Sunday 31st March
So how exactly does this work again? I bought
five Easter eggs for other people and got absolutely zilch
in return... That ain’t fair! (#Sniffs#).
Last night’s phone interview with Mr Parfitt went
brilliantly. He really got into the spirit of talking
about the Glasgow Apollo shows in 1976 and, at the end
of our chat he also waxed lyrical about playing many of
the songs from the ’76 set-list again during the
recent Frantic Tour. “We can talk all day about
Scottish audiences being loud, but those two Hammersmith
shows… I’d never heard anything like it,”
Parfitt glowed. How satisfying to know he shares the audience’s
unbridled joy at this piece of musical history.
Thanks to Hugh Gilmour who kindly sent my copy, a luscious
six-disc boxed set called ‘On Air: UFO At The BBC
1974-1985’ is now on heavy rotation here at Ling
Towers and is likely to remain so for the rest of the
bank holiday weekend. That final DVD disc, containing
clips from The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top Of The Pops
and the Oxford Road Show, is gonna be brilliant! (#Licks
his lips!#)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 30th March
I write having walked home from Selhurst Park
in a bid to sober up for a midnight phone interview with
Rick Parfitt, to be used for the sleeve notes to the new
expanded edition of ‘Quo Live!’… and
luckily, it seems to have worked. (Quo are in Australia
at the moment).
I’ve no words to sum up the farce of this afternoon’s
game between Palace and Birmingham City. Even typing the
words ‘it’, ‘ended’, ‘four’,
‘nil’, ‘to’ and ‘Brum’
makes me feel like I’m entered some kind of parallel
universe. All sorts of hatred, bickering and anti-Holloway
bile is spilling over at the CPFC Bulletin Board. It was
without doubt a gutless and uninspired display from the
Eagles but the visitors had four shots on target and somehow
managed to put them all away. Those days sometimes happen
in football. It doesn’t make the result any easier
to swallow, though. Not at all…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 29th March
“Right, where were we?” smiled The
Union’s singer/guitarist Peter Shoulder last night
as his band returned to the Islington Academy to complete
a gig abandoned recently after just two-and-a-half songs.
Shoulder was once again in fine voice and, having warmed
up with a few prints of Weatherspoons’ special Scrumpy
in the company of Mr Beare, it felt as though the Academy’s
ciders were barely touching the back of the throat.
It had taken me a few more spins than usual to get into
the slightly more laid-back strains of The Union’s
third album, ‘The World Is Yours’, but now
that its quality has worked its way beneath the skin there’s
no turning back. It was especially great to hear them
play ‘Tonight I’m Alive’, the one that
sounds more than a little like Soundgarden covering Tom
Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’, alongside
a hatful of catalogue tunes that are sounding more and
more like world-beaters with every passing day. Here’s
the set-list: ‘Step Up To The Plate’, ‘You’re
My Jesus’, ‘Tangled Up In You’, ‘The
Perfect Crime’, ‘The World Is Yours’,
‘Obsession’, ‘Saviour’, ‘Tonight
I’m Alive’, ‘Black Monday’, ‘Fading
Out Of Love’, ‘Black Gold’ and ‘Siren’s
Song, plus ‘Come Rain, Come Shine’ and ‘Watch
The River Flow’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 28th March
Can’t believe that I won’t be able
to attend any of this week’s gigs by Joe Bonamassa
(not that I wasn’t invited to do so – circumstances
simply prevent it). Luckily, I’ve already seen JB
at all four of the London venues that he revisits this
week (namely the Borderline, Shepherd’s Bush Empire,
Hammersmith Apollo and the Royal Albert Hall), indeed
my FB / C Palace / blues-rock bud Simon Eldridge just
jogged my memory by posting a review of the Borderline
show from 21.9.06 that I wrote for Classic Rock. It ends
with the words: “As long as his development continues,
wherever Joe Bonamassa chooses to go from here is completely
up to him. The world is at his feet.” Y’see…
sometimes I do get it right!!
Crystal Palace’s goal machine, Glenn Murray, has
signed a three-year contract extension. Having netted
30 times this season – all but one of those coming
in the Championship – the country’s leading
marksman was linked with several bigger clubs but snubbed
them all to pledge renewed allegiance to the Eagles. I
may just have to open a bottle of cherry brandy to celebrate.
