Who's Next - Saturday 8th February - Charles Cryer Theatre, Carshalton

Brief review:  The excellent Who tribute come to Carshalton. A very talented set of musicians across the board, but my attentions often focus on the skill of the guitarist - in this case Dante DiCarlo who's interpretation of a 1970's Pete Townshend in white boiler suit was spot on. And for the first time in well over 100 shows by the Who and numerous tributes, I got to hear "Long Live Rock" live. Fantastic!

Venue and View:  Central, standing.

Slade UK - Saturday 9th March - Charles Cryer Theatre, Carshalton

Brief review:  The excellent Slade tribute band come to Carshalton for an intimate show. They are an excellent act combining the key hits with some great deeper dives into the catalogue such as "Gypsy Roadhog" and "Dizzy Mama". Keep On Rockin'!

Venue and View:  Seated a few rows back on the right

Jim Kirkpatrick - Saturday 5th February - Charles Cryer Theatre Bar, Carshalton

Brief review:  Jim was meant to be both supporting (and in) Rhino's Revenge for this show. A late cancellation and Jim kindly agreed to do this show in the Theatre Bar for free. A nice showcase of his current album (purchased last year) and some fun covers - including Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" and some Status Quo snippets to keep the small crowd happy.

Venue and View:  2nd row of tables. Nice bar with craft beer. One decent lager, one dodgy one!

Bad Influence - "The Windsor Castle" (Carshalton) - Saturday 2nd September

Hadn't known anything about this until Richard told me a day or 2 beforehand. Bad Influence normally feature Harry and Chris from Thunder and play a selection of original material and covers. 

Carshalton is only a brief train ride from home, so I met Richard there just after 9 and only missed 2 songs. The pub itself (and clientele) is a real 70's throwback. Think "The Sweeney" and you are spot on. Lots of middle aged men in brown jackets with wide lapels and lots of smoke. No really... lots! We resisted all temptation to shout "You're Nicked!" and enjoyed the music. 

The vast majority of the music was originals (which we didn't know, but was enjoyable), but we were treated to a second encore with "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "Keep Your Hands To Yourself". No Chris on bass, but Harry was on good form. Good stuff overall.