Scouting For Girls - Monday 5th May - Brighton Foodies Festival, Preston Park

Brief review:  Our first of 2 "Food Festival" trips to see SFG this summer as the boys return to Preston Park for the Brighton "Foodies Festival". Prior the band, Mrs B and I had very much enjoyed some gin and rum tasting in the "drinks experience" tent and a variety of ABK beer (hic!), but thankfully the toilet queues were short. A fairly standard festival set from the band who were on their normal excellent form, with the added bonus of a raucous "Come On Eileen".

Venue and View:  Standing, left of stage, 1 row behind the barrier

Setlist
I Wish I Was James Bond
Heartbeat
Famous
Michaela Strachan
This Ain't a Love Song
Gotta Keep Smiling
Come On Eileen
Posh Girls
Millionaire
Elvis Ain't Dead / Can't Help Falling in Love
She's So Lovely

* Setlist done from memory and so may not be 100% correct

Scouting For Girls - Monday 7th October - G-Live, Guildford

Brief review:  More Scouting For Girls at Ray's "hometown" gig. They are always well received here and the crowd were in excellent voice. The band were their normal energetic selves and seems to be enjoying themselves as they tread a fine balance on inserting new songs into the set whilst retaining most of the old favourites.

Venue and View:  Front Left, Standing

Setlist
The Missing Part
This Ain't a Love Song
Dancing in the Daylight
Song I Can't Forget
It's Not About You
The Airplane Song
Michaela Strachan
I Wish I Was James Bond
Millionaire (with Kumbaya / The Lion Sleeps Tonight snippets) (Acoustic)
Butterflies (Acoustic)
Posh Girls
Year 3000
Raise a Glass
Heartbeat
Glow
Elvis Ain't Dead / Can't Help Falling in Love
+
Secret Tattoo
She's So Lovely

* This is the likely setlist based on other shows on the tour, but is not 100% certain.

Scouting For Girls - Saturday 4th May - Preston Park, Brighton

Brief review:  Part of the Foodie Festival series, the late afternoon was spent wandering the food stalls, drinking beer and even sitting in on the dreaded "Chilli eating competition" - largely as they had seats available!

But the main reason we were here was to see SFG who delivered a brief but punchy set including an excellent version of Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" which Ray revealed was his favourite Bond theme song.

Venue and View:  Front right standing.

Setlist
Heartbeat
This Ain't a Love Song
Famous
Posh Girls
I Wish I Was James Bond
Nobody Does It Better
Glow
Elvis Ain't Dead / Can't Help Falling in Love
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Wednesday 29th November - G-Live, Guildford

Brief review:  Following Feastyfest, this is our 2nd Scouting For Girls show of the year. With the tour extended until late 2024 in support of their new album, there should be a couple of new songs in amongst the hits. Standing for this one - it's pretty busy and lively. A cover of Baby It's Cold Outside wouldn't be amiss in the circumstances!

As it turns out the band are on top form and the new songs are decent too. Jamie O'Gorman, the regular guitarist, is back in the fold for this leg of the tour.

Venue and View:  Far right hand side, near the front door.

Setlist
The Missing Part
This Ain't a Love Song
Famous
Love How It Hurts
The Place We Used to Meet
I Wish I Was James Bond
I'm Not Over You / It's Not About You
The Luckiest Boy in the World
1+1 
Posh Girls
Heartbeat
Song I Can't Forget
Elvis Ain't Dead / Can't Help Falling in Love
Glow 
+
Michaela Strachan
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls (FeastyFest) - Sunday 10th September - Cheam Park

Brief review:  Cheam's FeastyFest seems to be getting bigger year on year. Festival favourites Scouting for Girls are the headliners this year and I think it's fair to say, entertained everyone who had made it to the front of the stage and a fair few more besides.

Venue and View:  Front right, about 6-7 rows back

Setlist
I Wish I Was James Bond
Heartbeat
Everybody Wants to Be on TV
This Ain't a Love Song
Posh Girls
Millionaire
Bad Superman / Stacy's Mom
Year 3000 (Busted Cover)
Elvis Ain't Dead
The Missing Part
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Friday 9th December - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Singer Roy Stride goes walkabout to the balcony

Brief review:  My pet hate for the SBE is that the seats are usually unreserved so if you want to sit together (or at all) you have to get in early. That was the plan (to arrive at doors opening) until a train delay and missed connection meant we were 15 minutes late. And the advertised time must have been wrong as the first support act was already mid set and 3/4 of the seats were full! Still at least we got some and on the end of a row too which was useful for bar access, but did mean we were up and down like a yo-yo for the 2 supports and main act!