P.S. The club have also signed Aruna Dindane, a free agent
who made some waves in the Premiership with Pompey a couple
of years back and has 67 caps for the Ivory Coast, till
the end of the current campaign. The YouTube clips look
encouraging!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 27th March
’Twas another of those annoying conundrums:
England’s vital World Cup Qualifier against Montenegro
or the London debut of British Lion, the side project
of Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris? In the end I tried
to cover both options, watching as much of the game as
possible in the pub, then dashing home to watch the pre-recorded
second half. Show-bound, England looked on course for
an important victory after Shrek Rooney’s early
header handed them the lead. It was all they deserved…
Truthfully, the British Lion album had underwhelmed me.
More honestly still, despite being a rare opportunity
to witness ’Arry up close and sweaty, I probably
wouldn’t have bothered attending the gig had I not
been asked to review by Metal Hammer. Steve mouths every
lyric whilst prowling the stage – there’s
no doubting his commitment to an act that he began mentoring,
then managed and produced before finally transforming
them into a full-blown side-project. However, the decision
to overlook Maiden material was pretty brave, as was the
inclusion of four new songs the audience wouldn’t
know. One of these, ‘The Burning’, was the
type of ode to spitting in the face of adversity that
Harris has made his own, but another, ‘Guineas And
Crowns’, was very much a poor relation. Of the material
the crowd would recognise, ‘Lost Worlds’ had
some Maiden-esque ‘woooaah woooaah’s and ‘Karma
Killer’ and ‘Us Against The World’ employed
good, rousing choruses. Additional brownie points were
awarded for having the good taste to cover UFO’s
‘Let It Roll’ and ‘Do Ya Do Ya Want
Me’, the latter from Trevor Rabin’s 1981’s
‘Wolf’ album. Would I go and see British Lion
again? Hand on heart, ‘no’ would be the answer.
It would be a gross exaggeration to describe them as awful.
The problem is that they are far from exceptional. The
set-list ran as follows: ‘This Is My God’,
‘Lost Worlds’, ‘Karma Killer’,
‘Father Lucifer’, ‘The Burning’,
‘The Chosen Ones’, ‘These Are The Hands’,
‘Guineas And Crowns’, ‘Last Chance’,
‘Us Against The World’, ‘A World Without
Heaven’, ‘Do Ya Do Ya Want Me’ and ‘Judas’,
followed by ‘Let It Roll’ and ‘Eyes
Of The Young’.
Fearing spoilers, I refrained from switching my phone
back on again whilst dashing back across London to find
out about the footie. Typically, the second half was as
poor as the first had been strong; a 77th minute equaliser
returning the home side back to top of the group. FFS
England! Why can we not perform well over 90 minutes?!
Not making it to the World Cup in Brazil is not an option!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 26th March
There’s an interesting post over at Aaron
Aedy’s Facebook page. The amiable guitarist has
just pointed out that his group, Paradise Lost, are 25
years old on this very day. So here’s a photograph
that I took of them back in 1992 atop a hill looking over
Jerusalem during a particularly memorable assignment for
RAW Magazine (looking back, wearing my Deicide T-shirt
during a visit to the Wailing Wall was not one of my brightest
ideas!). But I digress… Happy birthday, fellas.
Anyone capable of putting up with the miserly Andy Farrow
(PL’s manager) for that long deserves a pint or
three!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 25th March
Very sad news – one of my favourite bands,
Jackdaw4, are to split up with a farewell show at London’s
Borderline on June 6. Leader Willie Dowling explains the
decision with a typically flamboyant and entertaining
video announcement here.
Annoyingly, te gig clashes with Megadeth at the Brixton
Academy, but I’m pretty sure that I know where I
shall end up.
Classic Rock have sent a rather weighty self-published
book for review, entitled Budgie’s First Three Albums.
Over 298 pages, with the help of vintage photos, flyers,
tickets, pic sleeves, press cuttings, press releases,
set-lists, publishing contracts and even royalty statements,
author Chris Pike does an unbelievably meticulous job
of re-examining the Welsh trio’s earliest days,
dissecting the minutiae of ‘Budgie’ (1971),
‘Squawk’ (1972) and the utterly brilliant
‘Never Turn Your Band On A Friend’ (1973),
which houses my own all-time fave Budgie song, ‘Parents’.
