Thunder - Saturday 28th May - Wembley Arena

Brief review:  Nice to see Thunder making progress again to a big arena and an increasingly rare trip to Wembley for me. Support came from Ugly Kid Joe and the Kris Barras band, both of whom were OK (but not to a degree that I'd be tempted to a headline show). Thunder were excellent as normal, even if the set was a little light on "hits".

Venue and View:  Decent seats, front, just left of centre on the floor.

Setlists
Thunder
Last One Out Turn Off the Lights
The Western Sky
Higher Ground
One Day We'll Be Free Again
Resurrection Day
Unraveling
The Devil Made Me Do It
Destruction
Low Life in High Places
Young Man
Black
Love Walked In
Across the Nation
Backstreet Symphony
+
Last Orders
Dancing in the Sunshine
Dirty Love

Ugly Kid Joe
Neighbor
Panhandlin' Prince
No One Survives
Devil's Paradise
Cat's in the Cradle
Funky Fresh Country Club
Everything About You
Ace of Spades

Thunder - Friday 17th December - KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton

Brief review:  Despite a huge queue to get in - caused by Covid checks seemingly being done by a single person, I managed to get into the cavernous venue a few minutes before showtime. The show was everything you want from a Thunder Christmas show - great musicianship, a decent selection of Thunder material and many inspired covers of rock classics. Marvellous!

Venue and View:  Well left of stage, but towards the front. Busy, but felt safe with enough personal space in an airy venue.

Setlist

[Acoustic]
Stand Up
She's So Fine
Olivers Army 
The Smoking Gun
Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)
Resurrection Day
Loser
Joy to the World 
A Better Man
Sailing 
+
[Electric]

Wonder Days
Higher Ground
You're Gonna Be My Girl
Tie Your Mother Down 
The Devil Made Me Do It
Burn 
Destruction
An Englishman on Holiday
Love Walked In
Sweet Home Alabama 
Last One Out Turn Off the Lights
+
Schools Out 
Dirty Love
Merry Xmas Everybody

Danny & Luke (Thunder) - Tuesday 23rd November - Crawley Hawth

Brief review:  Another round (following on from previous years) of chat and music from Thunder's Danny Bowes and Luke Morley - this time without Mick Wall hosting. Entertaining, but clearly much more scripted than the "unscripted" book they were promoting. I did actually get my 2nd half question selected by Danny and was able to engage in some friendly banter from the stage.

Venue and View:  4th Row, left of stage. Sparce crowd (less than half full)

Danny & Luke (Thunder) - Wednesday 9th October - St Albans Arena

One Liner: Theatre show Q&A hosted by Mick Wall (one of my most-seen "artists" this year) interspersed with some excellent acoustic version of Thunder tracks. Featured an unscheduled appearance from drummer Harry James.

Setlist
Backstreet Symphony
Low Life in High Places
Does It Feel Like Love?
A Better Man
Amy's on the Run
The Devil Made Me Do It
Like a Satellite
Serpentine
Love Walked In

Thunder - Thursday 26th September - The Garage, Highbury & Islington

One Liner: Amazingly hot gig in a small venue for the classic rockers. One -off show to celebrate their new Greatest Hits album. Did I mention how hot it was?

Setlist
Loser
River of Pain
Higher Ground
On the Radio
Low Life in High Places
Wonder Days
The Devil Made Me Do It
In Another Life
The Thing I Want
Backstreet Symphony
Love Walked In
I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll
+
She's So Fine
Dirty Love

Thunder - Friday 15th December - Wolverhampton Civic Hall

One Line Review: My third show in 3 days and it's a jaunt to the midlands for an excellent Christmas show in Wolverhampton - lot's of good covers including The Who & Queen plus an enthusiastic audience. Also featured another chart act in the shape of Heather Findlay.

