Rhino's Revenge - Thursday 12th January - Teddington Constitutional Club

Brief review:  A late decision to see Rhino Edwards with son Freddie and current Status Quo drummer Leon Cave. I'm glad I bought a ticket as it was sold out!  Due to the strange config of seats and standing, the initial part of the show wasn't much fun (especially to the group of 3 people near me who had little interest in the show, but talked very loudly amongst themselves and found everything hilarious - even a conversation about building works!). Rather than be rude to them, I thought it best to move and the rest of the show was enjoyable with lots of Rhino's solo stuff, a few Quo covers that he normally does and some other covers such as Mony Mony, Old Time Rock 'n' Roll and Let's Work Together. An array of guests joined in, including daughter Mae who played drums for a bit and then shared vocals on Paper Plane.

Sadly, Jeff Beck had died the previous day. Rhino wanted to pay tribute to him as "he was a hero to me and all musicians and one of the reasons I do what I do". He then added "As a tribute, we are going to play a song you'll all know. Ironically, for a tribute, he hated this song..... (laughs).... so you'd better sing along!". And thus we got an excellent rendition of Hi Ho Silver Lining. All good fun.

Venue and View:  Busy old-school working club venue. Once they realised it was sold out, I think a number of the tables in front of the stage should have been removed. Standing in the extended back room meant little view and terrible sound. I moved to near the ticket desk which was busy, but better.

Hayseed Dixie - Friday 23rd October - Brooklyn Bowl, O2

So, the main reason for booking for this show was the presence of Rhino's Revenge as main support (ie 2nd of 3 acts). A check beforehand on stage time claimed doors at 7pm and music at 8pm. When we arrived at the venue at just after 8:15 therefore, it would not have been unreasonable to expect to catch the first act, mid-set. However, much to our frustration, we caught the second to last song of Rhino's set! Apparently, he had come on around 7:20! No indication of whether the first act had bailed out, but if a venue is going to publish stage times, they should at least be close to correct! Very frustrating, especially as the band seemed on good form, judging by their "Bad News" finale. We will have to revisit the Edwards clan in February next year instead.

Hayseed Dixie are a southern US group who specialise in "bluegrass" versions of rock classics - think AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Journey etc with acoustic guitars and banjos. The singer seems to have a good stage presence and was entertaining as was the impromptu version of "name that tune" we played with each intro. Good fun and lapped up by the audience. Not sure I'd go to see them again on their own - the "joke" may wear a bit thin (and that is not being disparaging to their musical ability, which was excellent), but as a package with another band I wanted to see, I certainly might.

Setlist
[Unknown country song]
Hells Bells 
Kirby Hill
You Shook Me All Night Long
War / War Pigs
Hangovers Hurt More Than They Used To
Tolerance
Medley: Eye of the Tiger / Redemption Song / Eye of the Tiger
Don't Stop Believin' / Ohne dich
Medley: In the Backyard / Ramblin' Man / Watching the Detectives / In the Backyard
Ace of Spades 
Eine kleine trinkmusik
Medley: Bohemian Rhapsody / I'm Keeping Your Poop / Bohemian Rhapsody
Paranoid 
Schnaps, das war sein letztes Wort
We're Not Gonna Take It 
Corn Liquor
She Was Skinny When I Met Her
The Merchandise Song
Medley: Dueling Banjos / Michelle / Lucky Days / Dueling Banjos 
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Die richtige Zeit für Schwarzbier
Medley: Hotel California / Careless Whisper / Hotel California / Holy Diver / Sweet Child O' Mine / Livin' on a Prayer / Don't Talk to Strangers / Eternal Flame / Dancing Queen / ? / Reise reise / ? (Norwegian) / The Rider Song / Hotel California / Comfortably Numb / Highway to Hell / Free Bird / Tiny Dancer / Highway to Hell

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.

Woodedz - Tuesday 8th July - Grey Horse, Kingston

So after a gig-free June, a late announcement means it's 2 live shows on the bounce seeing Quo bassist John "Rhino" Edwards and Woodedz. On the night of the scarcely believable Brazil 1, Germany 7 World Cup Semi-Final, the band completed their 3 night "World Tour" with a headline show in Kingston.