Along the way we discover a few interesting facts, including
that Metallica paid “six figures” to record
their songs, little of which trickled back to the group.
There are isolated moments of levity. In discussing the
first album’s ‘Nude Disintegrating Parachutist
Woman’, New Zealander Pike reminds Burke Shelley
that the Stones had a song titled ‘Parachute Woman’,
only for the bassist to respond in best Spinal Tap ‘This
One Goes To 11’ fashion: “Yeah, but my one’s
nude.”
This summer’s Download Festival becomes more appealing
by the update. Black Stone Cherry, DragonForce, Masters
Of Reality and Red White & Blues have just been added
to the weekend’s bill. So too have Little Caesar
and Satyricon, though both play on the Sunday by which
time I shall be heading back with all reasonable haste
to London (Rammstein, 30 Seconds To Mars, The Gaslight
Anthem and Limp Bizkit? Um… no thanks)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 24th March
Annoyingly, various domestic issues contrived
to ensure that I witnessed just one show on FM’s
latest tour, but boy… what a gig. With Vega and
It Bites in tow at my favourite London venue, Shepherd’s
Bush Empire, the bill could not have been any more Ling-friendly
had it tried.
Though their sound was somewhat indistinct and muted –
from five rows back, at least – Vega used their
30 minutes very well, mixing and matching songs from both
albums and ending with two stone-cold crowd-pleasers in
‘White Knuckle Ride’ and ‘Hands In The
Air’.
As regular visitors to this page will know only too well,
there are few bigger It Bites fans than moi. With mix
and volume improved appreciably the quartet began with
golden oldie ‘Kiss Like Judas’ they then focussed
on more current matters with ‘Ghosts’, ‘The
Big Machine’, ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’
and ‘Cartoon Graveyard’. ‘Midnight’,
from ‘Once Around The World’, was up next
and in obligatory fashion they closed with “the
hit”, ‘Calling All The Heroes’. “These
two love this song so very, very much,” quipped
John Mitchell, nodding to original keysman John beck and
drummer Bob Dalton: “Just look at their little faces
when they play it.” I thought that IB were excellent,
though it’s pretty indisputable that they were on
the wrong bill here.
FM just keep getting better and better. I’m convinced
that their current incarnation is the band’s best
yet. I’d love to have heard a lot more from their
excellent newie, ‘Rockville’ than just ‘Tough
Love’ and ‘Crosstown Train’ (“A
song that we almost left off the album ’cos we’re
so clueless” quipped Steve Overland), especially
as they had been including ‘Only Foolin’’
earlier in the tour. However, with my friend Andy Beare
on beer roadie duty you might say that I had good luck
finding a lager during the 95-minute display, which concluded
with former keysman Didge Digital making another welcome
cameo – complete with flashing sunglasses –
during ‘Other Side Of Midnight’. It was a
truly great night’s entertainment. Here’s
the FM set-list: ‘Tough Love’, ‘I Belong
To The Night’, ‘Don’t Stop’, ‘That
Girl’, ‘Love Lies Dying’, ‘Hot
Wired’, ‘Let Love Be The Leader’, ‘Closer
To Heaven’, ‘Metropolis’/‘Over
You’, ‘Bad Luck’, ‘Burning My
Heart Down’, ‘Does It Feel like Love’
and ‘Heart It Through The Grapevine’, plus
‘Crosstown Train’ and ‘Other Side Of
Midnight’.
And here’s the most inevitable news story of the
day: Glenn Hughes has Tweeted: “Just so it’s
crystal [clear], Black Country Communion is over. Joe
[Bonamassa] left and will not allow us to keep the name.