Scouting for Girls have realised that everyone loves their first album and so they rightly milk the contents of that whilst interspersing other favourites and new songs around it. You know their show will be fun and well performed with lots of sing-a-long anthems and this was no exception. Rumour has it that they are due to headline Cheam's FeastyFest next year.

Venue and View:  Level 1 seats. Towards back on far left, but with a clear view of the stage

Setlist
I Wish I Was James Bond
It's Not About You
Heartbeat
Michaela Strachan
The Airplane Song
Keep On Walking
Famous
Butterflies
Love How It Hurts
Posh Girls
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)
This Ain't a Love Song
Song I Can't Forget
Elvis Ain't Dead / Can't Help Falling in Love
+
Christmas in the Air (Tonight)
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Wednesday 3rd November - G-Live, Guildford

Brief review:  More SFG today with a family trip to Guildford. There were a few references to Croydon the night before around the noise levels and the reaction to questions about "Posh Girls" (make up your own jokes!). From what I picked up, we were one song shorter tonight, with the "Stick The Kettle On" collaboration with Lucy Spraggan dropped. Excellent as normal.

Venue and View:  2nd Row of balcony seats. Unobstructed view and the standing area looked packed. Venue suggested this was just about sold out.

Setlist

I Wish It Was 1989
Heartbeat
I Wish I Was James Bond
1+1
Posh Girls
Butterflies
Famous
Millionaire
Bad Superman / Stacy's Mom
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) 
This Ain't a Love Song
Secret Tattoo
Elvis Ain't Dead / Can't Help Falling in Love
+
Michaela Strachan
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Tuesday 2nd November - Fairfield Halls, Croydon

Brief review:  Roy and the boys (minus ill bassist Greg) run through a selection of greatest hits and other material in their usual engaging manner. Whilst it would be nice if their show was slightly longer (it's pretty much always 70 minutes), they do pack a fair bit of fun into their energetic set. Looking forward to a (seated) repeat tomorrow. Signed cassette (!) purchased afterwards.

Venue and View:  A new part of the Fairfield Halls - "The Recreational" is an impressive custom build standing venue with excellent sight lines. We stood on the left, not too far back. Busy, but not packed.

Setlist

I Wish It Was 1989
Heartbeat
I Wish I Was James Bond
1+1
Posh Girls
Butterflies
Famous
Millionaire
Stick The Kettle On
Bad Superman / Stacy's Mom
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) 
This Ain't a Love Song
Secret Tattoo
Elvis Ain't Dead / Can't Help Falling in Love
+
Michaela Strachan
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Tuesday 19th November - G-Live, Guildford

Quick review: First night of 3 show for me. Decent seats and a decent show from SFG. Whilst their sets are never the longest, they manage to cram most of the essential hits in each time and mixed it up for this show with a couple of new tracks which were pleasant enough. Unfortunately, our prior request (for "Little Miss Naughty") from the meet and greet in Kingston did not come to fruition - probably trumped by the on-stage proposal.

Setlist
Grown Up
Heartbeat
Love How It Hurts
I Wish I Was James Bond
The Trouble With Boys
Posh Girls
Millionaire
Sweet Love
Famous
Count on Me
Elvis Ain't Dead / Hound Dog / I Can't Help Falling In Love
Michaela Strachan
This Ain't A Love Song
+
Christmas in the Air (Tonight)
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Tuesday 1st October - Fighting Cocks, Kingston

One Liner: Small pub gig and Q&A session with 2 of the boys from SFG in support of their new album. Another excellent Banquet records show and great to meet and chat with Roy and Greg afterwards whilst having a beer.

Setlist
Heartbeat
Grown Up
Posh Girls
The Trouble With Boys
This Ain't a Love Song
Dancing With You
She's So Lovely

+

lots of Q&As

Scouting For Girls - Friday 19th July - Reigate Festival (Beer Bop-a-Lula)

One Liner: First festival of the weekend and it's a goodie. First year of the Reigate Festival and Scouting for Girls are headlining. Similar format to the Oxted Beer Festival last year - a decent tented stage area and good food and drink (and lots of beer) available around the outside. Family friendly too. A decent fun set - looking forward to their full show later in the year.

