Simon Townshend - Friday 29th January - Half Moon, Putney

Second show of the week for me. Now on this date I was meant to be at the Hammersmith Apollo to see Motörhead, but sadly Lemmy's passing at the end of last year meant that wasn't to be.

A bit of class though from the venue organisers to pay tribute in the way they did though:-

So, instead it was off to the somewhat more intimate Half Moon in Putney for the launch of Simon Townshend's new "Stir Records" label. A full band set - Simon and the boys romped through a varied set of past favourites and current tunes in front a decent crowd.

The last time I'd seen Phil Spalding was with Johnny Warman where his excellent (and bl***y loud) guitar had deafened us with some great Who songs. Here, he played bass - apparently his normal day job - and was good as well. In fact the band had learnt all the songs well considering only a couple of days practice - there were only a very few minor errors from what I could tell.

Highlights for me included the relatively new "Time Bomb" and the evergreen "The Way It Is".

At the end of the show, the Limited Edition EP was added to my collection too as a nice souvenir of a good evening.

Simon Townshend - Stir Records

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

Jackaman - Wednesday 20th January - Borderline

Lynne Jackaman at the Borderline

My first show of 2016 is at the Borderline to see Jackaman - the collective backing the eponymous singer Lynne Jackaman which includes Quireboys Guy Griffin & Nick Malling.

The evening started with a very thorough frisk and electronic wand search on the door - just as well we were in plenty of time as the queue grew noticeably due to the slow progress. Once inside we were able to enjoy a brief set from Pete Shoulder. The "Union" frontman was on his own here, performing an acoustic selection from his previous album and forthcoming one. Pete was in good form and seemed popular with the expanding crowd. A limited sampler EP was available and duly purchased.

Jackaman was always going to be louder, but we stayed in our position under the main speaker at the front. I had not seen the band before (but did have the "No Halo" EP) so sort of knew what to expect. And very impressive it was too. In terms of bluesy Rock and Soul, it's probably not too much of a stretch to compare Lynne Jackaman's terrific vocals to a young Tina Turner. Backed by a stella line-up of musicians, the result was very pleasing. A couple of the songs themselves maybe could have been stronger, but for an artist early in her career, this was very good indeed. The ex-St Jude singer also interacted well with the crowd.

Looking forward to next time.

Cregan & Co - Wednesday 30th December - Boom Boom Club, Sutton

An early "New Year" show from Jim Cregan and his band of merry men. A family outing for us this time, following the relative success of forcing the kids to watch Rod Stewart in Las Vegas. Here, at a packed Boom Boom club at Sutton Utd FC, vocalist Ben Mills let rip through a selection of Rod classics and highlights from "Family" (Jim's "other" band) plus Steve Harley's "Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)".

As ever. musicianship was of the highest standard. Drummer Harry James becomes my artist seen this year with the most acts (Thunder, Magnum, Snakecharmer and here) and a special guest appearance from ex-Bad Company guitarist Dave "Bucket" Colwell for "Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller" ended off a great show.

Jim and Dave photo by Philip Crow

Def Leppard - Friday 18th December - Wembley Arena

A double (or even triple) header with Def Leppard co-headlining again with Whitesnake, this time with the Black Star Riders (ex Thin Lizzy) as support.

We arrived part way through the Black Star Riders set - which sounded pretty good. Ricky Warwick's voice is stunningly similar to Phil Lynott's and the sing-a-long Whiskey In The Jar at the end was sung enthusiastically by the filling arena.

Whitesnake were up next. Supporting their latest album of Deep Purple covers, the setlist included many from that. Not being a big Deep Purple fan, many of these sounded pretty dull to me. David Coverdale's voice however seemed to be back in form and the final 4 songs of the set went down well.

Def Leppard opted to start with a song from their rather good new album and that set the scene nicely. Joe Elliott's vocals were strong and not even the site of a topless (from the start) Phil Collen could detract from the musicianship. I suspect hard-core Def Leppard fans could complain about a fairly static setlist, but for the casual fan (ie me) this hit the right balance.

Setlist - Def Leppard
Let's Go
Animal
Undefeated
Dangerous
Love Bites
Armageddon It
Rock On 
Two Steps Behind (acoustic Joe Elliott)
Rocket
When Love and Hate Collide
Switch 625
Hysteria
Let's Get Rocked
Pour Some Sugar On Me
+
Rock Of Ages
Photograph

Setlist - Whitesnake
Burn 
Bad Boys
Love Ain't No Stranger
The Gypsy 
Give Me All Your Love
Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City 
Mistreated 
You Fool No One 
Drum Solo
Soldier Of Fortune 
Is This Love
Fool For Your Loving
Here I Go Again
Still Of The Night

Setlist - Black Star Riders
All Hell Breaks Loose
Are You Ready
The Killer Instinct
Jailbreak 
Bound For Glory
Kingdom Of The Lost
Finest Hour
Whiskey In The Jar 

Status Quo - Friday 11th December - Brighton Centre

Rossi, Parfitt, Cave, Edwards, Bown: Status Quo, Brighton  2015

December. Brighton. It must be Quo. Indeed it was and a very pleasant afternoon of pubs and darts was followed by another solid show at the Brighton Centre. We've seen support Wilco Johnson enough over the last year or 2, so skipped his support slot in favour of the Chippie and a beer.

Quo were as you'd expect - no, actually better when you consider their age and comments that Rossi is feeling the strain these days. The static setlist remains the one real bugbear for so many of us - there can be no excuse for the 2 Heavy Traffic songs remaining in the set at the expense of others and does anyone pay money to want to see Quo play The Wanderer? Other than that what's not to like?

