Friday 30th November
Though I’d been looking forward to some
gentle training for an important weekend – Palace
vs Shiteon is utterly cataclysmic in football terms –
I was let down by Monsewer Beare. My drinking buddy isn’t
getting any younger and last night he reached a new low
by getting in from work, consuming his evening meal and
falling asleep on the sofa. This left me to watch Magnum’s
gig at the Islington Academy without the aid of a beer
roadie. Unforgivable!
After seeing Trillium opening for Delain a few months
another prompt arrival had seemed mandatory. Kicking off
with the brilliant ‘Machine Gun’, the delectable,
golden-voiced Amanda Somerville (a solo artist, vocal
coach and collaborator of Avantasia, Kamelot, Epica, After
Forever and others) led her band through an effortlessly
classy display that pooled metal, pomp and pop into one
slinky, seductive whole. I’d love to see them headline
before too long!
Thanks to a nasty cold Bob Catley had been experiencing
some gremlins though he pulled through thanks to sheer
vocal power, gutsy determination and an ever-likable stage
presence. It was nice to see the headliners’ new
album ‘On The Thirteenth Day’ so well represented,
though personally I’d like to have heard ‘Let
It Rain’ in there somewhere. On the upside, the
‘Smoke On The Water’-gone-pomp of ‘See
How They Fall’ was a snug fit during the encores
and a return for ‘The Flood’ from ‘Sleepwalking’
was richly deserved (can we have ‘The Tall Ships’
next time please?). Meanwhile, Catley inadvertently made
Mark Stanway’s night by introducing ‘Vigilante’
as ‘Rockin’ Chair’; the keyboardist
laughed so much he almost tumbled off his rostrum. Here’s
the set-list: ‘All The Dreamers’, ‘When
We Were Younger’, ‘Blood Red Laughter’,
‘Wild Angels’, ‘Brand New Morning’,
‘How Far Jerusalem’, ‘The Flood’,
‘Les Morts Dansant’, ‘The Spirit’,
‘The Dance Of The Black Tattoo’, ‘All
My Bridges’, ‘All England’s Eyes’,
‘Vigilante’ and ‘Kingdom Of Madness’,
plus ‘See How They Fall’, ‘Rockin’
Chair’ and ‘Days Of No Trust’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 29th November
A finished copy of FM’s new nine-song EP,
‘Only Foolin’, has just tumbled onto the doormat.
With a playing time of 50 minutes, its AOR-esque reworking
of Ozzy’s ‘Shot In The Dark’, a song
that dates back to the pre-FM days as Wildlife, is surprisingly
cool. And five tracks from the Shepherd’s Bush Empire
gig back in March is a bit of a bonus!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 28th November
Crystal Palace’s away game at Hull happened
to coincide with a gig by the Electric Boys at the Underworld.
Handily, however, my eldest son Eddie did his best impression
of SSN’s Jeff Stelling, a steady flow of texts relaying
latest events at the KC Stadium and all possible permutations
from the evening’s other games. The final score
was 0-0 and by all accounts Palace were lucky to get zero,
though following the disappointment of the weekend’s
slip-up at Leeds the result at least steadies the ship.
It’s just a shame that Boro gained some ground.
