Ian Hunter - Wednesday 29th June - Student Central (ULU)

The fantastic Mr Hunter - coming around again quickly on tour - and a new venue for me at the Student Bar / Hall of the University of London. As you might expect, it was pretty cramped on the floor. What you might not expect was the outrageous £6 for a beer - they are taking advantage of the audience demographic somewhat!

Ian was in fine voice and a decent choice of setlist made for a very enjoyable evening, even if the people near us decided that the quiet ballad of "Irene Wilde" was a perfect time to have a chat. The 2 girls from the support act added pleasant backing vocals to "I Wish I Was Your Mother" and the excellent Rant Band complemented Ian as always.

A really enjoyable evening.

Setlist
That's When The Trouble Starts
Once Bitten Twice Shy 
Fatally Flawed
When I'm President
Saint
The Truth, the Whole Truth, Nuthin' but the Truth 
Morpheus
Just Another Night
Fingers Crossed
All American Alien Boy
Irene Wilde
All the Way From Memphis
Ghosts
Roll Away the Stone
I Wish I Was Your Mother
23A, Swan Hill
Bastard
Sweet Jane 
+
Dandy
Long Time
Life / All the Young Dudes / Goodnight Irene

Ian Hunter - Friday 11th November - Shepherds Bush Empire

Ian Hunter and the Rant Band

I had been looking forward to seeing Ian again and was even more pleased when I remembered that we had decent floor seats for this one. Support came from Graham Parker and Brinsley Schwarz who were pleasant enough - but somehow I expected that I'd recognise at least a couple of their songs. I didn't! Still, it was fine and Graham came across well with some self depreciating humour to the fore.

Mr Hunter has been touring for a good few years now with his Rant Band and the set tonight was a good mixture of old classics and newer favourites. Ian was in fine voice and effortlessly switched between guitar and keyboard. The crowd lapped it up (after almost being dragged to their feet initially by 2 somewhat overexcited fans - who presumably wanted to get "down the front"). If I do have one reoccurring issue with Ian's shows, it is the front of house sound. Now, it could be mitigating that we were in the 4th row, but it took several songs before the vocals and in-between speech became clear (and lifted above the instruments). Also when special guest Paul Cuddeford joined in for "All The Way From Memphis", it took an age for the desk to realise that he was playing a solo and to turn him up so the audience could hear it. I'm sure being the sound man is a far from easy job, but there are few recurring shows I go to these days where the vocals start so muffled.

Despite those reservations, I really enjoyed the show and it was nice to be able to hear "All The Young Dudes" in London without a stage invasion by Joe Elliott!

Setlist
That's When The Trouble Starts
Once Bitten Twice Shy
When I'm President
Saint
The Truth, the Whole Truth, Nuthin' but the Truth 
Cleveland Rocks 
All American Alien Boy 
Fingers Crossed
Honaloochie Boogie 
Dandy
Just Another Night 
Bow Street Runners 
Shrunken Heads 
American Spy 
Michael Picasso 
Ghosts
23A, Swan Hill 
Sweet Jane 
+
Irene Wilde (Snippet)
All the Way From Memphis (with Paul Cuddeford)
Life
All the Young Dudes 
Goodnight, Irene (Snippet with Graham Parker)

Ian Hunter - Friday 3rd October - Brighton Concorde 2

Every now and then something really special happens at a gig and you just can't put your finger on what. I've seen Ian Hunter a few times over the last decade and it's always been good. For a reason I can't pinpoint, this was extra special.

Was it the venue? (a first for me) and its intimacy? Was it the disregard for the other setlists from this tour? Was it the appreciative audience or the fine set of musicians on stage? Who knows, but this was a great show.
We had a decent spot towards the front on the left. Sound quality was excellent and this was really evident on fine versions of "Flowers", "Irene Wilde" and "23a Swan Hill". Ian told a brief story about Lynsey De Paul (who sadly died this week) and how she came up with the "Ariel Bender" name - originally applied to Mick Ralphs!

And for the first time in seemingly ages, I got to hear "All The Young Dudes" without Joe Elliot singing on it! All in all, a truly inspiring evening.

