Gary Moore - Shepherd's Bush Empire - Friday 8th June

I'm sometimes a bit wary of Mr Moore these days as you could get a lot of obscure blues in the set. I needn't have worried as we got a set combining the best of his blues material, with a bit of the "Monsters of Rock" stuff thrown in. Highlight for me was "Don't Believe A Word".

Ian Hunter - Pigalle Club - Tuesday 15th May

The Pigalle Club - officially the worst venue I can remember going too. Unless you'd paid the £60+ for dinner and a table, you couldn't see a thing from the bar (where you were kept) or upstairs where you could attempt to peer over the diners and balcony. What a rip-off (as was the £4 small bottles of beer). 

The conversation from everyone around us was how awful the whole place was. Oh.. the performance. Well it was semi-acoustic with a lot of new stuff. Sounded OK, but for what we could see we might as well have been in a pub listening to the CD. 

I'm loathe to keep going on about it, but I can't describe how poor the whole experience of visiting this venue was.

[Footnote: I generally don't like celebrating any venue closing down, but I am delighted to see the back of this one in 2012 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigalle_Club]

Bryan Adams - Wembley Arena - Thursday 10th May

First time seeing Mr Adams for a while. Had a decent seat overlooking the stage. A solid performance, but the set was a bit too "ballad heavy" for me. Tempted to go Friday night as well, but cash a bit tight, so will give it a miss.

Ataris - Mean Fiddler (Astoria 2) - Friday 4th May

Not just a bad photo - this was the actual
lighting and "view"

New band for me in a familiar venue. I've got a few of the Ataris CDs, including the excellent "So Long, Astoria" and recognised a fair few of the songs. The predictably young audience was fairly boisterous, so we didn't get too near the front. This meant barely seeing the band - not because of the distance, but because the lighting was the worst I've ever seen at a gig - the band were in almost darkness throughout! 

Note sure what the point of that was, but Richard tells me that is normal for bands of that ilk. Anyway, pretty good except for the visuals!

Woodedz - Kensington Orange - Saturday 7th April

A pleasant evening in Kensington (if you exclude Richard's karaoke version of Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize" in the pub up the road). We were actually greeted at the door by Rhino which was nice. A good set by the Quo bassist and his sons and a bit busier than last time around. 

2 songs - Gravy Train and Bad News were featured, which should be on Quo's next album.

The Who - Royal Albert Hall - Saturday 31st March

Early evening start for a trip back to the RAH for the Who. Got to Victoria Station and were greeted by several hundred riot police with baying Alsatians. Why? Well, apparently Sheffield Wednesday fans (happy from their with at Palace) were arriving to pass through to the tube. As to the level of threat they offered we were unable to tell. Anyway, attempts to find any pub showing the second half of Watford v Chelsea on PremPlus proved fruitless. Finally managed to find one south of Sloane Square with Sky Sports News to find that Chelsea sneaked a lucky 92nd minute winner - arghh! 

After a swift one in the Gloucester Arms, we met Mick in the Queen's Arms for a couple of decent beers (Staropramen, Kirin and Kuppers Kolsh) and then off to the hall. As normal, we were able to stroll in with little security checks and it was only when we realised we had gone the wrong way (towards the dressing rooms) that we encountered some guards who directed us down more stairs to get to the floor. We were given a plain white wristband and found our seats in the back row of the arena. Still, not too bad, the floor is pretty small compared to most venues. 

As expected, the Who were excellent (when are they not?). Daltrey's voice was strong and good, despite recent illness and Townshend's playing spot on, coupled with the normal rambling/ranting between songs. Didn't hear a "get on with it" from Gary, but I'm sure it was there! The only disappointment was no "Substitute" or "Kids Are Alright" but this was more than made up for by a storming "My Generation", "Won't Get Fooled Again" and an excellent "You Better, You Bet". In fact, the only duff track in my view, was "Eminence Front" - I've never liked that! 