My companion for the night was fellow CR writer Neil Jeffries,
who hadn’t seen the Electric Boys since back in
the day. Though I cannot concur with the sentiment, Neil
rates the group’s 2011 comeback disc ‘And
Them Boys Done Swang’ on a par with their now legendary
debut, ‘Funk-O-Metal Carpet Ride’. Sadly,
we headed for our respective homes united in belief that
the Swedes’ performance was below-par. It was one
of those nights; guitars suddenly detuned, which wasn’t
the group’s fault of course, but at times their
performance definitely felt a bit sloppy. Whether or not
this was due to a smaller than expected turnout I cannot
say, but that’s how it felt. Aside from the puzzling
omission of ‘Psychedelic Eyes’ the set-list
was pretty good, focusing mainly on the first and second
albums. Neil and I both raised an eyebrow and smiled quizzically
when the debut’s ‘Electrified’ was introduced
by an instrumental medley of Rush’s ‘Xanadu’
and ‘Tom Sawyer’ though for my money the overall
verdict of the show still remained in the file marked
‘Good’ and not ‘Great’. Here’s
what was played: ‘The House Is Rockin’’,
‘Angel In An Armoured Suit’, ‘Groovus
Maximus’, ‘Knee Deep In You’, ‘Mary
In The Mystery World’, ‘Tear It Up’,
‘Father Popcorn’s Magic Oysters’, ‘Electrified’,
‘Who Are You’, ‘Rags To Riches’,
‘Who Are You’, ‘Bad Motherfunker’
and ‘Freaky Funksters’, with an encore of
‘All Lips N’ Hips’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 27th November
Wow, that’s cool – Metal Hammer’s
Jonathan Selzer has sent a copy of the Alice Cooper boxed
set ‘Old School 1964-1974’ for review. This
is a four-disc budget version of a now out-of-print set
from last year that sold for a whopping £185. Now
available for around twenty-five notes, the condensed
edition retains most but not all of the original’s
unique features, including two discs of rarities (many
plundered from the personal archives of Alice, the Cooper
band, their road crew and even fans), a CD of interviews
and a bootleg-only live show from St Louis in ’71…
all housed in an a clever mini-school desk package. A
hefty sleeve essay from Lonn M Friend represents another
huge positive.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 26th November
I awoke earlier than usual to witness England
pick off India’s tail enders and score the 57 runs
necessary to secure a 10-wicket victory in the Second
Test. What a remarkable game of cricket. If only England
had seen fit to play their charismatic spin bowler Monty
Panesar, who picked up an impressive 11 scalps in the
context of game, in the massacre of Ahmedabad.
Several hours earlier I attended Greg Lake’s one-man
solo gig at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Lake conducted
it with such unexpected good grace (even the audience
Q&A) and turned out to be a terrific raconteur; for
me, it really nixed a few negative preconceptions of a
man that I’ve always assumed to be a bit surly and
egotistical. Playing and singing along to pre-recorded
backing tracks – it might sound cheap and nasty
on paper, but it worked – he ran through various
King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer/Powell and solo
tracks, as well as a selection of tunes that influenced
him as young musician. Although certain selections were
slightly truncated (King Crimson’s ‘21st Century
Schizoid Man’, ‘The Court Of The Crimson King’
and ‘Epitaph’, for example), it was great
to hear Lake singing ELP’s ‘Still… You
Turn Me On’ and ‘Lucky Man’ with such
fruity gusto. Could’ve lived without the Beatles
or Presley songs, but that’s just a matter of personal
taste. Here’s the full-song-list: ‘21st Century
Schizoid Man’, ‘Lend Your Love to Me Tonight’,
‘From The Beginning’, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’,
‘Epitaph The Court Of The Crimson King’, ‘I
Talk To The Wind’, ‘You’ve Got to Hide
Your Love Away’, ‘Touch And Go’, ‘Trilogy’,
‘Still... You Turn Me On’, Q&A Session
(including ‘I Believe In Father Christmas’),
‘Shakin’ All Over’, ‘C’est
La Vie’, ‘Lucky Man’ and ‘People
Get Ready’, followed by ‘Karn Evil 9: 1st
Impression, Part 2’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 25th November
Well, it had to happen – and it was equally
certain that Leeds would be the club responsible. Palace’s
14-game unbeaten run came to an end yesterday at Elland
Road. The final score was 2-1, though it’s worth
pointing out that the Eagles had a goal-bound shot blocked
on the line during injury time. Time tells us that the
Eagles rarely enjoy the upper hand over Leeds, an all
too rare recent exception being a priceless 1-0 victory
that helped to maintain the club’s Championship
status back in April 2011. Oh well, with next weekend’s
crucial showdown the Seaweed on its way, maybe it was
good to get a defeat out of the system.
Cardiff having taken over at the top of the league, I
felt a moral responsibility to go out and get completely
wankered. There was only one port of call: the Crobar.