Nice, huh?” It’s a somewhat ignominious end
for a band whose three albums were all massive hits here
at Ling Towers. For details check out the story here.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 23rd March
Just got off the phone with SQ’s “invisible
fifth member”, the one and only Bob Young. It was
a great interview. Like Bob I am getting Frantic Four
withdrawal symptoms. Was it really a week ago that the
band played at Hammersmith...??!! Talkin of which, this
lovely photograph of Frame and Nuff (snaffled from Facebook)
really sums up the essence of the Frantic Four’s
reunion.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 22nd March
I’ve just entered the date of October 28
into the Desk Diary in big, capital letters. One of my
fave bands, Camel, are
to perform their classic 1975 album ‘The Snow Goose’
at London’s Barbican Centre. It’s a welcome
return to the stage for one of the nicest men in rock
music, guitar player Andy Latimer, who has been battling
some well-documented health problems. I had the immense
and rather humbling pleasure of talking to Latimer –
who had once been told he had just 20 months to live –
for Prog magazine three years ago. Back then he told me:
“I’m getting progressively better and I’m
starting to think about getting out there and doing some
gigs again.” It’ll be wonderful to see him
perform again.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 21st March
Shall we play a quick game of Guess The Interviewee?
Subject: “So how are you, old son? Still a devastating
redhead?”
Moi: “No. I’m more of a silver fox these days.”
Subject: “Aaaaah… David, David. You can’t
have everything in life, dear boy.”
Me: “So this is just a general chat-cum-catch up
to promote the tour. And by that I’m not trying
to chat you up…”
Subject [interrupting]: “David, my number is 1-800
Bad Boy!”
Any guesses? Okay, here’s another clue: “When
Sykesy and I and came up with that gag about 1-800 Bad
Boy, we had absolutely no idea that it was a gay helpline.”
Yes of course it was the ever-quotable David Coverdale,
born 61 years ago in the Borough of Redcar & Cleveland,
N Yorks. Say what you like about DC (and I’ve been
quite negative about certain aspects of his career in
the past, especially recently), as rock stars go he’s
among the last of a dying breed. We had an excellent chat
– almost every word of it was printable.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 20th March
Last night I accepted a very kind offer to attend
an intimate gig by St Jude over at John Henry’s
Studio in North London. Witnessed by just a couple of
hundred fans who’d been part of the band’s
Pledge Music campaign, and some key industry bods (including
Thunder-ites Danny Bowes, their manager, and Ben Matthews,
who was working the desk), the evening consisted of two
sets – one unplugged, followed by a quick break,
then a full-blooded electric rock set that included ‘Little
Queen’, ‘Leave The Light On’ and ‘Soul
On Fire’ among its highlights. The music was great
and, as we are starting to realise, Lynne Jackaman really
is an outstanding vocal talent. I had to leave before
the end, though. Was still feeling f**ked after Quo’s
end-of-tour ‘do’. Somebody handed me a glass
of white wine and after just one sip I nearly spewed.
Getting a bit too too old for this, I think.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 19th March
Yesssss… the new issue of Classic Rock
Presents AOR is here! My seven-page story on Tesla looks
great, and it’s cool that Geoff Barton has also
gleaned an extract from Brian ‘Shredded’ Wheat’s
upcoming autobiography, currently being prepared with
Peter Makowski. I love that Brian would say of his relationship
with Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott: “He’s
Fat Bastard Number One, and I’m Fat Bastard Number
Two”, though I guess JE will be less thrilled by
the declaration’s frankness! For full details on
the magazine click here.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 18th March
Re: the outcome of yesterdays clash with Palace’s
biggest rivals I’ve absolutely no comment save to
say the players let the fans down *unforgivably*. Following
the beamback my afternoon was spent drowning my sorrows
in the Clifton Arms in Selhurst, before the pilgrimage
to Wembley Arena.
There was time to down quite a few cold bottles of Becks
in the VIP Lounge before the music began. Laurie Mansworth,
manager of support act The Treatment, arrived and remarked
that I was correct to have nagged him about inserting
‘Nothing To Lose But Our Minds’ in the set
of his young protégés (indeed, later in
the evening singer Matt Jones actually managed to get
most of the Arena waving its arms in the air along to
the song).
“Got any more good advice?” Mansworth asked.
“Yeah. Play the damned thing twice!”
There was a bittersweet mood as the four-man Quo took
to the stage; last night of the tour, the show wasn’t
sold out and of course Wembley remains a bit of cattleshed,
despite the venue’s refurbishment. It was also seated.