Setlist anyone please?

Ian Hunter - Friday 19th of October - Shepherd's Bush Empire

Mr Ian Hunter

Back to the Shepherd's Bush Empire for the second night running - this time standing on the floor. Whilst not full, a healthy crowd turned up to see Mr Hunter play a selection of material from his solo albums and some Mott The Hopple material as well. For man well into his 70s, his vocals are excellent and the band that he has assembled are very competent. Ian switched seamlessly between guitar and piano and the sonngs from his new album "When I'm President" mixed in well with the old classics.

To round off the evening it was no surprise at all to see his daughter Tracy and Mick Ralphs join the band for a rousing "All the Young Dudes". If it wasn't for the fact that we go away for the weekend tomorrow, I'd be back for the 3rd night running with Steve Miller.

Setlist
Comfortable (Flyin' Scotsman)
Once Bitten Twice Shy
Fatally Flawed
Wash Us Away
Just The Way You Look Tonight
23A, Swan Hill
Irene Wilde (first part) / All The Way From Memphis
All American Alien Boy
Black Tears
Just Another Night
Isolation
When I'm President
Flowers
Roll Away The Stone
Michael Picasso
Sweet Jane
+
Girl From the Office (snippet)
Ta Shunka Witco (Crazy Horse)
The Moon Upstairs
Saturday Gigs / Life
All the Young Dudes

Ian Hunter – Sunday 10th October – Union Chapel, Highbury & Islington

New venue for me (save for the failed gate-crashing attempt a while back!). The Church that is the Union Chapel hosted an acoustic evening (although in reality it was only partially acoustic) from the Mott The Hopple frontman with a small orchestra for some parts. It was OK, but the first hour or so dragged a bit. Ian again played a fair amount of newish and lesser known songs – not a problem, but the mix wasn’t quite right for me. It didn't help that the quality of sound was pretty awful too (a complaint I heard several others making on the way out) and when he spoke between songs I couldn't make out what was said.

An emotional Michael Picasso and predictable All The Way From Memphis / All The Young Dudes rounded things off and we had the bonus of another “Ross Halfin” spot! He scores 5 points whereas regulars like Dave Ling are probably a 1 point spot!

Ian Hunter - Sunday 2nd May - Barbican Centre

'allo, 'allo, 'allo, 'allo!

New venue for me - very posh! Mr Hunter played material almost exclusively from his last 3 albums for the first hour, which by his own admission sold a handful of copies. Still, there were some good tunes none the less.

Things livened up a bit for the encore with the predictable Mott The Hoople material ("All The Way From Memphis" remains a personal favourite) and the even more predictable guests - daughter Tracey and Mick Ralphs. A decent evening.

Ian Hunter - Shepherd's Bush Empire - Sunday 28th October

Seating on the floor of SBE? Never too sure about that, but as we were in the 3rd row I certainly can't complain about the view. Show started a little slowly but by the end I was really enjoying both the new songs and the classic hits.

For the encore Ian was joined by Mick Ralphs (Mott The Hoople/Bad Company), Verden Allen (Mott The Hoople) and guitarist Chris Spedding (Chart Act !!) as well as predictably, Tracy Hunter!

The classic "Saturday Gigs" was played in it's entirety.

All in all, MUCH better than the Pigalle Club show earlier this year!

Ian Hunter - Pigalle Club - Tuesday 15th May

The Pigalle Club - officially the worst venue I can remember going too. Unless you'd paid the £60+ for dinner and a table, you couldn't see a thing from the bar (where you were kept) or upstairs where you could attempt to peer over the diners and balcony. What a rip-off (as was the £4 small bottles of beer). 

The conversation from everyone around us was how awful the whole place was. Oh.. the performance. Well it was semi-acoustic with a lot of new stuff. Sounded OK, but for what we could see we might as well have been in a pub listening to the CD. 

I'm loathe to keep going on about it, but I can't describe how poor the whole experience of visiting this venue was.

[Footnote: I generally don't like celebrating any venue closing down, but I am delighted to see the back of this one in 2012 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigalle_Club]