Roger Taylor - Tuesday 19th October - G-Live, Guildford

Brief review:  A tour arranged at relatively short notice to support his new album ("Outsider"), the Queen drummer was in fine voice and delivered a setlist covering most periods of his long career. The band included Spike Edney on keyboards and was effectively 3/5 of the current live version of "Queen" (minus Bryan May and Adam Lambert). Roger takes a bit of stick for some of his solo material, but it ranges from the brilliant (Strange Frontier) to the slightly niche (A Nation of Haircuts). But none are too offensive and it's always likely that there will be a classic within a song or two.

Venue and View:  Excellent view and sound as usual at G-Live. 7th row stalls, absolutely central! Sold out.

Setlist

Strange Frontier
Tenement Funster
We're All Just Trying to Get By
A Nation of Haircuts
These Are the Days of Our Lives 
Up
Gangsters Are Running This World
A Kind of Magic 
Absolutely Anything
Surrender
Man on Fire
Rock It (Prime Jive) (Tyler Warren on vocals)
Under Pressure 
Say It's Not True 
I'm in Love With My Car 
Outsider
More Kicks (Long Day's Journey into Night... Life)
Drum Battle
Foreign Sand
Tutti Frutti 
Radio Ga Ga 
+
Rock and Roll 
Heroes

All we hear is... Radio Ga Ga... Radio Goo Goo

SAS Band - Saturday 14th September - Shepherd's Bush Empire

One Liner: Spike's All Star band celebrate their 25th Anniversary. I'm a big fan of the concept, but have to say the guests and the songs they sing are becoming a little familiar.  After a very slow start, things got more energised when Toyah appeared and "surprise" guest Roger Taylor sang some unexpected tunes, but somehow this wasn't as fun as it should have been.

Setlist
The Jam
Don't Stop Me Now (Patti Russo)
Unchain My Heat (Patti Russo with Laurie Wisefield)
Battle Without Honour or Humanity (Hotei)
Freedom in the Dark (Hotei)
Since You Been Gone (Kip Winger with Neil Murray)
I'm in Love With My Car (Kip Winger)
Suffragette City (Toyah)
Sweet Child O' Mine (Toyah / Justin Hawkins)
I Believe in a Thing Called Love (Justin Hawkins)
I Want It All (Justin Hawkins)
For Your Love (Graham Gouldman)
Dreadlock Holiday  (Graham Gouldman)
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Madeline Bell)
Melting Pot (Madeline Bell)
Heroes (Roger Taylor)
Under Pressure (Roger Taylor / Justin Hawkins)
Rock and Roll (Roger Taylor)
29 Riff Overture
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Ensemble)
+
With a Little Help From My Friends (Ensemble)

SAS Band - Saturday 7th December - Guildford G-Live

A sold out show at G-Live. The announcement of 2 support acts had me fearing again for the accuracy of the stage times and the viability of our last train home from the nearby London Road station. The first act - 'The Opera Duo' did a decent version of Barcelona and 'Nessun Dorma' in their brief 3 song set. They were followed by 'Woman' - whose unique brand of vocals and strings provided an unusual take on a range of covers from Sweet Child O'Mine through Black Betty to Fat Bottomed Girls. They were well received. 

Spike Edney and his SAS band appeared and rattled through a few favourites from their covers repertoire with Jamie Moses and regular guests Patti Russo and Madeline Bell joining in. A highlight was the appearance of Midge Ure for Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, Vienna and a rousing Delilah! 

The 29 Riffs song then got an outing and sounded as good as ever. Next up was the return of Roger Taylor's 'Cross' for the first time in 20 years. Many of the crowd had travelled long distances to witness this historic occasion. Now I'm a big fan of Mr Taylor and own pretty much all of his solo output as well as the full Queen catalogue. Some of his material outside of Queen is fantastic - unfortunately, IMHO, very little of that was recorded with The Cross! I was left underwhelmed - especially as he left the stage for a few of the weaker numbers and dragged out others. 

The folly of a double support act meant we had to forego the Christmas sing-a-long at the end. Although a good evening, I couldn't help but think this was the weakest of all the SAS shows I have been to over the years with a noticeable lack of the usual roller coaster of surprise appearances. Maybe we've just been too spoiled in the past.

Setlist

THE CROSS

In Charge of My Heart

Top of the World, Ma

New Dark Ages

Man On Fire

Ain't Put Nothin Down

Liar

Dirty Mind

Cowboys And Indians

Power to Love

Heaven For Everyone

Sister Blue

Final Destination

+

Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

"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!