Per Gessle - Monday 4th May - O2 Academy, Islington

So, a trip to Islington for Per Gessle - the male half of Roxette, for probably his first ever UK solo show.

The show had been downgraded from the Shepherd's Bush Empire and to be honest, probably suited a venue this size. That said, it was a fine evening of catchy pop tunes, with a fair selection of Roxette classics included. Most of the crowd appeared to be of Scandinavian origin and Per was greeted with true "hero-like" worship. Great fun, although is was a shame that Marie Fredrikson (other half of Roxette) chose the gig in Holland a few days later to be surprise guest!

Setlist (Order not 100% certain!):
DRESSED FOR SUCCESS
DROWNING IN WONDERFUL THOUGHTS ABOUT HER
STUPID
THE PARTY PLEASER
WISH I COULD FLY
SHE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
7TWENTY7
I HAVE A PARTY IN MY HEAD
LATE, LATER ON
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART
DO YOU WANNA BE MY BABY?
OPPORTUNITY NOX
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE
CHURCH OF YOUR HEART
DANGEROUS
JOYRIDE
+
C'MON
HEY MR DJ
ARE YOU AN OLD HIPPIE, SIR?
THE LOOK
IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE
+
SLEEPING IN MY CAR
(I'M NOT YOUR) STEPPIN' STONE
QUEEN OF RAIN

Saxon - Thursday 23rd April - Forum, Kentish Town

Surprisingly, I'd never seen Saxon before and knew little of their material. Supported by the impressive Doro Pesch, this was a good fun evening. Despite my lack of previous listening, there were enough good songs to keep me on the lookout for a "best of" CD in the near future! Extremely long encore too with a bit of Judas Priest! 

Setlist Battalions of Steel Heavy Metal Thunder Demon Sweeney Todd Ride Like the Wind Requiem - We Will Remember Strong Arm of the Law The Letter Valley of the Kings Bands Played On Hellcat The Eagle Has Landed (Der Adler ist Gaylanded) Come Rock of Ages (The Circle is complete) Machine Gun Never Surrender Wheels of Steel + Live to Rock Motorcycle Man + Crusader You've Got Another Thing Coming (with Doro) + 747 Strangers In The Night Denim and Leather Princess of the Night

Gary Moore - Friday 17th April - Brighton Dome

As expected, this fell into Gary's "Blues Show" category, rather than his "Monsters of Rock" type set. Shame though that was, it was a pleasant enough seated show - excellent musicianship and some good blues material, albeit not wildly exciting. 

Remind me not to touch the Dome's "festival lager" - black in colour - fine when chilled, but undrinkable when it warms up 2/3 of the way through a pint!

Setlist

Bad for You Baby

Down the Line

Oh, Pretty Woman

Since I Met You Baby

Have You Heard

Walking Through the Park

All Your Love (I Miss Loving)

Mojo Boogie 

I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know 

Thirty Days (To Come Back Home) 

Too Tired 

Walking by Myself 

+

The Blues Is Alright

+

Parisienne Walkways

AC/DC - Thursday 16th April - O2 Arena

Identical to Tuesday - except saw all the the Answer's set. Oh, and the fact we were "several miles away" in the seats up near the roof. Allowed us to see just what a good spot we had 2 days earlier.

AC/DC - Tuesday 14th April - O2 Arena

An evening of Classic Rock at the O2. A couple of pleasant beers in the garden of The Pilot was followed by catching the end of The Answer's set. They sounded OK and were debuting a few tracks from their new album, "Demon Eyes". We had got to a pretty good spot - front left - about 10-15 yds from the front. I described to a colleague that you get the following at an AC/DC gig.

• A 54 year old man in a schoolboy outfit who duckwalks, appears to suffer convulsions and performs a striptease
• A 61 year old man in a flat cap with a heavy Georgie accent
• A 50ft inflatable prostitute
• A massive steam train which catches fire
• A number of cannons firing at the audience

Rightly, they were alarmed. What can't be explained is how all of the above works - except the answer surely lies in the music. Everyone recognises an AC/DC tune and here they were performed faultlessly. Excellent stuff!

