Rhino's Revenge - Sunday 27th October - Half Moon, Putney

Brief review:  Another matinee performance from John 'Rhino' Edward's 3 piece band with Craig Joiner on guitar and Status Quo's Leon Cave on the sticks. Daughter Mae joined for a guest drum spot, but it was largely as you'd expect with a fun show of largely solo material, with some choice Quo covers thrown in for good measure.

Venue and View:  Standing at the back.

Setlist

Rhino's Revenge - Sunday 29th October - Half Moon, Putney

Brief review:  Status Quo's John "Rhino" Edwards, ably backed by Leon Cave (Status Quo) and Craig Joiner (Romeo's Daughter). A 3pm start is not ideal, but this is the second Half Moon show running where Rhino has opted for a matinee slot - maybe it suits the friends and family in the audience,

The set was reasonably familiar and none the worse for it, but did include 3-4 tracks from his upcoming album. All sounded fine.

Venue and View:  Right hand side - a few rows back towards the entrance.

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.

Rhino's Revenge - Sunday 30th October - Half Moon, Putney

Brief review:  The one show that survived from Rhino's mini tour. Jim Kirkpatrick was away with FM and so son Freddie subbed on guitar. A decent show as ever including the requisite number of Quo covers.

Venue and View:  Left hand side, towards the back.

Setlist
Once Bitten Twice Shy
Busy Doing Nothin'
One Note Blues
Secretary
The Strange One
Spend Spend Spend
Belavista Man
Gravy Train
Jungle Love
Obstruction Day
Two Way Traffic
Jam Side Down
My Name Is Stan
Bad News
Never Too Old (To Rock'n'Roll)
Let's Work Together

Rhino's Revenge - Saturday 12th October - Half Moon, Putney

One Liner: A tribute evening celebrating the life of Quo legend Rick Parfitt. "State of Quo" opened the evening to a packed house with Rhino's Revenge as headliners. Excellent from start to finish!

Setlist
Two Way Traffic 
Belavista Man 
Secretary
Gravy Train 
Busy Doing Nothin'
One Note Blues
Obstruction Day 
Old Time Rock & Roll 
Get Out of Denver 
Cougar
Before You Accuse Me (Jim Kirkpatrick on vocals)
Mony Mony
Jungle Love
The Madness 
This Is Me 
The Strange One
Lucinda
Never Too Old (To Rock 'n' Roll)
My Name Is Stan
Bad News 
Jam Side Down 
+
Paper Plane (with "State of Quo")
Back in the U.S.S.R. 
Once Bitten Twice Shy 

Rhino's Revenge - Friday 24th May - Half Moon, Putney

One Liner: Another fun evening with Rhino's Revenge. A good mix of their own stuff, a few Quo tracks and some well chosen covers.

Setlist
Two Way Traffic
Cougar
Belavista Man 
Spacemaker
Secretary
Busy Doing Nothin'
Back In The USSR
Before You Accuse Me (Jim vocals)
Old Time Rock & Roll 
Gravy Train 
One Note Blues
Mony Mony (snippet)
Jungle Love
Jam Side Down 
Spend Spend Spend
Never Too Old (To Rock'n'Roll)
Bad News 
My Name Is Stan
Mine All Mine
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Rhino's Revenge - Friday 13th April - Half Moon, Putney

The second Rhino's Revenge show of the year and it's quite a different set from their support slot warm up show. It's also much busier in the Half Moon. The band are in playful mood and Freddie Edwards joins the 3 piece "for one night only".

A selection of material across both Rino's Revenge albums is punctuated with the normal array of Quo obscurities. The 2 non-Quo covers (Bob Seger & Steppenwolf) were excellent and somehow I won the bet with Richard on "Born To Be Wild" as a random cover that could be played. Where in my subconcious that had come from, I have no idea!

The evening was also notable for visting a few new places in Putney. Revolution has now taken over the Wetherspoons by the station, the Lost & Co bar had Paulaner on draft in their happy hour and the Boma Bridge had a nice "Tunnel Bar" heading off toward the Thames.

Setlist
One Note Blues
Secretary
Belavista Man
Republican
Jungle Love
Gravy Train
Spacemaker
Two Way Traffic
Mine All Mine
The Stranger One
Lucinda
Busy Doing Nothin'
Bad News
Old Time Rock & Roll
My Name Is Stan
Jam Side Down
+
Born To Be Wild

Rhino's Revenge - Tuesday 16th January - The Water Rats

One Line Review: First show of 2018 and it's the Quo bassist warming up for an upcoming support slot. First set is the short show they will play on tour and that is followed by some classic cover versions. All good fun in a very informal atmosphere.

Setlist
One Note Blues
Secretary
Belavista Man
Republican
Gravy Train
Busy Doing Nothin'
My Name Is Stan
Jungle Love
Bad News
Two Way Traffic
+
The Stealer 
You Really Got Me
Old Time Rock & Roll (included Alan Crook on vocals for one verse)
Purple Haze 
Bad News 
+
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 

Rhino's Revenge - Friday 12th May - 100 Club, London

Rhino's Revenge (Rhino is Status Quo's bassist) at the famous 100 club on Oxford Street. Rhino gave us the normal mix of Quo tracks (some co-written by him) and a selection from the 1st and 2nd Rhino's Revenge albums. The latter isn't his best work in my view, but the live show is always good fun. Could have done with being able to hear his chat in between songs a bit clearer, but even though the backing band was without the normal family members, the music was loud and clear. Unlike the red lighting which ruined all attempts at a decent bit of photography! He seemed to be enjoying himself as we even got an unscheduled second encore of "Roll Over Beethoven". On the basis the band needed to work out keys and rhythm, I guess this had not been rehearsed!

Setlist (approximate!)
Rocker
My Name Is Stan
Belavista Man 
Two Way Traffic 
Famous
Busy Doing Nothin'
Get Out of Denver 
Obstruction Day 
Spend Spend Spend
Lucinda 
Mine All Mine
Secretary
Bad News 
+
Paper Plane 
Jam Side Down 
+
Roll Over Beethoven

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 
+
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.