na Na Na", "Reason for Living" & "Rolling Home" and to be fair some didn't - "Mystery Song/Little Lady" springs to mind!

As a one-off project I think it works. I can't see it being a sustainable change of direction - I can't see fans turning up show after show if Quo shy away from their high tempo electric shows (although an acoustic section in the main electric set could work). I would imagine sales of the album cover T-Shirts (with Francis and Rick semi-naked) would count as the lowest ever!

An 8 out of 10 for me as a unique event.

Setlist

And It's Better Now

Break the Rules
Again and Again
Paper Plane
Mystery Song / Little Lady
Rock 'n' Roll
Caroline
What You're Proposing
Softer Ride
Down Down
Pictures of Matchstick Men
Down The Dustpipe
All The Reasons
Reason For Living
Rollin' Home
Don't Drive My Car
Claudie
Rain
Marguerita Time
Na Na Na
Whatever You Want
Rockin' All Over the World
+
Rock 'til You Drop
Burning Bridges

Bryan Adams - Wednesday 10th September - Brighton Centre

No shows in August means it's been a while since the last updates. This was the first of 3 anticipated trips to see Mr Adams this year - this one an acoustic outing as part of his long-standing "Bare Bones" tour. I'd found out earlier in the week that some friends of ours were going too, so we met in a pub in the Laines. Unbelievably, it turned out that they had 2 row G tickets right next to our 2. Bizarre coincidence!

The show was good. the only downside was the number of ballads played - but I guess that's always likely with an acoustic show. The up-tempo numbers were better received - Run To You, Summer of '69, When You're Gone etc together with the new song "She Knows Me". There were some amusing anecdotes between tunes too. It was a good evening, but I predict the full band shows coming up will be better!

Setlist *

Run to You

It's Only Love

I Thought I'd Seen Everything

Here I Am

When You Love Someone

This Time

I Finally Found Someone

Can't Stop This Thing We Started

If Ya Wanna Be Bad Ya Gotta Be Good

(Everything I Do) I Do It for You

Cuts Like a Knife

Flying

Summer of '69

She Knows Me

Heaven

All for Love

When You're Gone

18 til I Die

Cloud Number Nine

One Night Love Affair

The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You

You've Been a Friend to Me

+

Somebody

Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

I Still Miss You... A Little Bit

Straight From the Heart

* I'm not 100% sure this is exactly the set, but it's pretty close. If anything is missing or wrong then please comment.

Brian May with Kerry Ellis - Thursday 15th November - The Hawth, Crawley

Kerry Ellis & Brian May

A trip to suburbia to see the Queen guitarist with stage star Kerry Ellis in Crawley.
The evening started with a couple of games of darts in Three Bridges and included a nice 180 with some "pub darts" in one venue and a stunning 13 dart 501 finish (my best ever) in "The Moonraker". We then cut through some sports fields and made our way to the Hawth, which I'd bizarrely thought was going to be the same venue I'd seen Status Quo at 10 years ago (Wrong! - that was the Crawley Leisure Centre)

In a seated and very quiet auditorium the mainly acoustic show presented a selection of Queen hits and other songs in aid of The Born Free Foundation. It was quite strange (with no real atmosphere whilst the songs were playing) and a strictly enforced "no photo" policy.
A local youth choir joined for the last 5 songs and they were perfectly pleasant (although Richard was horrified they needed a crib sheet for "We Are The Champions"!)
 
It was nice to see Brian playing in a venue like this (and for a good cause) but I look forward to seeing him on his own playing some more rock material soon. Kerry's vocals are pleasant enough but somewhat limit the style of material they can play.

 

Setlist
Born Free
Butterfly (Somethings That Glitter)
I Who Have Nothing
Dust In The Wind
I Can See You Kissing Me
Somebody to Love
Nothing Really Has Changed
Life is Real (Song for Lennon)
The Way We Were
'39
Something
Love of My Life
I'm Not That Girl
No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)
Last Horizon (Electric Guitar version)
I Can't Be Your Friend 
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions
+
In The Bleak Midwinter
Born Free
Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Born Free Foundation Website