Setlist: Rock n Roll Train Hell Ain't a Bad Place To be Back In Black Big Jack Dirty deeds done dirt cheap Shot Down in Flames Thunderstruck Black Ice The Jack Hells Bells Shoot to thrill War Machine Anything Goes You Shook Me all night long TNT Whole lotta Rosie Let There Be Rock + Highway To Hell For Those About To Rock

Who's Who – Saturday 21st March – Half Moon, Putney

A long day! Having met friends in the Coat and Badge in Putney for lunch and beer, we then endured Manchester United's woeful performance in a 2-0 defeat at Craven Cottage. A few more beers amongst jubilant Fulham fans and off to the Half Moon for the Who tribute.

Luckily, we'd taken the precaution of pre-booking this time - just as well as it was sold out! The normal solid show, with an elongated "Tommy - highlights" section, but surprisingly no songs from Quadrophenia!

Then home via All Bar One in Wimbledon for a long sleep!

4 Bills & A Ben – Saturday 28th February – Boom Boom Club, Sutton Utd

A late notice encounter with 4 Bills and a Ben, prompted by the appearance of ex-Quo drummer Jeff Rich and Quo bassist Rhino Edwards. The added bonus was that Rhino and his family band were also supporting. They seemed intent on playing a number of covers from Quo's covers albums, so in amongst original material, we got "Get Out of Denver", "Lucille", "Sweet Home Chicago" and a few others.

Good evening, big crowd (recognised a number of people normally seen at Quo shows) and the Mods on fine form with guitarist Steve Byrd re-joining after injury. Only downside was the lack of Who songs, which seem to be saved for the Mods incarnation of the band these days.

Status Quo – Saturday 14th February – Portsmouth Guildhall

Quo in February? Yep, rescheduled from December due to illness and on a Saturday. Sounds like a plan - albeit after a bit of negotiation with Mrs B about missing Valentine's Day!

Richard and I headed down on the train in the afternoon and had time to visit some of the local hostelries - a mix of very pleasant and pretty rough! The venue itself, the Guildhall, was quite impressive and it was nice to be at a Quo standing show again - even at halfway back the view and sound were excellent. 

A good fun day was completed with a bonus half hour in Woking on the way home, where there seemed to be a shortage of clothes on many people at 23:30!

The Answer – Thursday 12th February – Dingwalls

It's been a little while since I've seen the boys from Northern Ireland and with a new album coming out and hot off the back of supporting AC/DC in the states, this gig in compact Dingwalls seemed too good to miss. A "record" crowd of 6 of us braved the snow and joined the throng of people down the front - we didn't even have to flog Dave's ticket to a tout this time!

The Answer seem to be Classic Rock Magazine's favourite "up and coming" band at the moment. There's no doubt they are very competent musicians and vocalist Cormac Neeson has a strong voice for the music being played. The catch is in the songs. Most are standard "classic rock" fayre and perfectly listenable to. The problem is that very few have that catchy chorus that you want to sing along with. Exceptions include "Under The Sky", "Never Too Late" and (unfortunately not performed here) "Sometimes Your Love". I just feel to get to the "next level" they need a few singalong stand out tracks. All in all, a perfectly adequate, albeit 6/10 gig.

SAS Band – Saturday 24th January - Indigo2

The SAS Band – or “Spikes All Stars” if your prefer and their “New Year” bash at the Indigo2. The normal smattering of Guest Stars, which included Roger Taylor (Queen), Toyah, Jeff Scott Soto, Madeline Bell, Fabba Girls, Roy Wood, Graham Gouldman (10cc) and others.

For a change we actually watch the support band - “Crash” on the basis they featured Motorbike champion James Toseland and had a set based on covers of Classic Rock songs. They weren’t bad.

The main act were as impressive as always – the highlights being Toyah’s “School’s Out”, 10cc’s “Dreadlock Holiday” / “Rubber Bullets” and Queen’s “Cosmos Rocks” sung by Mr Taylor. And of course, the not-so-seasonal “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” by Mr Wood.

Excellent stuff…