Setlist
Acoustic Set
Blue Eyed Girl
Star 
Xmas Day
Here Comes The Sun 
The Rain
Big Yellow Taxi 
Don't Say That
Love Walked In (with Heather Findlay)
The Thrill Of It All
A Day In The Life 

Electric Set
Loser
Laughing on Judgement Day
In Another Life
20th Century Boy 
Everybody's Laughing
Gimme Shelter
Lido Shuffle 
The Chosen One
Who Are You 
Castles In The Sand
Don't Stop Me Now 
She's So Fine
+
An Englishman On Holiday
Fairytale Of New York (with Heather Findlay)
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (with Heather Findlay)

Thunder - Tuesday 28th March - Hammersmith Apollo

Luke Morley and Ben Matthews

One of Britain's top rock bands in one of the World's great venues - what's not to like? Well, the venue name of course - I'm not going to call it the Eventim Apollo.

Regular readers of the blog would have known exactly where to find us in the venue (to within a couple of metres) and Danny and the boys were on excellent form. Their new album, "Rip It Up" has been a bit of a slow burner for me - especially after the fantastic "Wonder Days" predecessor. It is growing on me a bit and the new songs worked well in a live setting.

The normally excellent Lynne Jackaman appeared for some background wailing in the encore on "She Likes the Cocaine" and unfortunately it was wailing - her fantastic vocals not really shown to their best ability in my opinion.

So like pretty much every Thunder show I've been to, this was really good. It just didn't quite feel as much fun as normal for some reason. Can't quite put my finger on why.

[ Edit - Subsequent Christmas show(s) added in Wolverhampton - yay! ]

Setlist
No One Gets Out Alive
The Enemy Inside
River of Pain
Resurrection Day
Right From the Start
Backstreet Symphony
Higher Ground
In Another Life
The Thing I Want
Don't Wait For Me
Rip It Up
Love Walked In
I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll
+
Wonder Days
She Likes the Cocaine 
Dirty Love

Thunder - Saturday 20th February - Wembley Arena

So, following their warm up show at the tiny 100 Club, here is the full on arena show at the cavernous Wembley. A decent turn out (curtain 2/3 of the way back) and a large standing area probably meant a crowd of around 6,000 at a guess. And they were loud!

We'd taken the decision to skip the supports (King King and Terrorvision) and actually had a very enjoyable hour in the 'Duke of York' near Marylebone, watching the Swedish heats of qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest (I kid you not!).  Top tip - put a couple of quid on Lisa Ajax to win it - you heard it here first!

Anyway, back at Wembley, you'd have found us in the 'normal spot' - about 6 people back on the left hand side. And what a great show it was. Slightly different (and extended) set. The Wonder Days new songs sounded fantastic at volume and the old classics are timeless. Even one of my least favourite Thunder songs - Empty City - sounded good. The finale of Dirty Love romped past the 10 minute mark, wining my bet with Rich. Great crowd, great band, great night. 

Setlist 

Wonder Days

Black Water

River of Pain

Resurrection Day

Like a Satellite

The Devil Made Me Do It

Empty City

Backstreet Symphony

I'll Be Waiting

The Thing I Want

When the Music Played

Love Walked In

I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll

+

Serpentine

Dirty Love (inc Shakin' All Over)

Thunder - Wednesday 27th January - 100 Club, London

3/5 of Thunder at the 100 Club

A bit of a bonus show for January. Thunder announce a short notice show at the small 100 Club on Oxford Street in aid of the Childline Charity. It sold out quickly (as Danny said, "you snooze, you lose"), but we got lucky with tickets. I would imagine this was a handy run through of the set that will be performed at Wembley in a few weeks - and very good it was too.

As always at this venue, if you are in front of the stage, a large pillar splits it in two, meaning only half the stage is really visible at a time. Despite that restriction, the sound quality was good and the crowd had enough space so as not to be uncomfortable. From what we could see, Ben was looking in good health also.

Particular current favourites include Wonder Days, Black Water and Resurrection Day and these came across well.

There had also been a charity acoustic show earlier in the evening (available by donation and lottery) - unfortunately we missed out on that (by not knowing about it in time), but this was enough to make a great evening on its own. Bring on Wembley.