Setlist
Still Thinking About You
Heartbeat
This Ain't a Love Song
I Wish I Was James Bond
Bad Superman
Posh Girls
Famous
Elvis Ain't Dead / (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You
Home
It's Not About You
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Saturday 7th July - Haslemere Fringe Festival

First ever visit to the Haslemere Fringe Festival and we made it a family trip. After the bonus of a bit of Bobby Davro in the comedy tent, we were there to see headliners "Scouting For Girls". A decent festival set went down well with the locals with lots of references to England's unexpectedly decent World Cup run. The now frequent covers of  "Live and Let Die " & "Livin' On A Prayer" were highlights alongside their familiar hits.

Setlist

She's So Lovely

England I Still Believe

Millionaire

Heartbeat

I Wish I Was James Bond
Live And Let Die

Love How It Hurts

Elvis Ain't Dead

Livin' on a Prayer

Dancing in the Daylight

Scouting For Girls - Saturday 25th November - Guildford G-Live

One Line Review: Great show musically, but one of the worst lighting setups I have ever seen, meaning the band were only silhouettes for most of the show whilst the balcony was blinded!

Setlist
I Need a Holiday
Heartbeat
Famous
Love How It Hurts
It's Not About You
I Wish I Was James Bond
Michaela Strachan
Bad Superman
Posh Girls
Millionaire
The Airplane Song
Elvis Ain't Dead / (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You 
This Ain't a Love Song
Livin' on a Prayer
Keep on Walking
Dancing In the Daylight
+
1+1
Christmas in the Air (Tonight)
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Tuesday 17th October - HMV, Oxford St

One Line Review: Decent acoustic mini-set with a smaller than expected crowd (probably due to date change) - did not hang around for signing as signed CD was in the post!

Setlist
Heartbeat
Dancing In The Daylight
This Ain't A Love Song
Posh Girls
Butterflies
Kids At Christmas
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Monday 30th November - Sherpherds Bush Empire

The full tour show from Scouting For Girls and we have seated tickets in the 1st tier at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Decent view, but had to get here early to secure unreserved seat. A decent set from the boys, including a nice cover of Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer". Roy's voice seemed a fraction more strained than normal, but not to any detriment.

A few new songs (some played at Kingston a month or so back) fitted in well with the old favourites and the crowd was in good voice throughout, but especially during 1+1.

I really like these guys as a band, but I do have one (albeit minor) criticism. It all feels a bit rushed - almost as if they daren't leave any time between songs and feel the need to fill any potential lull in the crowd volume. If they just slowed down a bit between songs when they changed instruments, spoke to the crowd (as they do really well) and introduced stuff in a slightly less manic way then it would make the show 5 minutes longer (no bad thing as their shows are quite short) and just make the whole thing look more polished.

Otherwise, hard to fault.

Setlist
Bad Superman
Heartbeat
Still Thinking About You
Famous
Life's Too Short
Millionaire
I Wish I Was James Bond
Love How It Hurts
The Airplane Song
Michaela Strachan (Short Version)
Posh Girls
1+1
Elvis Ain't Dead / (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You
Castles
This Ain't A Love Song
Livin' On A Prayer 
Home
+
Christmas In The Air (Tonight)
She's So Lovely

[Follow up: Shepherds Bush Empire now closed for the "rest of the year" for urgent repairs! - details here ]

Scouting For Girls - Thursday 1st October - Kingston Hippodrome

Having not been to the Kingston nightspot for years, I'm now back for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. This being Freshers Week, I'm even more out of kilter with the average age - strangely no proof of ID required for me on the way in.

Still, regular readers will know that I'm a fan of London popsters Scouting For Girls and this show followed a brief acoustic set at Banquet Records which unfortunately I couldn't make.

The venue was quieter than I'd expected, but filled a little by the time the boys came on stage around 10:40. A brief 50 minute set was a pleasant mixture of songs from the soon to be released new CD (included in the bargain £10 entrance fee) and some old classics, including "Elvis Ain't Dead", "Posh Girls" (Roy Stride informs audience member that is is "technically impossible" to be from Portsmouth and be posh) and, of course, "She's So Lovely". Sadly no "James Bond", but the audience gave a brief version themselves as the band left the stage. Great value and a good night as always.