Then of course there was the crowd to consider. Being
the last London show to have gone on sale – the
old school diehards having snapped up the tickets for
Hammersmith – it was more of a latterday Quo audience
than a pumped-up Frantic Four crowd. Inevitably, the atmosphere
was pretty stilted (shame, as it was being filmed for
DVD and BluRay). My friend Harj and I managed to chug
back quite a few lagers during the set – £18
for four small bottles? Bargain! – and before we
knew it we were waving ‘Bye Bye Johnny’ to
the FR for what could possibly be the very final time.
“Shall we go back to the VIP area and see who’s
around?” I asked Harj, adding, “I promise
we’ll only stay for one drink. Two max. After all
it’s a Sunday night and they’re working on
the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines – it’s
gonna be a bastard of a journey home.”
“It sounds like a plan to me,” he replied
with typical good nature.
So you can guess what happened next, right? After supping
large glasses of white wine for several hours (well, they
were complimentary!!) I’m afraid I had to be assisted
back to Ling Towers by the long-suffering Harj and my
friends Jeff Gilbert and Philippa Douglas. It was lucky
that J&P had brought their car or the chances are
that I would’ve been typing this missive from beneath
a bush in Stanmore. Vomit can leave such a persistent
stain.
But what a fabulous night! I’m not completely
sure whether Francis Rossi showed his face but Messrs
Lancaster, Parfitt, Coghlan and Bob Young all turned up
and laid into the free booze. A couple of hours into proceedings
Joel O’Keeffe of Airbourne, in town to do some press
for his band’s new album ‘Black Dog Barking’
(due on May 20), seemed to appear from out of nowhere.
As he laughed and joked with the Treatment guys –
it seems the two groups are mutual fans – I asked
where he’d been all night. Joel, who had two FF
T-shirts hanging from his belt (just in case he got pissed
and lost one) simply glowered: “Listen mate, when
a door needs to get kicked in… it’s going
to get fucking kicked in.” At the time it seemed
like a perfectly reasonable explanation.
I grabbed a quick word with Coghlan at the bar. “If
the Frantic Four tour again then great,” he commented.
“And if we don’t, we don’t. All I can
say is that I’ve loved every minute of the last
few weeks.”
And so say all of us. Thanks for the memories, guys. It
was fan-bloody-tastic.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 17th March
Three shows into the Frantic Four tour (for me,
at least) and last night was all about watching Sir Alan
of Lancaster. What an utter hero. I’m glad that
my friend Steve ‘No Relation’ Way and I made
it into the venue in time to see The Treatment, who –
in stark contrast to so many support acts – have
been warmly received by the Quo Army. I was also chuffed
that they listened to my advice and included ‘Nothing
To Lose But Our Minds’ in the set as it was arguably
their most popular number. ‘No Relation’ was
kind enough to give me a lift back to Catford, too. Very
useful as I was close to blacking out after a long day’s
boozing and rocking out. Now where’s the kebab shop
again?!
This evening the tour moves across London to Wembley Arena
for its swansong. I shall be heading over there from Selhurst
Park and a beamback of Palace’s game against the
Team From The South Coast That Cannot Be Mentioned. Hopefully
I can grab a pint or two with Col harkness and Sniffa
from Spider, who will be at the show after performing
a new numbers at a pub in Hammersmith (such a shame it
clashes with the Shiteon game). Thanks to Quo's PR man,
Chris Hewlett, who has provided a couple of passes for
Wembley's VIP Bar, the day promises to be emotional beyond
belief. I still cannot believe the tour is almost over.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 16th March
Ouch! My neck aches after Frantic Four in London
show #1. Once again we had tickets in the balcony, but
the sound was amazing and the audience reaction nothing
less than completely amazing.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 15th March
Really looking forward to seeing the Frantic
four again at Hammersmith tonight, also the chance to
hook up with Steve O’Connell, Paul Gillooly (and
his brother John) and Dean Dukelow among many, many others
- it's amazing to think I met this dodgy trio sleeping
overnight outside the Odeon queuing overnight for Quo
tix more than three decades ago.
First, though, I’ve a busy day of album reviews
and phone interviews, beginning with Deep Purple’s
Don Airey at 10am, then Danny Bowes at lunchtime, and
Purple’s Steve Morse before dashing out the door
to the Odeon (*Not* the Apollo)… so I’d better
get on with it!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 14th March
Aw, that’s nice. On the way back to London
I took a call from Bob Young who’d seen me in balcony
and wanted to ask how I enjoyed the show. He seemed pleased
by my still-disbelieving demeanour. Bob reckons the band
are getting better and better with each performance but
insisted “the rough edges will never be rubbed away”,
which is how they – and the fans – want it
to stay.