Setlist
Wonder Days
Black Water
River Of Pain
Chasing Shadows
Broken
The Devil Made Me Do It
Backstreet Symphony
I'll Be Waiting
Resurrection Day
The Thing I Want
Love Walked In
I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll
+
The Rocker 
Dirty Love / (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

https://www.childline.org.uk/pages/about.aspx

ZZ Top / Thunder - Wednesday 24th June - Wembley Arena

Drummer Frank Beard and colleagues

A rare jaunt these days to Wembley - or the SSE Arena as it appears to be branding itself. Whatever they call it, they need to sort out their catering - 20 minute queues to get a beer is not on. Competent staff and a bit of pre-pouring isn't difficult surely!

We were here primarily for Thunder. Having grabbed a decent spot near the front, they entertained with a decent (but short) set of classic hits and new material. All seemed to be well received.

Having moved a bit further back for the headliners, the first 3 or 4 songs were good. Then I thought we hit a bit of a lull. I've seen ZZ Top 4 times previously over the last 25 years and it's always been hit and miss for me - sometimes great, but sometimes a little self indulgent and the songs merge together. Thankfully this time around, the lull was brief and from "My Head's in Mississippi" onwards the show was fantastic. Jeff Beck joined for the encore on his birthday - looking much more youthful than his 71 years and was rightly given an ovation (and some cake!).

Setlists

Thunder

Dirty Love
River of Pain
Black Water
Wonder Days
Backstreet Symphony
Love Walked In
The Thing I Want
I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll

ZZ Top
Got Me Under Pressure
Waitin' for the Bus
Jesus Just Left Chicago
Gimme All Your Lovin'
I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
Pincushion
I Gotsta Get Paid
Foxy Lady 
Catfish Blues 
Cheap Sunglasses
My Head's in Mississippi
Chartreuse
Sharp Dressed Man
Legs
+
Rough Boy (with Jeff Beck)
Sixteen Tons (with Jeff Beck)
La Grange / Sloppy Drunk Jam (with Jeff Beck)
Tush (with Jeff Beck)

Spike's Free House - Sunday 7th June - Borderline

Luke Morley & Spike Gray

Spike from the Quireboys is a big fan of Frankie Miller and 70's legends Free. This show was designed to showcase the material of both the Scottish Rocker and Free. Andy Fraser - Free's bass player was due to be in the band, but his untimely passing a few months ago turned this into a fitting tribute to his music as well.

Spike had assembled a first class band - featuring members from many of my favourites - Luke Morley (Thunder), Mark Stanway (Magnum), Simon Kirke (Free) and Nick Malling (Quireboys). Spike was full of his normal summer spirit and entertained the crowd between songs with a few comments. The music was King here though and an entertaining set was of the highest quality. It would have been great to have been a little longer, but I guess if the aim was to send the crowd home wanting more then it was mission accomplished.

There did seem to be a few people under the influence (indeed there was an unpleasant smell of vomit in the venue) and a few female audience members barely able to stand. Shame they won't remember much of this. Finally, 1 point scored for a Ling-alert!

Setlist
Be Good To Yourself
Wishing Well
Cocaine
My Brother Jake
A Bottle Of Whisky
Intensive Care
Fortune
Mr Big
The Other Side Of Town
Living In A Cheap Hotel
The Hunter
Cold Cold Nights
The Brooklyn Bridge
All Right Now
+
Darlin'

Thunder - Saturday 14th March - Hammersmith Apollo

The return of Thunder to mainstream shows is much welcome in my book (perhaps less welcome at home as even when they've been in retirement there seem to be several "Thunder related" shows that I attend).

Reef are the support at London's premier music venue (that place in Putney has surely lost the copyright on that phrase!), We caught the last part of their set and they were a fair bit heavier than I'd envisaged.

Thunder came on to an excellent 70's montage on the giant video screens. They are supporting the marvellous new album, "Wonder Days" which is one of the highlights in their now extensive back catalogue. Danny Bowes vocals and enthusiasm were in evidence as normal and the band as solid as ever. Of course it was great to see Ben Matthew's looking so well after his recent health issues. I did wonder if he was being eased back in with the shorter than normal set, but he more than played his part.

As you now come to expect from Thunder, a great night out.

Hopefully a fuller tour is on the cards later in the year.