And when that place called final orders, my partners in
booze Harj Kallah and Lauren Archer set our sights upon
a new target. “Let’s go to a casino,”
proposed Harj. It made perfect sense at the time. We soon
found ourselves at Leicester Square, outside the building
that used to known as the Hippodrome. As Lauren and I
pondered upon the best way of gaining access, Harj wasted
no such time, bowling right in past an astonished doorman.
“Excuse me sir, you can’t come in here,”
he protested, “I believe you are inebriated!”
No shit, Sherlock!
I arrived home at 5am, just in time to switch on the telly
and see Kevin Pietersen complete his century in the Second
Test against India. What a supremely disciplined innings
from a man with a reputation as a maverick. Well done
KP! Promptly fell asleep on the sofa…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 24th November
I was a little bit underwhelmed by Monster Magnet’s
‘Spine Of God’-themed show at the Electric
Ballroom. Almost exactly a year had passed since Dave
Wyndorf and company revisited the US band’s 1995
album ‘Dopes To Infinity’ with a spectacular
sell-out gig at London’s Koko. Although now regarded
as an early space/stoner rock benchmark, the bonkers ‘Spine
Of God’ is a considerably more demanding release.
Don’t misunderstand me, the show contained some
great moments but was somewhat light on what you might
call crowd-pleasing delicacies. Whereas ‘Dopes To
Infinity’ offered at least one hit of sorts in the
shape of ‘Negasonic Teenage Warhead’, with
the band stretching things out to Herculean lengths –
the album’s title cut was extended to include a
segment of Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’
– the nearest we got to an actual short, sharp shock
was ‘Snake Dance’, with its sample lyric of:
“Go go go/Yeah baby smoke them bones/Go go go/I'm
so fucking stoned”. When Wyndorf strapped on his
own guitar there were three axes blazing, but for non-diehards
such as myself the music’s sluggishness and density
gradually began to feel more and more oppressive, the
atmosphere inside the Electric Ballroom sagging appreciably
once a gladiatorial welcome had subsided.
Posters for the show had promised ‘Spine Of God’
“plus the hits”. This was to prove misleading,
the bulk of a five-song encore being culled from various
slightly obscure EPs. Though not exactly a ‘hit’
per se the comedy classic ‘Tractor’, a track
from ‘Powertrip’ that repeated the line “I’m
driving the tractor on the drug farm… alright!”,
briefly roused those of a less partisan disposition. Indeed,
as the acoustic subtleties of ‘Lord 13’ were
drowned out by the annoying hum of chit-chat that now
seems to be a tragic prerequisite during the quieter moments
of most rock gigs, the euphoria of that Koko show suddenly
felt very, very far away indeed.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 23rd November
There ain’t too many bands whose singer
can bellow a greeting of “Hello ladies and lady-boys!”
without threat of retribution. Then again there are very,
very few groups like Turbonegro, the Norwegians professed
to restoring homoeroticism to rock ‘n’ roll.
Now fronted by an Englishman, former Dukes Of Nothing
man-mountain Tony Sylvester, last night Turbonegro rolled
into Camden for a lively and engaging show at the Electric
Ballroom – a first appearance here in the capital
for seven long years.
Their debut with Sylvester on vocals, ‘Sexual Harassment’
is among my fave albums of 2012 – think Motörhead,
Black Flag, the Ramones, Iggy & The Stooges, vintage
Alice Cooper and (appropriately) AC/DC. Wisely, they elected
to play just about all of said opus during the show’s
first half before digging deeper into a nine-album catalogue.
Truth told I felt somewhat naked without an obligatory
little white sailor’s hat or a denim cut-off embossed
with the words ‘Turbojugend Catford’ (or equivalent)
that most of the crowd seemed to be sporting, but it was
hard to resist the band’s excellent music or indeed
their raucous sense of humour; Sylvester didn’t
even bat an eyelid when he was introduced to as “the
lovechild of Arthur Scargill, Benny Hill and Jimmy Savile”.