Returning to earth with a resounding thump, I was sorry
to hear that former
Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr has finally lost his battle
with Multiple Sclerosis. I didn’t really know
Clive but these
glowing tributes from former band-mates and fellow
musicians say everything necessary.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 13th March
My first sighting of the Frantic Four reunion
tour was all I hoped it would be… and more. Seeing
Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan
on a stage together again after 32 years – without
interruption from keyboard player Andy Bown – was
my own personal Led Zeppelin at the O2 Arena moment: One
of those things that you thought could never possibly
happen. From our places in the balcony – front row,
dead centre – my friend Kevin McDempster simply
sat and looked on in gleeful, disbelieving rapture.
Earlier on, The Treatment had warmed the Apollo up nicely
with 35 minutes of spirited hard rock that included a
Leppard-esque newie called ‘Emergency’. Though
Quo’s audience is traditionally hard to please,
the Cambridge quintet – who were not even born when
the Frantic Four ruled the roost – went down very
well with those that came in early, though meeting the
band and their manager Laurie Mansworth in the pub afterwards
I complained long and hard at the puzzling omission of
their best-known tune, ‘Nothing To Lose But Our
Minds’. “Okay, we’ll put it back in
for Hammersmith,” promised Laurie. We shall see.
Arriving to an edited sample of Jackie Lynton’s
legendary greeting from the 1976 ‘Live!’ album
– “Is there anybody out there that wants to
rock?” – the headliners played at deafening
volume – to be fair, they had to do so in order
to be heard above a crowd that chanted “Quo-oh-oh-oh-oh”
during any break in the audio assault. Incredibly, when
Rossi finally addressed us with the words: “I can’t
think of anything to say except… Alan Lancaster
and John Coghlan” the noise levels somehow escalated
by a few extra decibels – and stayed there for a
couple of minutes. With a purist-friendly set-list –
nothing released after 1976 – and hits such as ‘Caroline’
and ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’ omitted,
Quo barrelled through an hour and a half of volume-charged,
pure blues-boogie nirvana (with a lower case ‘n’,
obviously). I’d like to have heard them play ‘Mean
Girl’, ‘Slow Train’, ‘Paper Plane’
and the entire ‘Mystery Song’, but the inclusions
of ‘Blue Eyed Lady’ and ‘Oh Baby’
made such complaints sound churlish. Alan Lancaster looked
steadier on his feet than I’d been lead to believe,
roaring out the words with all the power of old, and there
wasn’t a dry eye in the house when former road manager
Bob Young strode from the wings to play some stirring
blues harp on ‘Railroad’ (the unexpurgated
version!) and ‘Roadhouse Blues’. And robbed
of the safety net of Bown’s keys, Rossi upped his
game with a truly blistering display of hard rock guitar.
It was, quite simply, one of the best performances I’ve
seen in more than three decades of gig-going. They cannot
go back to trotting out ‘B****ng Br***es’
and ‘Ma****ita T**e’ after something as wonderful
as this, surely?
Anyway, for those that don’t know, here’s
the set-list: ‘Junior’s Wailing’, ‘Backwater’/‘Just
Take Me’, ‘Is There A Better Way’, ‘In
My Chair’, ‘Blue Eyed Lady’, ‘Little
Lady’/‘Most Of The Time’, ‘April’
Spring, Summer And Wednesdays’, ‘Railroad’,
‘Oh Baby’, ‘Forty Five Hundred Times
(Edit)’, ‘Rain’, ‘Big Fat Mama’,
‘Down Down’ and ‘Roadhouse Blues’,
followed by ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ and
‘Bye Bye Johnny’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 12th March
After 32 years the day of reckoning has finally arrived.
As an appetiser for their three London shows I’m
off to the Apollo (no… not Glasgow, where the fabled
‘Live!’ album was recorded, but Manchester)
to see Monsewers Rossi, Lancaster, Parfitt and Coghlan
in the fine company of Kevin McDempster and Nige Roberts.
So excited that I could barely sleep last night! All together
now: “Is there anybody out there that wants to rock?!”