Setlist
Wonder Days
River of Pain
Black Water
Resurrection Day
Broken
The Devil Made Me Do It
Empty City
Backstreet Symphony
I'll Be Waiting
The Thing I Want
When the Music Played
Love Walked In
I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll
+
Low Life In High Places
Higher Ground
Dirty Love

Thunder - Saturday 21st December - Wolverhampton Civic Hall

Luke Morley
Wolverhampton 2nd Night

Breakfast in the hotel and pretty much all of the guests seemed to be kitted out in Thunder T shirts. Those I spoke with had all enjoyed the night before and most were disappointed not to be repeating the experience later. 

Rich was getting the train up from London and we met in Birmingham for a beer and to take in the delights of WBA v Hull City at The Hawthorns. This led to something that has rarely happened in 35+ years of watching top flight football when the match ball came straight to me in the 2nd minute. I'd like to report a clean overhead catch, but in reality it was more a parry sideways onto the head of the people next to me.

We tried to have a quick pint in Bilston afterwards at "The Trumpet" (famous to fans of Slade) but sadly it was closed until later that evening. I will have to return some other time. 

So, onto night 2 and more of the same. Slightly different order to part of the 2nd half and a dropped song, but if anything slightly better than last night - perhaps due to being fractionally less busy.

A nice nightcap followed in one of Wolverhampton's rock pubs. 

Setlist

[Acoustic]

Long Way from Home

Pinball Wizard

Robert Johnson's Tombstone

Heart of Gold

Carol Ann

You Can't Live Your Life in a Day

Long Train Runnin'

Love Worth Dying For

Higher Ground

When I'm Dead and Gone

[Electric]

She's So Fine

Everybody Wants Her

Pilot of My Dreams

In a Broken Dream

Hollywood Nights

Fly on the Wall

Empty City

Fade Into the Sun

Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)

Got to Get You into My Life

Don't Wait for Me

I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll

+

A Better Man

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

Merry Xmas Everybody

Thunder - Friday 20th December - Wolverhampton Civic Hall

Danny Bowes of Thunder
(Wolverhampton 1st Night)

A trip to the Midlands for night one of two at the Thunder Xmas Parties. On my own for the first - the venue was heaving by the time I got there 10 mins before show time. I had to spend the acoustic set at the back before moving forward for the second half. A solid mix of favourites, rarities and covers with lots of audience participation, especially during an excellent "Do You Wanna Know (Just Another Suicide)"

Got soaked on the way back to the hotel!

Setlist

[Acoustic]

Long Way from Home

Pinball Wizard

Robert Johnson's Tombstone

Heart of Gold

Carol Ann

You Can't Live Your Life in a Day

Long Train Runnin'

Love Worth Dying For

Higher Ground

When I'm Dead and Gone

[Electric]

She's So Fine

Everybody Wants Her

Pilot of My Dreams

In a Broken Dream

Hollywood Nights

Fly on the Wall

Empty City

Fade Into the Sun

I'm Dreaming Again

Got to Get You into My Life

Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)

Don't Wait for Me

I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll

+

A Better Man

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

Merry Xmas Everybody

Mott The Hoople - Monday 18th November - O2 Arena

Danny Bowes (Thunder)

Monday night? Really? Oh, OK then. Decent tickets acquired during pre-sale, it looked optimistic for MTH to do the O2. Still, at least the venue can be divided to the lower tiers only without looking too empty.
Huge plus point was the addition of Thunder as special guests.

Fish was up first to a sparsely populated arena. He is a bit larger then when I last saw him! A solid performance - but when it's not your crowd it must be tough.

Thunder enjoyed a bit more success - although not in the technical department. Guitarist Ben Matthew's must have missed half the set with difficulties - much fiddling from the roadies with leads and amp connections - not good. On the other side, Luke Morley's acoustic guitar (in it's usual position attached to a pole) had to be supported by another roadie to stop it collapsing. Still a solid set even got the crowd interacting and hopefully the boys won a few new fans. Danny's cry at the end of "we'll see you soon" was a bit optimistic if you are not flying to Japan or going to Wolverhampton for their Christmas shows!

In the intermission I grabbed a quick chat with the Sweet's Andy Scott - we're seeing him next month, so I was able to tell him we're looking forward to it.

