The Mods - Friday 19th September - Bull & Butcher, Totteridge

An intended mini pub crawl through the streets of Barnet actually turned into quite a session. This included some surprisingly high standard darts on one of the pubs en route - can't go wrong when the pub provides 2 Tournament boards and a proper raised oche ! Despite playing really well (123 on one throw and a 100+ checkout), Richard somehow won 3-2 !!

Maybe due to the beer, I was surprised when we got to the venue, because it wasn't where I expected. Or rather it was, but it was a different venue to the last time we went to Totteridge & Whetstone. Very confused!

Anyway - the band were the Mods who we normally see in Sutton - that is Johnny Warman, Steve Byrd, Steve Barnacle, Johhny Marter et al. The expected evening of classic Small Faces, Kinks etc and the bonus of even more Who tracks than normal. Excellent stuff, aided and abetted by unusually attractive bar staff!

All followed by a long snooze on the Northern Line!

Bogus Blues Brothers - Friday 8th August - Earl's Court

Not a "real" gig as such - the band were on as part of the Great British Beer Festival. Not much to say really - they were fine as a covers band. Everyone there for the beer festival - we watched about half the bands' set. And I discovered I am an expert skittles player after several pints!

http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=195496
http://www.bogusbrothers.co.uk/home.htm

Billy Idol - Thursday 31st July - Brixton Academy

2.5 years on from seeing Mr William Broad at the same venue and tonight's show was just as much fun. Luckily his new album is a Greatest Hits compilation (again!), so that's pretty much what the crowd wanted and what they got.

In fact, bar a couple of numbers, check out the 2006 review and you'll have this one covered too. Good stuff!

Setlist (Richard Thinks!) Cradle Of Love Dancing With Myself Flesh For Fantasy White Wedding John Wayne New Future Weapon To Be A Lover Sweet Sixteen World Coming Down Eyes Without A Face Ready Steady Go Blue Highway LA Woman Rebel Yell + Hot In The City Speed Mony Mony

Status Quo - Friday 25th July - Excel Arena, London

Quo at the Motor Show - or at least the custom built venue to the side in the car park! You're probably read more than enough about Quo on this blog over the years, so the only things I'll say are:-

1: Surprised how quiet it was - barely half full

2: The band were on top form. Quality stuff and (at last!) a long overdue change-around to the setlist.

Whitesnake / Def Leppard - Thursday 26th June - Wembley Arena

The evening started with a meet at The Globe (Baker St Tube) where we met a couple of other friends purely by chance. I say by chance, every time I go to The Globe I seem to bump into someone I know. It is one of the most "touristy" pubs in London and one with poor service, so who knows what our guests think of that.

We decided to skip the first support act and have a couple of beers in town. This nearly cost us as the journey to Wembley was slow and there was a long queue to get in!

Luckily, we got in just in time for the start of Whitesnake and met up with some more friends about half way back. Unusually for Wembley, the whole of the floor was standing, so there was a reasonable amount of room. Having enjoyed Whitesnake a year or 2 back at Hammersmith, I wasn't as keen this time. The vocals seemed a bit off key and Mr Coverdale's constant swearing (I lost the spread bet with Richard on going for "under 25 F***ks during the show") became a bit tiresome. Still, the timeless classics of "Is This Love", "Here I Go Again" and "Ain't No Love.." went down well.

By contrast Def Leppard, who I'd been disappointed with last time, were excellent. Their setlist was spot on and the energy and guitars spot on too. They were backed by an impressive backdrop which didn't detract from the performance which, of course, has all the sing-a-long anthems you'd expect. All in all, excellent!

Journey - Tuesday 17th June - Hammersmith Apollo

Quite an unusual one this - a headline band who I've not seen before and only own one CD of (the "Greatest Hits"). Based on that CD and a positive review of their previous UK shows, Richard and I trouped off to London's best music venue. The fact that we had secured front row tickets added to the excitement, only slightly dampened by the outrageous £3.85 for a pint of Tuborg in a plastic glass!