His drug-addled predecessor Hank von Helvete is long gone
and it’s great that the band seem intent upon dwelling
in there here and now. It can only be a matter of time
before the entire world realises why Turbonegro’s
celebrity fans including Dave Grohl, Nick Oliveri, James
Hetfield, Mike Patton and Jello Biafra adore the band
the way the do. Meanwhile, here’s the set-list:
‘Hello Darkness’, ‘All My Friends Are
Dead’, ‘Mister Sister’, ‘I Got
A Knife’, ‘You Give Me Worms’, ‘T.N.A.
(The Nihilistic Army)’, ‘Shake Your Shit Machine’,
‘Buried Alive’, ‘Dude Without A Face’,
‘Deathtime’, ‘Wasted Again’, ‘We’re
Gonna Drop The Atom Bomb’, ‘Fuck The World’,
‘Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed’ and ‘Get
it On’, with encores of ‘The Age of Pamparius’,
‘Back To Dungaree High’, ‘Denim Demon’,
‘Are You Ready (For Some Darkness)’, ‘I
Got Erection’ and a cover of Pere Ubu’s ‘Final
Solution’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 22nd November
Just received my copy of the Classic Rock fan
pack edition of Rick Wakeman’s long awaited studio
version of ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’.
An official 132-page magazine accompanies this brand new
recording. It features personal pics from Rick’s
own archive, a detailed interview about the original album
and its sequel, a replica of the original official programme
sold at the Royal Festival Hall on January 18th, 1974,
and a poster, plus various other Wakeman-themed delights
(some it penned by yours truly, but don’t let that
put you off!). Another first-rate editing job by Philip
Wilding. FM’s Jem Davis also seems to have his own
copy, he just wrote on my Facebook wall: “One V
happy keyboard player, where’s me cape : )”.
Order it here.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 21st November
Yikes! Have I really been going to see Doro Pesch
since the summer of 1985, when the diminutive German debuted
on these shores as a member of Warlock? Not too far off
the big Five-O, Pesch, whose main claim to fame is having
been the first woman performer at the Castle Donington
Monsters Of Rock festivals, is still going strong with
a new album entitled ‘Raise Your Fist’. Last
night at the Garage she didn’t force its contents
down the audience’s collective throat, though the
Ronnie James Dio-inspired ‘Hero’ was one of
the evening’s most impressive selections.
Around half of the show was culled from Doro’s tenure
with Warlock. Its two low points were the toe-curlingly
awful ‘Metal Tango’ (cringe!) and a lengthy
drum solo from Johnny Dee. The former Britny Foxx/Waysted
man has had one of the best jobs in rock ‘n’
roll for the last 19 years – c’mon fellas,
how many of you would turn down the chance of gazing out
at Ms Pesch’s shapely, leather-clad derriere night
after night? – there was absolutely no need to rub
salt into the wound.
All joking aside… Doro enjoys a touchingly close
relationship with her audience, and a combination of fist-punching
metal anthems and occasional more sophisticated moments
such as ‘Für Immer’ and ‘Love Me
In Black’, for which one, sometimes even two keyboard
players were utilised, ensured that this was a great show.
The set-list ran as follows: ‘I Rule The Ruins’,
‘Burning The Witches’, ‘Fight For Rock’,
‘Night Of The Warlock’, ‘Hellbound’,
‘True As Steel’, ‘Raise Your Fists In
The Air’, ‘Für Immer’, ‘Metal
Racer’, ‘Earthshaker Rock’, ‘Drum
Solo’, ‘Earthshaker Rock (Reprise)’,
‘We Are The Metalheads’, ‘Revenge’,
‘Metal Tango’, ‘Hero’, ‘Breaking
The Law’ and ‘All We Are’, followed
by ‘Love Me In Black and ‘East Meets West’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 20th November
Better late than never, I’m *really* enjoying
Steve Hackett’s ‘Genesis Revisited 2’,
with an illustrious guest cast that includes Steven Wilson,
Mikael Åkerfeldt, Francis Dunnery, John Wetton,
Steve Rothery, Neal Morse... wondrous! In fact, I wish
I’d got it in time to have included in my end of
year Top 20 for Prog Magazine. Its glaring omission makes
me look a bit of a plum.