Ian Hunter with a new Maltese Cross guitar

Mott The Hoople came on to huge applause. For a band where some members are in their 70's, they were fairly sprightly - Ian Hunter especially who was on his feet for the first hour or so. They had a few technical issues too with mics. The early part of the set was aimed at hardcore Mott fans, meaning there were a fair few songs I didn't know. The latter half was the hits and the crowd lifted during those. The bookies would have given you very poor odds on Joe Elliott turning up (he did) - and he took over on All The Young Dudes. Not sure of the last time I heard that without him !! A substantial number of band-related family members helped out on backing vocals for the encore.

Saturday Gigs bought the evening to a close and it's hard to believe that this won't be the last time we see the band, so all in all a decent send off. I think it was being filmed for DVD - hopefully the lighting will look better on that than it appeared for real!

SETLISTS

Fish
Feast of Consequences
Assassing 
Credo
Tongues
Assassing (Reprise)
Fugazi (Snippet)
White Feather 
View from the Hill
Blind to the Beautiful

Thunder
Dirty Love
River of Pain
Higher Ground
Low Life in High Places
Backstreet Symphony
The Devil Made Me Do It
Love Walked In
I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll

Mott The Hoople
Rock and Roll Queen
One of the Boys
The Moon Upstairs
Hymn for the Dudes
Sucker
Soft Ground
Waterlow
Born Late '58 
Death May Be Your Santa Claus  / You Really Got Me
Ballad of Mott the Hoople
Walkin' with a Mountain 
Violence
When My Mind's Gone / No Wheels to Ride / The Journey
Honaloochie Boogie
The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll
All the Way from Memphis
+
All the Young Dudes (with Joe Elliott)
Roll Away the Stone
Saturday Gigs

Thunder - Friday 21st December - Manchester Academy

Off up north for what is becoming an annual trip for Thunder's Xmas party. Thankfully the band have heeded their public and moved on from the dreadful Rock City in Nottingham and this was our first visit to the Manchester Academy. And what a difference! A venue which you could get into easily. A venue where the audience all have a clear line of site to the stage (height permitting!). A venue with ample bar staff to server everyone quickly (and at fair prices). Toilets that you could get into with out a massive queue. And a large friendly crowd without a crush. If Carlsberg did venues...

The show itself started a little slowly. I know the band want to mix things up (after all there's a CD or 2 to come from this), but a start including obscure tracks from the pretty average "The Thrill Of It All" album had some punters scratching their heads somewhat! Things livened up a bit with "Low Life In High Places" and from there on in a good time was had by all. Sad to say we didn't recognise a Deep Purple cover - "Might Just Take Your Life", but and excellent "Jet" and "Hammer To Fall" were spot on.

The band seemed to be enjoying themselves and I can't help wondering if the 2013 tour with Journey and Whitesnake may jolt them out of retirement once again. In any case, there are rumours of the Xmas shows continuing but changing venue each year. I hear Brighton is very nice in December and gives the opportunity for a few Quadrophenia covers! Bell Boy!

Setlist
Stand Up
The Moment Of Truth
Does It Feel Like Love?
Weather With You
This Forgotten Town
Don't Wait Up
I'll Be Waiting
It's Another Day
Low Life In High Places
Amy's On The Run
+
Backstreet Symphony
The Devil Made Me Do It
Until My Dying Day
Might Just Take Your Life
Jet
Numb
Isn't It Time
River Of Pain
On The Radio
Hammer To Fall
Love Walked In
Dirty Love
+
Born To Run
I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll
I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday

An Evening with Danny And Ben From Thunder - Friday 20th January - Bush Hall, Shepherd's Bush

So, my last show of 2011 was Thunder, the first of 2012 is two members of the same band - singer Danny Bowes and guitarist (and occasional keyboardist) Ben Matthews. At an intimate Bush Hall, the emphasis was as much on storytelling as music. Indeed only 10 songs in 2 and a half hours showed that it wasn't even a 50-50 split.