Scouting For Girls - Saturday 23rd May - Leestock

A longer-than-anticipated family trip to deepest Suffolk for the 2015 Leestock festival. We were attending primarily to see "Scouting For Girls", but we were in time to add another chart act to our list by seeing "Dodgy" as well. Earlier bands in the day were mainly of the local variety and with children in tow, we thought that attention spans may be tested too far with lots of unknown music.

Dodgy were OK - they saved their 2 hits until the end, which got people up on their feet. Their drummer added a bit of chat between songs, some of which wasn't entirely appropriate for the youngsters in the crowd.

Scouting for Girls were excellent - choosing a festival friendly set of hits (largely from their excellent first album) and a couple of choice covers - "Live and Let Die" and a surprise of "Livin' On A Prayer" in the encore. The set was only just over an hour which was a shame, but from the crowd reaction, everyone seemed happy. A swift exit during the last song ensured we were out of the car park and on the long journey home just before 11pm.

Read all about the Leestock festival here.

Setlist 
Heartbeat

Famous

It's Not About You

Gotta Keep Smiling

I Wish I Was James Bond

Live and Let Die

Love How It Hurts

Elvis Ain't Dead

Posh Girls

Keep On Walking

This Ain't a Love Song

Livin' on a Prayer

Michaela Strachan

She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Friday 8th August - Brighton Racecourse

So, another chance to see Scouting For Girls - this time in the environment of Brighton racecourse after an afternoon of horse racing. The concert area itself was on a smaller scale to similar events at Epsom and Sandown and as a result a reasonable view could be had by all.

Bizarrely, the setlist was completely different to the Borderline show. A couple of covers were thrown in - Carly Simon's Bond theme, 'Nobody Does It Better' was a highlight and there was a recent Daft Punk song which has apparently been at number one for ages. I was possibly one of about 3 people in the crowd who didn't know it! Otherwise the greatest hits went down well. 

If anyone has the setlist, please pass comment. This was a nice evening in the sun without the hassle often associated with outdoor shows. 

Scouting For Girls - Tuesday 16th July - Borderline, London

Scouting For Girls turn up the heat

Scouting For Girls warm up for their forthcoming tour of British Racecourses with an intimate show at the Borderline - scene of their first London gig 8 years ago. With the temperature outside in the high 80's the heat in this underground venue was intense - for some reason the air conditioning was on at the back of the venue, but not on the floor at the front.

Funnily enough, we didn't feel like consuming much beer, so stayed away from the (empty) bar.

Anyway the heat didn't stop the predominantly female crowd enjoying the boys run through some new and more familiar material. The standard highlights included "I Wish I Was James Bond", "Elvis Ain't Dead", "Michaela Strachan" and of course, the finale, "She's So Lovely". One thing I do like about the band is that they seem to genuinely enjoy playing and engaging with the audience. Couldn't ask for more and looking forward to my family trip to Brighton next month to see them again.

Setlist
Make That Girl Mine
Millionaire
Without You
Summer In The City
Love How It Hurts
Take a Chance On Us
Silly Song
Famous
This Ain't A Love Song
Keep On Walkin'
I Wish I Was James Bond
It's Not About You
[Happy Birthday to Audience member]
Heartbeat
Elvis Ain't Dead (inc I Can't Help Falling With Love With You)
+
It Always Rains In L.A.
Posh Girls
Mountains of Navaho
Michaela Strachan
She's So Lovely

Scouting For Girls - Thursday 18th of October - Shepherd's Bush Empire

A seated engagement at the Shepherd's Bush Empire and I'd forgotten what a good view you get from the 1st tier. After a pleasant enough warmup act, Scouting For Girls hit the stage to great excitement from the crowd. Playing a mix of material from their first two albums as well as from the new one this was a pleasant if not extraordinary show. Obviously the crowd reacted best to the old material and I'm glad to say a few favourites remain in the set - especially "I Wish I Was James Bond". It'll be interesting to see if the band can take their popularity to the next level.

Setlist

Summertime in the City

Heartbeat

Downtempo

Love How It Hurts

The Airplane Song

I Wish I Was James Bond

Famous

Snakes and Ladders

Rains in L.A.

It's Not About You

Elvis Ain't Dead

Can't Help Falling in Love

1+1

Make This One Last

The Light Between Us

This Ain't a Love Song

Without You

Keep On Walking

She's So Lovely