Setlist
Caroline
The Wanderer 
Something 'bout You Baby I Like 
Rain
Little Lady
Burning Bridges (On and Off and on Again)
Beginning of the End
Medley: What You're Proposing / Down the Dustpipe / Wild Side of Life / Railroad / Again and Again / Big Fat Mama
The Oriental
Creepin' Up on You
Gerdundula
In the Army Now 
Drum Solo (The Caveman)
Roll Over Lay Down
Down Down
Whatever You Want
Rockin' All Over the World 
+
Paper Plane
Junior's Wailing 
Rock and Roll Music / Bye Bye Johnny 

Judas Priest - Tuesday 1st December - Brixton Academy

Breaking The What!?

Down to Brixton for the Metal Gods and a thorough test for my new acoustic earplugs!

The evening starts with Michael Schenker's latest reincarnation - the Temple of Rock. Featuring a couple of ex-Scorpions on the rhythm section and Doogie White (Rainbow) on vocals, they romped through some popular material including the Scorpions classic "Rock You Like A Hurricane" which I'm pretty certain Michael didn't play on when he was in the band!

Mr Schenker certainly cut a slightly odd figure in his bobble hat and shuffling around the stage looking a man much older than his years, Still, it's his playing that we'd come in early to see and that was good.

After a brief interval, "The Priest" were back in town, Rob Halford resplendent in an array of black cloaks, jackets and gowns. Plus the slightly weird black gloves of course. As a frontman, he spends surprisingly little time at the front of the stage. The standard favourites were in the set of course, but to me the new material merged into one to a large extent. His vocals seemed good and I enjoyed the show (although was slightly closer to the mosh-pit than intended!), but not as much as on previous occasions. Maybe the earplugs affected things too much. In our group of 6 though, I was in a minority as the rest thought it a belter.

Setlist (Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock)
Doctor Doctor
Live and Let Live
Victim of Illusion 
Vigilante Man
Lord of the Lost and Lonely
Rock You Like A Hurricane 
Rock Bottom 

Setlist (Judas Priest)
Dragonaut
Metal Gods
Desert Plains
Victim of Changes
Halls of Valhalla
The Rage
Turbo Lover
Redeemer of Souls
Beyond the Realms of Death
Screaming for Vengeance
Breaking The Law
Hell Bent for Leather
+
Electric Eye
You've Got Another Thing Comin'
+
Painkiller
Living After Midnight

Scouting For Girls - Monday 30th November - Sherpherds Bush Empire

The full tour show from Scouting For Girls and we have seated tickets in the 1st tier at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Decent view, but had to get here early to secure unreserved seat. A decent set from the boys, including a nice cover of Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer". Roy's voice seemed a fraction more strained than normal, but not to any detriment.

A few new songs (some played at Kingston a month or so back) fitted in well with the old favourites and the crowd was in good voice throughout, but especially during 1+1.

I really like these guys as a band, but I do have one (albeit minor) criticism. It all feels a bit rushed - almost as if they daren't leave any time between songs and feel the need to fill any potential lull in the crowd volume. If they just slowed down a bit between songs when they changed instruments, spoke to the crowd (as they do really well) and introduced stuff in a slightly less manic way then it would make the show 5 minutes longer (no bad thing as their shows are quite short) and just make the whole thing look more polished.

Otherwise, hard to fault.

Setlist
Bad Superman
Heartbeat
Still Thinking About You
Famous
Life's Too Short
Millionaire
I Wish I Was James Bond
Love How It Hurts
The Airplane Song
Michaela Strachan (Short Version)
Posh Girls
1+1
Elvis Ain't Dead / (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You
Castles
This Ain't A Love Song
Livin' On A Prayer 
Home
+
Christmas In The Air (Tonight)
She's So Lovely

[Follow up: Shepherds Bush Empire now closed for the "rest of the year" for urgent repairs! - details here ]

Snakecharmer - Friday 13th November - Islington O2 Academy

This years London Snakecharmer show was still in Islington - this time at the O2 Academy - which is becoming one of my favourite venues. We swapped from our normal bar-side to stand in front of Micky Moody as the sparse crowd made access throughout the floor very easy. It's a shame it was so quiet - especially for a Friday - maybe the fact the band are still trading on their only LP is a factor? Still, they contain 2 of my favourite drummers and bassists (Harry James and Neil Murray) and the set selection of Whitesnake numbers and self-titled LP highlights was solid, albeit a little short maybe.

So all good, but I'm not quite sure what the bands strategy is to move themselves forward to bigger and better things. The answer might be that they don't need one and are happy doing what they do.

Setlist
Guilty As Charged
A Little Rock & Roll
Ready & Willing 
Accident Prone
Falling Leaves
Ain't Gonna Cry No More 
Nothing To Lose
Crying In The Rain 
Moody's Blues [Mick Moody slide guitar solo, accompanied by Harry James on drums]
Slow And Easy 
My Angel
Here I Go Again 
+
Fool For Your Loving

Dan Baird & Homemade Sin - Friday 6th November - Bush Hall

My second of the-end-of-year Homemade Sin shows - back at the Bush Hall which it has to be said was considerably less busy than last years equivalent show. It was what you'd expect though - loud, sweaty and good.

Shame the bar isn't up to much - overpriced bottles only (of Meantime) - but we're not here for the drink, it's the music that was key. Different setlist from Winchester (again sadly not recorded by me) and my ears were ringing afterwards. I purchased the new CD and Vinyl on the way out which Dan was kind enough to sign for me. Must have a look through his solo stuff that I own - I probably now have more signed than not!

Same again next year?