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

SAS Band - Friday 25th November - Clapham Grand

Brian May addresses the Clapham crowd

This was officially billed as the "Freddie Mercury Tribute", marking 20 years since the sad death of the legendary Queen frontman. That makes it 10 years since an excellent tribute show at the Hackney Ocean which featured Messrs May and Taylor plus guests like Bruce Dickinson with the SAS band.

Internet Forums were awash with comment that May and Taylor "couldn't be bothered" to turn up for this one, so it was a pleasant surprise when Brian May strolled onstage during Kerry Ellis's take on "No One But You (Only The Good Die Young)". This was followed by "Somebody To Love" and an impressive "Tie Your Mother Down" before he departed (turns out he was off to guest at The Darkness's show up the road in Hammersmith - where he also played "Tie Your Mother Down" amongst others!).

Still, as always, the band was held together by the SAS band  Spike Edney and Friends. A string of fairly low key guests - Madeline Bell, Chris Thompson, The Fabba Girls, Patti Russo & Tony Vincent - injected much fun into the evening. In fairness, it didn't compete with the event 10 years ago, but that didn't prevent it from being a fun night out with the chance to hear some great songs.

Setlist
No One But You (Only The Good Die Young) (Kerry Ellis and Brian May)
Somebody To Love (Kerry Ellis and Brian May)
Tie Your Mother Down (Kerry Ellis and Brian May)
Davy's On The Road Again (Chris Thompson)
Blinded By The Light (Chris Thompson)
We Got The Fire (Chris Thompson)
Don't Stop Me Now (Patti Russo)
Chain Of Fools (PattiI Russo)
Another One Bites The Dust (Patti Russo)
Mamma Mia (Fabba Girls)
Fat Bottomed Girls (Fabba Girls)
Dancing Queen (Fabba Girls)
+
Now I'm Here (Tony Vincent)
I Want It All (Tony Vincent and Chris Thompson)
Hammer To Fall (Tony Vincent)
I Want To Break Free (Madeline Bell)
Natural Woman (Madeline Bell)
Heard It Through the Grapevine (Madelin Bell)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Chris Thompson)
These Are The Days Of Our Lives (Chris Thompson)
The Show Must Go On (Chris Thompson)
Under Pressure (Tony Vincent and Kerry Ellis)
+
We Will Rock You (All)
We Are The Champions (All)
+
You're The Voice (Chris Thompson and All)
With A Little Help From My Friends (Patti Russo and All)
All The Way (All, Acappella)

"We Will Rock You" - Dominion Theatre - Tuesday 5th September

The 5th September would have been Freddie Mercury's 60th Birthday if he was still alive. This special performance of the Queen musical was its normal good fun (despite highly suspect plot!) and featured "special guests". Only a couple as it turned out, but I was able to increase my "chart acts seen" by McFly turning up for "Don't Stop Me Now". 

For the encore, the expected appearance of Brian May and Roger Taylor gave us Bohemian Rhapsody, Love of My Life, Say It Isn't So (I know it's for a good cause, but I really don't rate this song) and The Show Must Go On. 

I'm perhaps being greedy, but had hoped for a few more guests.. Still, what we saw was good and we spotted Spike Edney and Neil Murray in the house band... let's rock!