Support was provided by John Parr and despite the technical difficulties and poor performance from the road crew - he was really good. Set included "Under A Raging Moon", "The Best A Man Can Get", "Oh Well" and, of course, "St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)"

It was then onto Journey. At the time of booking, I didn't know they had a new singer, but the pint-sized Arnel Pineda delivered songs new and old with great enthusiasm. We were standing up against the stage in front of guitarist Neil Schon who appeared faultless throughout. We recognised a fair number of the songs and the combination of John Parr and Journey justified the ticket price.

Setlist:
Never Walk Away
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Only The Young
Stone In Love
Keep On Running
Ask The Lonely
Who's Crying Now
Change For The Better
Lights
After All These Years
Mother, Father
Piano Solo / Open Arms
Wheel In The Sky
Where Did I Lose Your Love
Chain Reaction
Wildest Dream
Edge Of The Blade
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
+
Escape
Any Way You Want It

Mark Knopfler - Thursday 29th May - Royal Albert Hall

A very short comment for this one. We were lucky enough to be in a box (with butler!) for this one (thanks to some friends kind generosity) which made the whole evening a fun one. I wasn't expecting too much from the setlist, but whilst disappointed they're weren't a few more Dire Straits songs that I might have known in the set, there is no doubt about Mr Knopfler's talent as a guitarist. It just all seemed a bit "safe" if you know what I mean.

Dan Baird / Quireboys - Monday 26th May - Borderline

As I said, you can't go wrong with these, so it was back to the Borderline for day 2, with the headline acts swapped around. The Quireboys repeated their excellent set from last night with just one minor change and once again it was very good.

Dan Baird on the other hand changed the set entirely with nearly everything different except for "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" and the excellent new track, "Two For Tuesday". Over the years, this is something he has always done really well. The evening ended with a rendition of "Battleship Chains" with Spike on vocals and a raucous crowd singalong.

Marvellous!

If you want the new CDS:-
http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/product.php?pType=1&pId=10002967
http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/product.php?pType=1&pId=10002966

Quireboys / Dan Baird - Sunday 25th May - Borderline

This show was moved from the Garage in Highbury & Islington due to ominous "health and safety" reasons. That meant a packed Borderline for the first of a 2 night "double header" of The Quireboys and Dan Baird & Homemade Sin.

The latter opened the show with a solid selection of their new album, Baird solo favourites and Georgia Satellites hits. Having seen Dan a number of times, he never fails to deliver a fun set and this was no exception.

Next up were the Quireboys. Again, a favourite act of mine and they gave a solid set of hits and selections from the new CD, "Homewreckers & Heartbreakers". We'd already seen the 2 guitarists in the pub pre-gig, but there was noticeably less "on stage" drinking than normal - maybe a sign of how seriously they are treating the new record.

As Spike always likes to remind us - "We're the Quireboys and this is Rock and Roll!". All in all for £17.50, you couldn't go wrong.

XCom - Friday 9th May - The Peel, Kingston

So are they "XCom" or "Bad Company 2008"? Neither if Mr Rodgers gets his way, dubbing them a "tribute band falsely using the Bad Company name" and threatening legal action. Either way, Mr Ralphs and co were coming to South London and it seemed a good opportunity to see what they could do.

This was my first gig for ages and the first whilst recuperating from a recent op. Therefore I needed to take things easy and was grateful for the relatively short set. This consisted of a smattering of Bad Company songs, "Can't Get Enough", "Feel Like Making Love", "Movin' On" et all and, bizarrely, 2 Free songs - "Wishing Well" and "All Right Now". Both classic songs of course, but a little strange given that none of the band played on the originals. All in all, whilst they are clearly not Bad Company with Paul Rodgers, I enjoyed the bands performance with Robert Hart up front and a fun time was had by all.