For the encore we wandered down to the front and enjoyed the Tommy encore from near the stage (taking extra care not to impede the paying customers at the front!). Richard managed to snag a setlist and we decamped happy to the "Prince of Wales" off Kensington High Street for a nightcap. Un-remarkable pub, but stunningly attractive barmaid! 

Slow journey home, livened up by a petite girl throwing a non-paying rider off the bus when he'd refused to leave. Cue round of applause from other passengers! Last chance to see the Who for a while - I'm refusing to pay the 70 odd quid for the summer Wembley shows... ditto the £150 + fees for the Rolling Stones!!!

Setlist

I Can't Explain

The Seeker

Who Are You

Behind Blue Eyes

Baba O'Riley

Eminence Front

A Man in a Purple Dress

Black Widow's Eyes

You Better You Bet

My Generation

Cry If You Want

Won't Get Fooled Again

Pinball Wizard

Amazing Journey

Sparks

See Me, Feel Me

Tea & Theatre

Noel Gallagher - Royal Albert Hall - Tuesday 27th March

It's Tuesday, it's the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Royal Albert Hall - that means Noel Gallagher. Warm up beers in the excellent "Hereford Arms" (some nice outifts on display!), the Gloucester Arms and the hard-to-find Queen's Arms (via the mews) and we were in the venue (with the normal lack of ticket checking) to see the support who were the Coral. They were OK - nothing more, nothing less. Then followed a small bout of accidental "blagging" whereby what we thought was a bar, turned out to be corporate hospitality. Still, they offered us free beer without any questions and we thought it rude to ask if we should actually be there!

Anyway, the show... well, if was good. Noel choose a selection of Oasis songs to play acoustically and a selection of cover versions. Paul Weller joined him for a few too. From our view in the Choir seats, we suspected that the strings section had been chosen for looks as well as playing ability! Richard pointed out he would do the same in Noel's position. Anyway, here's the setlist:-

'(It's Good) To Be Free'
'Talk Tonight'
'Fade Away'
'Cast No Shadow'
'Half The World Away'
'The Importance Of Being Idle'
'The Butterfly Collector' (with Paul Weller)
'All You Need Is Love ' (with Paul Weller)
'Don't Go Away'
'Listen Up'
'Sad Song'
'Wonderwall'
'Slide Away'
'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'
'Don't Look Back in Anger'
'Married With Children'

Unfortunately, we didn't get 'Strawberry Fields Forever' which had been played the night before, which actually meant there was "booing" at the end. A bit harsh, as it was a good show. Sound for the music was good, but the pre-song intros were very muffled.

Who's Who - Half Moon, Putney - Saturday 17th March

As I left home, checked the venue on-line... tickets available. Got there... "sold out" !! Argghhh!

Consoled ourselves with trips to a couple of Putney pubs and enjoyed watching Ireland beat Pakistan in the cricket.

The Answer - Bloomsbury Ballroom - Friday 9th March

Friday night and it's a bumper group of us for the Answer with Paul, Chris and Mark joining Richard and myself for a trip to the grand sounding "Bloomsbury Ballroom". Dave had double-booked, so we had a spare ticket and took the chance to wind him up by saying "Jimmy Page" was bound to be special guest !! (not true, unfortunately). 

Anyway, after discovering it was a late start, there was far too much time for a few too many beers at various venues, including the Polish bar behind Holborn Station. Managed to sell Dave's ticket for pretty much face value and get in with lots of time to spare. 

Didn't care for the venue (nowhere near as grand as it sounds) and the sound was muffled. The "newbies" in our group enjoyed it, but Richard and I didn't feel it was as good as the times we've seen them previously. Still quite enjoyable and the band should be destined for bigger things.

Jimmy Barnes - Borderline - Wednesday 7th February

An unexpected treat - a chance to see Mr Barnes relatively soon after his last UK appearance. A "warm up" to the Charity show the next day, this acoustic show certainly entertained the primarily Australian audience.

A good choice of hits, album favourites and covers led for a giant singalong. Richard made a new friend (that hair is a pulling machine, I tell you!) and everyone went home happy. Compared to everyone else there, we felt very, very sober.

Jimmy!