The set turned out to be a bit longer than at Putney and as normal, the standard of musicianship was exceptionally high. Rhino, as I'm sure would be the first to admit, is not amongst the World's top vocalist and this was compounded tonight by what I assume was a severely sore throat. A new career as a 1930's bluesman beckons! Still, to be honest, that didn't really matter a jot as the smallish crowd of friends, family and fans lapped it up. Sounds like it may be the last show from the guys for a while - good luck to Max who is off to Germany to study. A new album is on the way though... allegedly!

Setlist
2 Way Traffic
Shame
Secretary
Dust to Gold
Don't Come Around Here
Republican
Obstruction Day
Belavista Man
Get Out of Denver
Jam Side Down
Bad News
Paper Plane
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Jungle Love

Woodedz - Tuesday 27th May - Half Moon, Putney

So, I’m spending quite a bit of time in Putney this year. Back to the Half Moon for a support slot from Quo’s bassman John “Rhino” Edwards and his family band – Woodedz. A small crowd witnessed a decent 40 minute set of Quo rarities and solo material. “The Republican” was dropped from the typed setlist – presumably due to time constraints. Not sure why they didn’t just come on earlier, especially as 90% of the crowd were here to see them. Indeed I felt slightly guilty walking out later on the main act “The Wild Things” (who weren’t bad, by any stretch) and leaving them with an audience numbering 7.

Highlights were surprisingly a heavy-ish version of “Jam Side Down” (yes, really!) – “for the hardcore” and a debut of “Dust To Gold”. Let’s hope we get a headline UK show from the Edwards clan soon.

Setlist
Two Way Traffic
Shame
Secretary
Dust To Gold
Bad News
Don’t Come Around Here
Jam Side Down
Belavista Man
Jungle Love

Woodedz - Sunday 7th September - Dugdale Centre, Enfield

New town, new venue. Well for those of us from south if the river anyway. It looks to an outsider that Enfield has a nice part - Enfield Chase, and a not so great part - the town. We found 3 nice pubs in the former - the riverside one being particularly pleasant.

The venue - the Dugdale Centre - is firmly in the town. It is a modern theatre complex and stands out from its slightly rougher surroundings. 

In case you don't know, Woodedz are John 'Rhino' Edwards from Status Quo, together with his 2 sons, Freddie and Max. The audience - primarily Quo fans were here in support of this charity show raising cash for the local Papworth Hospital. 

Not really knowing what material to expect, it was good to hear a large chunk of the Rhino's Revenge album, some obscure and not so obscure Quo tacks and a smattering of covers. The only downside was a dreadful song which appeared to be called 'Secretary' with truly cringe-worthy lyrics ("you want a double entendre, I'll give you one" etc). 

Otherwise, well worth the tenner entrance fee and trip across town. Now if only the venue could afford a stage...

Woodedz- The Orange (West Kensington) - Thursday 21st September

We took the opportunity for a bit of a crawl before getting to West Kensington, starting in the White Horse in Parson's Green. Then onto further establishments on the way via Fulham Broadway, including a dodgy game of darts (one throw, "100", - the next, "4") and a partial Pub Quiz where we didn't have time to stay for the end, but would have been near the top based on the first 3 rounds if we were playing for real...

Woodedz are John "Rhino" Edwards from Status Quo and his sons Max and Freddie. This low-key gig was not really supporting anything and was showcasing the "Rhino's Revenge" CD from a few years back and this it did pretty well. Rhino's singing was better than I'd remembered and the boys guitars and drums were spot on. Wasn't sure about the "rap" halfway through, but there were good versions of Quo's "Obstruction Day" and "Paper Plane". The set finished with a tribute to the Brentford Striker, Lloyd Owusu... "the one and only" according the catchy song! 

All good fun - shame only about 80 people turned up. Bit of a pain to get home from on a Thursday for us, but at least home not too much after midnight. Next up, next month is Dan Baird... looking forward to that.