Scorpions - Saturday 18th October - Hammersmith Apollo

Good show (although not quite as much fun as previously)... no drumstick (although Klaus must have thrown out aout 100!). Added bonus of seeing both Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker on stage with the Scorpions, but being brutally honest, they didn't add much musically to the evening. And no "Wind of Change" which pleased Dave immensely! Oh and did I mention the £4.40 pint of Tiger beforehand.... ouch! (nice though!). 

The evening ended with a couple of pints in the Larrick in Putney which was pretty empty despite (or maybe because of) a live band. Once they finished, a bloke did some solo covers pretty well including "(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight", "Summer of '69" & "Hotel California". Shame about the 25 minute wait for a bus afterwards and the idiot ponytailed Chelsea fan with his 60+ grandad who started fighting someone on it! Yes, really... 

Setlist: Coming Home Bad Boys Running Wild The Zoo No Pain No Gain Coast To Coast Holiday Lovedrive Another Piece Of Meat Loving You Sunday Morning 321 Dynamite Blackout Big City Nights Still Loving You No One Like You Hes A Woman Shes A Man Doctor Doctor Rock You Like A Hurricane

Oasis - Thursday 16th October - Wembley Arena

Basically what a farce. Why can't Wembley get all standing ticket holders into the venue before the show starts? Queued for nearly an hour from just after 8pm and missed 25 minutes of the show! Not happy! Neither were the hundreds still behind us when we got in to the 2 single file search lines inside. Total incompetence and a near riot. 

After calming down, what was left of the show was really good (although watching later the recording on MTV, Liam's vocals were pretty rank!).. nearly every song is a singalong and the advantage of being further back was that we didn't get soaked by the idiots throwing beer. 

Afterwards spent 30 minutes after the show at the management office writing down the details of our dis-satisfaction... glad we got there quickly - there was a long queue soon afterwards! 

[As a footnote I should add that I got a nice reply from Wembley to my complaint, explaining what went wrong on the night and making a suitable gesture of goodwill] 

Setlist: F**king In The Bushes (tape) - missed this! Rock N Roll Star - missed this! Lyla - missed this! The Shock Of The Lightning - missed most of this! Cigarettes And Alcohol Meaning Of Soul To Be Where There's Life Waiting For The Rapture The Masterplan Songbird Slide Away Morning Glory Ain't Got Nothing The Importance Of Being Idle I'm Outta Time Wonderwall Supersonic Don't Look Back In Anger (Acoustic) Falling Down Champagne Supernova I Am The Walrus

Queen & Paul Rodgers- Monday 13th October - O2 Arena

We decided to go for a new mode of transport to get to this one - the Thames Clipper high speed boat from Waterloo to the O2. Very civilized and a small bar onboard. After a quick couple in "The Pilot", we headed into the arena. One of the problems of it being so big is that to get to our standing entrance was a 5 minute walk even after we were in the venue! We entered just in time and it was packed! Manged to get a spot about 3/4 of the way back. 

A good show (I like both Queen and Paul Rodgers solo stuff), but you just can't get away from the feeling that it's not the same without Freddie. Of course, the band and show are good in their own right, the crowd was up for it and if you'd never seen the original Queen then you'd say it was an excellent show. But that's a big "if". Still, enjoy it for what it is.. great songs (quite a heavy setlist here) and only a couple from the (patchy) new album. 

Setlist

Hammer to Fall

Tie Your Mother Down

Fat Bottomed Girls

Another One Bites the Dust

I Want It All

I Want to Break Free

C-lebrity

Surf's Up... School's Out!

Seagull

Love of My Life

'39

Drum Solo

I'm in Love With My Car

A Kind of Magic

Say It's Not True

Bad Company

We Believe

Guitar Solo

Bijou

Last Horizon

Radio Ga Ga

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

The Show Must Go On

Bohemian Rhapsody

+

Cosmos Rockin'

All Right Now

We Will Rock You

We Are the Champions

Status Quo - Tuesday 7th October - Fairfield Halls, Croydon

Just briefly then... They've changed the set!... repeat... They've changed the set!...

Bravo Polly!

Tribute To Ian Fleming - Sunday 5th October - London Paladium

Not really a gig, but an entertaining evening out hosted by Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley and featured live performances of Bond themes by Beverley Knight, Ruby Turner, Tony Hadley, Mica Paris, Lemar, Lee Mead & Brian Connelly. 

You can read more about the evening here:- http://www.omgili.com/newsgroups/alt/fan/james-bond/L_qGk19022my12231newsfe12ams2.html

Jimmy Barnes - Friday 26th September - Olympia

Australia's finest was playing the "Toast Australia" festival at Olympia. The festival was basically a trade show for promoting Oz, but with a lot of Wines and Beers available - albeit at high prices. £3.50 for a bottle of beer is a bit steep when you've already paid >£30 to get into the place! We missed the first support act - one of Jimmy's daughters, but were in for the next - Brooke Supple. She played some pleasant tunes and was at one stage subjected to the type of heckling you'd only get when drunken Aussies are present "You're F***ing Hot!" - Reply: "Err... Thanks!". She ended with a good version of AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long". 

We then queued up to meet Jimmy and get his autograph. What a nice chap he is too - happily posing for pictures and signing tickets and CDs. Richard's photo of me was awful beyond belief, but never mind.

Onto the show where it had become apparent that we were amongst the less than 1% of the crowd who weren't Australian. About the same percentage (1%) weren't slaughtered! Anyway, a great setlist and singalong - no hint of trouble and great fun had by all. Come back soon Jimmy!

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.