Here’s a nice YouTube
chat between my old buddy Steve Price of ARfm Radio
and FM drummer Pete Jupp which sheds light on the latter’s
new EP ‘Only Foolin’’, also the release
of a new studio album entitled ‘Rockville’
which drops in time for their eight-date UK tour in March.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 19th November
Ooooh, look – more Frantic Four reunion
dates!! Added shows in Manchester, Wolverhampton and Glasgow
and an extra London gig at Wembley Arena. Tickets for
the first batch of shows sold in less than an hour! Wonderful
news…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 18th November
Could Crystal Palace extend their remarkable
unbeaten run to 14 games with yesterday’s home clash
against Derby County, thus remaining top of the league?
Indeed they could! Comfortably so, in fact… by three
goals to nil.
After the final whistle blew I grabbed a couple of quick
drinkies with Kev Denman and his son Jack before boarding
a Brixton-bound bus. Managed to sink a few more cold ’uns
before heading into the Academy in time for Anthrax’s
warm-up set. Although Charlie Benante was taking a leave
of absence from the current bout of touring Jon Dette
(ex-Slayer, Testament) did a creditable stand-in job.
Allotted 60 minutes, the New Yorkers featured just two
selections (‘Fight ’Em Till You Can’t’
and ‘Hymn 1’) from their current release,
‘Worship Music’, concentrating instead on
a neck-snapping selection of golden oldies (‘Caught
In A Mosh’, their cover of Trust’s ‘Antisocial’,
‘Indians’, ‘Madhouse’, ‘Got
The Time’ (originally by Joe Jackson), ‘Be
All End All’ and a sweat-sodden ‘I Am The
Law’). I thought they were great.
An extremely long day’s supping began to catch up
on me as Motörhead began their headline display.
Along the way there were one or two pleasant surprises
– notably ‘I know How To Die’ from ‘The
Wörld Is Yours’ and an encore cover of Thin
Lizzy’s ‘Are You Ready’ – but
I’m getting pretty tired of hearing ‘Metropolis’,
‘Going To Brazil’ and ‘Dr Rock’
year after year, tour after tour. When one considers the
depth and quality of the group’s catalogue it’s
becoming bleedin’ repetitive and something really
needs to be done to freshen things up.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 17th November
Strops, raised voices, slammed doors, threats
and unpleasantness… strewth! After an exceptionally
stressful day and evening here at Ling Towers, last night’s
unplugged gig from the mighty Opeth was exactly what the
doctor ordered. Thanks to its strict volume limit (I’m
pretty sure the place is equipped with a device that cuts
out the sound at a certain point), Union Chapel isn’t
the greatest of London venues at which to witness a rock
or metal band but it’s perfect for these quieter,
more understated performances.
Special guests Anathema also got into the less-is-more
spirit. Strumming at acoustic guitarists, Vincent and
Danny Cavanagh held the show together for 40 minutes as
band-mates Lee Douglas and Daniel Cardoso wandered on
and off, contributing occasional vocal and keyboard parts.
Shimmering versions of ‘Dreaming Light’ and
‘Untouchable, Part 2’, from 2010’s ‘We’re
Here Because We’re Here’ and the current ‘Weather
Systems’, were lovely… just lovely. Hard to
say more than that, really.
This was the first unplugged performance of Opeth’s
current European tour, which sees them flitting from the
usual electric format to a more intimate, stripped-down
state. Several of the night’s songs had never been
performed live before or had been hastily rearranged.