[Plucked from my FB page: Monday nite, 8.55pm… Dead
centre, first row of balcony… Frantic Four with
pints lined up – fuck me, dreams do come true].
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 11th March
It took a few days but I’ve finally completed Duff
McKagan’s autobiography, It’s So Easy (And
Other Lies). What a fantastic read. Of course, I’m
familiar with various other GN’R-related tomes on
the market, including the ones by Slash and Steven Adler,
but McKagan’s memoirs are by far the best of the
lot. No punches are pulled, and what a life the bass player
has lived. How he has reinvented himself through drug
issues, band breakups, divorces, etc etc, to become a
pillar of the economic and literary communities is pretty
staggering when you come to think about it. His book really
is an inspiring piece of work.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 10th March
Yesterday’s result of Crystal Palace 2
Leeds 2 wasn’t ideal, especially given the classy
football played by the Eagles. After so many years of
hoof ‘n’ hope mediocrity, or during the Freedman
years of parking the team coach across the goal-line and
hoping to nick one on the break, it’s a source of
incredible joy to see a team that’s comfortable
on the ball in every area of the park. Luckily, with just
about all of our promotion rivals losing their own games,
the point earned can almost be termed priceless. (However,
applying ‘glass half empty’ realism, had Palace
actually beaten Leeds – as their dominance deserved
– they’d have ascended into second place…
grrrr).
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Friday 8th March
I just can’t get enough of The Western
Sizzlers, a fine, fine band recommended for fans of the
Georgia Satellites (whose own Rick Richards plays in an
uncredited capacity on their album, ‘For Ol’
Times’ Sake’). Check out the
video for the song ‘I’ll Die A Happy Man
If It Kills Me’ and get ’em over here soon
for some gigs please, Mr Pete Feenstra!!!
Off to the West End for curry and beer with a motley crew
that includes Teresa ‘Terri’ Weston, David
Boyce, Cliff Evans, Chris Dale and Paul Newcomb. The weekend
starts here!!
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Thursday 7th March
Cheers to Dutch Michaels for this killer pic
of yours truly with Steve Overland at yesterday’s
FM album launch party, which took place at the smaller
of the two rooms at London’s Islington Academy.
What a great night! What a monster hangover! Besides the
‘Pledgers’ that had pre-paid for the album
the promise of free booze (or gin and tonics in the case
of FM guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick) attracted quite a gathering
of media, press, deejays and fellow musos – including
Luke Morley of Thunder/The Union, FM bassist Merv Goldsworthy’s
‘better half’ Leigh Matty, Planet Rock’s
Paul Anthony (him again!) and Mia Klose.
‘Rockville’ sounded great over the full-sized
PA and after it was finished the band took to the stage.
“You’ve heard the new album so were going
to play a few old favourites,” said Steve Overland.
It was great to stand a mere five or six yards away from
the stage, multiple pints in hands, as the band cruised
through ‘I Belong To The Night’, ‘That
Girl’, ‘Closer To Heaven’, ‘Hot
Wired’, ‘Dangerous’ and ‘The Other
Side Of Midnight’. With hindsight, heading over
to the Crobar for a nightcap on the way home to Catford
wasn’t such a good idea.
I didn’t stay out too late, though. Arriving back
at Ling Towers, my office was the immediate port of call.
Firing up the PC and with a slight sense of trepidation
I headed over to the Status Quo message board to find
out how the first night of the Frantic Four’s tour
had gone. Blow me down… the reports were excellent.
Frankly, I couldn’t believe the set-list and upon
watching this
I almost had to wipe away a few tears of joy.
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Wednesday 6th March
Okay… I was so, so wrong about Kevin Phillips.
Last night the 39-year-old striker scored a hat-trick
in nine minutes to put Hull City to the sword as the Eagles
moved to within two points of the automatic promotion
places. The result of 4-2 was immensely flattering to
Hull, who were steamrollered out of sight in the second
half. And morale-wise, well… what a boost for Holloway’s
men.
I cannot stop laughing at the result from Old Trafford,
where the home side gave away the lead to tumble out of
the Champions League. Last time I looked there were 5,936
‘likes’ at the latest thread on the ‘I
Hate Man Utd’ Facebook page. Better make that 5,937!
