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.

All quiet !!

A stunningly slow start on the 2008 gig front. Can't afford the Eagles, and can't make Roger Daltrey/ Thunder for the Childline O2 show, so next up is XCOM (Bad Company) and that's not until May 9th..!!

Jackie Lynton - Sunday 27th January - Scratchers, Farncombe

A Sunday evening jaunt to Farncombe in Surrey for a free pub gig by Jackie Lynton. He specialises in blues based rock and the small pub hosting the venue is one of my favourites - a friendly country local with Oranjeboom on draft. Farncombe would appear to be the worst-lit village in Surrey, so we stumbled through the dark to a couple of other pubs on the way to the venue. The first - The Cricketers seemed a pleasant enough place, but was so tucked away it was no surprise to find only half a dozen people inside.

The next, The Freeholders, was a strange old place. It was full of very drunk patrons and was arranged in such a way that even with only 20 people in the pub, it was almost impossible to sit or stand anywhere without intruding on others. At this juncture, I should point out that Godalming/Farncombe run a "name and shame" policy whereby they display names and pictures of people banned from the pubs and they tend to get banned from all the pubs in the vicinity. With this in mind, maybe we shouldn't have been surprised when the landlady announced to the whole pub that "for the sake of quelling malicious gossip", that she had banned a girl the week before for "completely inappropriate" behaviour. We didn't get to find out what she'd done! Certainly one of the patrons playing pool seemed to have a "completely inappropriate" low cut top for playing pool! Before we left, an elderly gentleman came in, caught my eye and tipped his hat with an "Evenin' Guv" greeting. Classic - I haven't had that happen to me for 20 years or so! What a bizarre place. 

Anyway - the gig. Standard fare from Mr Lynton. He's now in his late 60's, but delivers a quality show with his excellent band. Lots of Blues and Rock covers in the style of Chuck Berry and contemporaries and a few of the bands own gems. Throw in a couple of amusing anecdotes and it makes for a fun evening, although the 2hr journey home wasn't much fun. Just resisted the temptation to lock-in the female smoker who was in the train toilet for 45 mins - I was deterred by the overhead camera.

http://www.thescratchers.net/ http://www.onlineonair.com/jl/ http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/12/12244/Freeholders/Farncombe http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/59/5955/Cricketers/Farncombe

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. Believe it or not, I've got no gigs scheduled at all for this year at the moment. If that remains the same, this blog will be very quiet!!

2007 - The Best and Worst

A quick look back over the year from a "best of" and "worst of" perspective. 

Best Gig 2007

1: The Scorpions - Hammersmith A long show at London's Best Venue - Great Fun 

2: Status Quo - Brighton The best Quo show I've been to for ages 

3: Paul McCartney - Roundhouse Legend - Up close and personal and a cheap ticket! 

 Most Disappointing Gig 2007 

1: Ian Hunter - Pigalle Club Purely down to the venue 

2: Ataris - Mean Fiddler OK musically, visually awful due to lighting

3: The Answer, Bloomsbury Ballroom Great band, awful sound here and a poor venue 

Best Venue 2007 

1: Hammersmith Apollo 

2: Borderline 

3: Fairfield Halls 

Worst Venue 2007 

1: Pigalle Club Not only the worst this year, but probably ever! You can't see unless you book dinner and can't afford to drink! (The toilets are nice!) 

2: Nottingham Rock City Much of the audience can't see the full stage 

3: Bloomsbury Ballroom Like a wedding reception with a rip-off bar 

Good in 2007 

1: The BBC Electric Proms Good artists at sensible prices! 

2: Tuborg At Hyde Park and the Mean Fiddler 

3: Nearly all my late-night return connections from far-away gigs worked out Good planning and more than a little luck! 

Bad In 2007 

1: Drunks A big increase recently in people completely out of it at gigs and being a nuisance (and standing near me!) 

2: Rip-off ticket prices £100+ for Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, Genesis, Police etc. No thanks! £875 for The Eagles. Yeah, right! 

3: Rip-off prices at bars and merchandise stalls I don't want to pay £4 for a beer thank you. Nor will I pay £15 for a programme. I would buy a T shirt if they were a) good and b) around a tenner instead of poor quality and £16/£20 each ! 

4: People buying tickets for "big artists" purely to flog them on eBay for profit. I never have liked touts and this is what it makes you. 

Well, that's it for 2007. Hope you had a good one and an even better 2008!