Band leader Mikael Åkerfeldt, who has a wonderfully
droll and self-deprecating sense of humour, was once again
at his finest. “We’re throwing ourselves off
a cliff here but it might be fun,” he observed playfully
at the start, reiterating: “We really don’t
know what we’re doing up here tonight.” The
inclusion of two covers versions, the former by a Swedish
group called Hansson de Wolfe United, the latter a Black
Sabbath classic, might well have spelled disaster. Despite
Åkerfeldt’s apparent apathy – “People
are just gonna say that Pantera’s version was better,”
he mused – the low-ley ‘Solitude’ from
‘Master Of Reality’ was perfectly suited to
the evening’s overall dignity. “That was different,
wasn’t it?” he grinned again after a radical
reworking of ‘Demon Of The Fall’, before deadpanning:
“‘Different’ is just another word for
‘shit’, though, isn’t it?” In
fact Opeth seemed to thrive on the pressure and by the
end of the encore-less, 80-minute display actually appeared
to be having fun. Here’s what they played: ‘Heritage’,
‘Credence’, ‘In My Time Of Need’,
‘Häxprocess’, ‘Var Kommer Barnen
In’, ‘Solitude’, ‘Benighted’,
‘Demon Of The Fall’, ‘Hope Leaves’,
‘Atonement’ and ‘Marrow Of The Earth’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 16th November
The arrival of a finished copy of something that
you’ve worked closely upon – be it a magazine,
a CD or just about anything – brings a sense of
satisfaction. Having received some kind and positive emails,
it was great to lay my hands upon ‘All Right Now
– The Collection’, a 19-song budget anthology
of the band Free that I was asked to compile for Universal
Records. I also penned a short sleeve
essay for it, too. Wow – it looks and sounds
great! I believe it can be bought in Tesco stores for
around three quid… now that’s what I call
a bargain!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 15th November
Double disappointment… triple, in fact,
should you factor in the fact that I missed a gig by ex-The
Scream/Mötley Crüe/Union singer John Corabi
in order to watch England’s televised friendly with
Sweden. Thanks to four goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic,
the last of which was truly unbelievable, the home side
won by four goals to two. Personally speaking I thought
the result flattered the home side, the game’s outcome
changing as result of multiple substitutions. Palace’s
wonder-kid Wilf Zaha was among the six second-half introductions
from the bench, but to have brought him on with just five
minutes to go…?! What a waste of everybody’s
time. On the plus side, however, we might get another
million for him on the sad (but inevitable) day that Wilf
elects to leave the club.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 14th November
May I present a few of the more surreal moments
from last night’s Classic Rock awards, which took
place at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm? 1) Alan Lancaster
suggesting that the Frantic Four conduct a nude photo-session.
2) Talking to Vic Reeves about the comedian’s love
of Rival Sons. 3) Meeting fellow Crystal Palace fan Captain
Sensible and finding out that he has a season ticket in
the Arthur Wait stand because “it can get a bit
rowdy” on the Holmesdale, where Eddie and I have
ours (this from a member of The Damned, remember). And
4) Ross Halfin being nice to me. No, I didn’t make
up that last one!
Earlier that morning the pre-sales of the Frantic Four
reunion had sold out in ten minutes flat, and as we sat
together in the North London venue’s bar it was
wonderful to see Francis, Rick, Alan and John so comfortable,
happy and confident in one another’s company, hooting
at jokes from many moons ago. Don’t be surprised
if extra dates are added to the UK
schedule or, should the March gigs go to according
to plan, they decide to play some shows quite a lot further
afield.
The awards were bigger than ever before. Previously I’ve
handled all of the backstage acceptance interviews –
i.e. grabbing the winners as they come offstage and getting
reactions before they are released onto the red carpet
for the paparazzi and radio/TV bods – but this year
that responsibility was carved up among various different
writers. I was quite happy to do less of the chasing around
and actually catch a bit more of the event than usual.