The stories were entertaining - covering Thunder's life on the road and trips to Japan, Germany and a number of festivals. The music was pretty much acoustic and featured only 3 Thunder songs including a pleasant piano-based "A Better Man". The other covers were a little hit and miss ("hit" for the Who's Squeeze Box, "miss" for Chuck Berry's Nadine). For the final song of the evening - Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love", the boys were joined by Danny's daughter Lucy on vocals and despite looking nervous, she performed very well.

So all in all a good fun evening, but not a show which you would choose to go to more than once on a tour.

Setlist
Seagull
Nadine
A Better Man
See My Baby Walking
+
Squeeze Box
She's Not You
Interlude / I'm One (Acoustic Guitar only)
Blackbird
Like a Satellite
+
Make You feel My Love

Thunder - Tuesday 20th December - Rock City, Nottingham

Thunder , for those that could see them!

So, Thunder are back. Or are they? Time will tell if this was a one-off return for the traditional Christmas shows in Nottingham, or the rebirth of a fantastic band. I for one, hope the latter.

The downside is that they continue to play at the dreadful Rock City. The venue holds 1900 people. It was full, very full. You can only see the whole stage if you are either a) directly in front of it or b) in the front row of the balcony. Everyone else can see either nothing or very little. This leads to pushing, arguing and general unpleasantness. It take ages to get in and an age to filter out. It's a real shame as the admin side of things (website, ticket sales, staff etc) are all excellent, but it makes for the worst gig experiences I have anywhere.

OK rant over - awful venue, great band. The usual mix of covers and Thunder Classics. The band played a bit safe with the selection of their own material and the covers were a bit hit and miss (blank stares all round at a couple of them), but it was still a good night. Indeed, the finale of "Merry Christmas Everybody" seemed slightly more authentic than Slade's a few nights earlier!!

With hotel booked and a lie in the next morning, we upped the average age by joining the students in the "Rescue Rooms" nightclub (after a fun go at the "Countdown" board game in the pub!). £1.90 a pint of San Miguel possibly contributed to the hangover the next day!

I have subsequently found out the the 1st World Darts Final was played at the venue now known as Rock City! As Richard asked, how did they see a thing?

Setlist
Everybody Wants Her
Living for Today
We Can Work It Out
Everybody's Laughing
Breakdown
Come & Get It
The Thrill of It All
You Wear It Well
You're My Best Friend
Once in a Lifetime
Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)
+
Loser
The Devil Made Me Do It
Higher Ground
Castles In The Sand
Living For The City
Gimme Some Lovin'
Like A Satellite
You Can't Keep A Good Man Down
Live and Let Die
Love Walked In
I Love You More Than Rock 'N' Roll
+
A Better Man
Dirty Love
Merry Xmas Everybody

Thunder - Saturday 11th July - Hammersmith Apollo

A week on, and Thunder's final headline show. An emotional evening at a packed Hammersmith Apollo provided a fitting end for a great band after 20 years. Thanks for the memories guys - hoping to see you reconsider and be back for the 25th Anniversary! 

Setlist (from Thunderonline.com) Loser / On the Radio / Higher Ground / Low Life in High Places / The Devil Made Me Do It / Gimme Some Lovin' / Empty City / Like a Satellite / River of Pain / You Can't Keep a Good Man Down / Love Walked In / I Love You More Than Rock ‘n’ Roll Encore: A Better Man / Backstreet Symphony / She's So Fine / Dirty Love (Including ‘Billie Jean’ excerpt and ‘Shakin’ All Over’)

Thunder - Sunday 5th July - Cambridge Corn Exchange

Thunder's farewell tour (sob!). Decided to do the Cambridge show as well as London next week, especially as the band are promising an ever changing setlist for this final fling. A packed and extremely hot venue meant we were stuck 3/4 of the way back, but a fine show was delivered. Trains and nightbuses meant I wasn't home until 3am, but this was one show that was worth the hassle. 

Setlist (from Thunderonline.com) Loser / Welcome To The Party / Higher Ground / Low Life In High Places / Gimme Some Lovin’ / Moth To The Flame / The Devil Made Me Do It / Love Walked In / Stand Up / You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down / Don’t Wait For Me / I Love You More Than Rock ‘n’ Roll Encore: A Better Man / Just Another Suicide / Dirty Love (Including ‘Billie Jean' excerpt)