Toby Jepson - Wednesday 29th January - Cape of Good Hope, London

A freebie show near Great Portland Street in one of London's newer "Rock Pubs". Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson playing an acoustic set in support of the relaunch on Total Rock Radio. A smallish back room of the pub and a few dozen punters were treated to an impressive 45 minutes of solo material and a few choice LA classics.

Rich and I had a few legs of darts afterwards and a chat with the friendly bar staff who generously made no move to get us out even though we were the last customers. Let's hope the venue is a success - we hope to be back.

Setlist

Unwind

Motivated

Raising My Own Hell

Shadow Boxing

Small Talk

Don’t Prey for Me

Ain’t Gonna Cry

My Forgiveness

Four Letter Word

The Way That I Live

Young Gods / Backdoor Man / Young Gods (medley)

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Kicking Up Dust / Too Much Too Young (medley)

Thunder - Hammersmith Carling Apollo - Saturday 4th February

What a difference! For Thunder, the same set (almost), a full crowd (downstairs only) and this was great! Everything seemed to flow better, sound was good - vocals and guitar excellent and what a great show. Strange how it sometimes works like that. 

Toby Jepson seemed to be trying a bit too hard - his vocals were a bit dodgy - guitarist still hadn't has a reality check. But as I say the night belonged to Thunder - well done guys. A nice touch was the jam with the support bands on Elton's "Saturday Night's (Alright For Fighting)" (strangely, Toby's guitarist was the only one missing - still in the dressing room admiring himself presumably) and an epic (18 minutes!) Dirty Love.

Classic Stuff!

Setlist

Loser

Amy's on the Run

Higher Ground

I'm Dreaming Again

You Can't Keep a Good Man Down

Like a Satellite

Ball and Chain

Empty City

Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)

Love Walked In

Fade Into the Sun

I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll

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An Englishman on Holiday

A Better Man

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (with Toby Jepson and Roadstar)

Baby, Please Don't Go

Dirty Love

Thunder - Brighton Dome - Friday 27th January

Another half day from work to allow an exploration of the establishments of Brighton. Had a pleasant crawl (in the snow !!) of the Kemptown area - all of which were new pubs for me. Some highly impressive pool playing was shown too. 

First time for me at the Dome - very impressive venue - not so the bar prices - OUTRAGEOUS! Thankfully after the afternoon, we weren't too thirsty! 

We skipped the option of the first support - seen them when they were "Hurricane Party" - not bad, but not really my thing. Toby Jepson was good, with a set full of Little Angels material. Only annoyance was his guitarist. The word "tosser" springs to mind. How can someone fancy himself so much? The girls around us were in 2 camps - either laughing / fake vomiting or feeling very uncomfortable with his posturing and leering at them. Top tip - keep your shirt on and play the music! Oh, actually there was another annoyance. The 2 guys who thought it was acceptable to mosh into everyone around them for "Too Much Too Young" and knock half the crowd over (it wasn't as if there wasn't plenty of room).

Anyway, once another guy and I had errr.. educated them on their behaviour they calmed down a bit. Suffice to say, security were useless. Next up Thunder. On paper, a decent set. In reality, something missing for me. I've seen Thunder a lot of times and they are always good. There was just something tonight that meant it was OK, but not great - couldn't put my finger on it why. Still - An Englishman On Holiday is always one of my favourites. The last train to Croydon from Brighton (23.05) meant we have to leave "Dirty Love" mid-way through. 45 minutes in Croydon waiting for a connection meant a total journey home of nearly 3 hours - no fun!

Setlist

Loser

Amy's on the Run

Higher Ground

I'm Dreaming Again

You Can't Keep a Good Man Down

Like a Satellite

Ball and Chain

Empty City

Just Another Suicide (You Wanna Know)

Love Walked In

Fade Into the Sun

I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll

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An Englishman on Holiday

A Better Man

Dirty Love

Toby Jepson Setlist

Breakdown

Kicking Up Dust

Boneyard

Forbidden Fruit

Don't Pray for Me

Unwind

Young Gods (Stand Up, Stand Up)

Radical Your Lover

Too Much Too Young