Back to music – I wish that I could be in Manchester
for the first night of the Frantic Four’s reunion
tour, but there’s no way in hell I’d miss
the launch party for FM’s new album, ‘Rockville’.
FF... I am with you in spirit – break a leg!
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Tuesday 5th March
Still trying to regain my composure after Steven
Wilson’s gig at Royal Festival Hall. The new album,
‘The Raven That Refused To Sing’, was performed
in its entirety, with perfect sound by a band that included
Guthrie Govan, Marco Minnemann and Nick Beggs. The word
‘stunning’ springs to mind.
Who gives a flying f**k about Manure vs Madrid?! Tonight
is all about the six-pointer between Crystal Palace and
Hull at the *real* home of football, Selhurst Park. Olly
pits his wits against the judas Flatnose St**e Br**ce
(just back from gardening leave) – that’s
proper football. Boozing to start as soon as Eddie gets
home from school, and we're off to SE25...
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Sunday 3rd March
Using the fact that he wanted to hand me a newly
burned CDr of their new album, ‘S.O.S’, for
review in my melodic column for Classic Rock, I nipped
over to the Orpington Record Fair to meet Greg Hart of
the (fairly) recently reunited UK-based melodic rockers
Moritz. Pickings were fairly slim at the fair but like
its critically praised predecessor ‘Undivided’,
‘S.O.S.’ is a good, strong record, characterised
by crisp, pure AOR with punchy choruses and strong harmonies.
It’s cool to have Moritz back after all these years.
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Saturday 2nd March
What a fantastic result for Crystal Palace last
nite. I was busy watching Threshold and Enochian Theory
over at the Underworld but eldest lad Eddie kept me up
to date with developments on the pitch at Pride Park.
Annoyingly, the support act – who have received
the thumbs up from both Bruce Dickinson and Steven Wilson
– came on earlier than scheduled, but I really enjoyed
them. Palace took the lead during the first half and held
on to secure a first away win in eleven games, but not
without a major scare. When, as Threshold were playing
‘Staring At The Sun’, Ed texted: “Aaaarg!
Pen to Derby in 86th min”, followed by “Saved!!!”
I admit to leaping into the air! The folks around me must’ve
thought I was loopy!
Despite the technical issues endured by guitarist Pete
Morten, Threshold played a wonderful set that focused
on their current disc, ‘March Of Progress’,
and a smattering of songs from its 2007 predecessor ‘Dead
Reckoning’, plus a handful of oldies such as ‘Mission
Profile’, ‘Part Of The Chaos’, ‘Angels’
and ‘Long Way From Home’. With a recording
history that dates back to the early 1990s, they can lay
claim to being among this isle’s most enduring and
important progressive metal acts. After amassing nine
consistently strong and interesting studio albums, they
have one of the best lead singers in the business –
step forward Damian Wilson – and deserve far better
than playing to 500 fans in a medium-sized club. As proven
by the immaculate ‘Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams’
and a magnificent encore of ‘Slipstream’,
they certainly have the songs to match those dazzling
levels of musical ability. Now that their record label
(Nuclear Blast) has a UK office, it’s high time
they were given the tools to do the job.
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Friday 1st March
Having been impressed by the Swedish singer’s
debut album, ‘London’, last night I thought
I’d go and take a look at Mia Klose’s gig
at the Barfly in Camden. Though I had mild reservations,
on the whole it was a very enjoyable experience. Now based
here in the UK’s capital, Klose seems fairly charismatic
and driven offstage on the occasions our paths have crossed.
On it, she is diminutive and cute, prone to Axl-style
sashays and covered in leather and fishnets. On the evidence
of a 30-minute display her material is pretty decent,
from the Aerosmith-esque ‘You Drive Me Crazy’
to the GN’R-style ballad ‘Living For Tomorrow’,
though I felt that her final two tunes, ‘Lady Killer’
and ‘Never Too late’ were perhaps a bit on
the disposable side. It was certainly brave of Mia to
have hired such a noisy, propulsive band as there were
times when they were guilty of drowning out what sounded
like a rather good voice. In future I’d like to
hear (and see) more of Mia and less of her backing group
trying to pin the audience to the wall.
P.S. This month’s Playlist
and YouTube
updates have been made. Just click on the links.
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