I even got to watch some of the live music from Lynyrd
Skynyrd and St Jude among others. One by one my tape recorder
was thrust under the noses of Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top,
whose band were honoured as 2012’s Living Legends,
Russ Ballard (hailed as Classic Songwriter), Roger Chapman
(who took home Family’s very first award –
Spirit Of Prog), and I reacquainted myself with members
of the Frantic Four, who had won the Classic Album category
for the seminal ‘Live!’ album. Michael Brown
of Tracer, the Aussies who had been anointed Best New
Band, was a bit like a rabbit in the headlights but seemed
like a lovely fella. Hanging around at the night’s
end to get a few words from Billy G, who had insisted
upon remaining at his table to watch Skynyrd and was then
surrounded by hordes of well-wishers, I later calculated
that I was in the Roundhouse for a full 12 hours. That
meant taking a night bus home, but overall it was a wonderful
if slightly draining experience…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 13th November
I enjoyed a few pints with my friend Monsewer
Beare during Lynyrd Skynyrd’s gig at Shepherd’s
Bush Empire… not too many but just enough to take
the edge off our emotions. Andy has a nasty funeral too
attend in a few days, which along with my own feelings
for my much-missed Mum (RIP) made ‘Free Bird’
quite a lot more emotive than usual, and I was also slightly
nervous at the idea of facing the Frantic Four for an
interview set to take place before this evening’s
Classic Rock Awards.
Having opened for Skynyrd on the latter’s last UK
tour back in June, Red White & Blues were once again
invited to perform warm-up duties. Great credit goes to
the headliners for allowing them what seemed like full
access to both lights and sound. As their 30-minute set
progressed, the muscular power ballad ‘Counts For
Nothing’ setting many on the band’s side,
the audience really got into proceedings, allowing themselves
to be cajoled into singing along with the choruses. Matti
Alfonzetti remains one of the best lead singers outside
of hard rock’s Premier league elite… is it
too romantic a notion to hope that maybe someday (like
the mighty Eagles??!!) he will get another shot?
My wish to hear some brand new material from the mighty
Skynyrd was destined to come true, the excellent ‘Good
Teacher’ one of three tracks lifted from the brilliant
current album ‘Last Of A Dyin’ Breed’.
The amazing 95-minute show ran as follows: ‘Last
Of A Dyin’ Breed’, ‘What’s Your
Name?’, ‘Down South Jukin’’, ‘That
Smell’, ‘Saturday Night Special’, ‘One
Day At A Time’, ‘I Know A Little, ‘Simple
Man’, Medley: ‘Gimme Back My Bullets’/
‘Whiskey Rock A-Roller’/‘The Needle
And The Spoon’/‘Tuesday’s Gone’,
‘Good Teacher’, ‘Gimme Three Steps’,
‘Call Me The Breeze’ and ‘Sweet Home
Alabama’, followed by the timeless ‘Free Bird’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 12th November
Bah! I was looking forward to seeing last night’s
gig from Uli Jon Roth at the Purple Turtle in Camden till
the receipt of a text informing me that it wouldn’t
be happening after all. Oh well, at least I didn’t
have to make a wasted journey across town on the worst
night of the week…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 10th November
Holloway's Red & Blue Army!! My beloved Crystal
Palace have returned to top of the league with two dramatic
late goals during yesterday’s game at Peterborough
United! Take that, Fergiesbum, you Son Of The Devil…
P.S. A Stato writes: the result marked the Eagles’
13th game unbeaten, with 33 points collected from a possible
tally of 39. Palace last lost a league game back in August.
It’s the club’s best start to a season in
37 years! Now where did I put that bottle opener??!!
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Saturday 9th November
Attention my fellow South London blues fans:
Last night I found a deserted venue in Catford called
the Cyphers Music Bar where I saw a great l’il four-piece
combo called BluesMix.
Admission was free, and in addition to some strong original
tunes they also played covers by Howlin’ Wolf (‘Worried
About My Baby’, ‘Smokestack Lightnin’’
and ‘Howlin’ For My Darling’), Albert
Collins (‘Black Cat Bone’) and T-Bone Walker
(‘T-Bone Shuffle’) among others. Met them
in the bar during the interval and happened to mention
my love of the Allman Brothers Band so for my benefit
the band threw in ‘One Way Out’, the Elmore
James standard from ‘Eat A Peach’. An unexpectedly
great night! And a short walk home!
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Thursday 8th November
Since the release of an excellent self-titled
debut back in May, also a rather cool feature that appeared
in Issue #1 of Classic Rock Present Blues, I’d been
dying to take a look a the Royal
Southern Brotherhood. Well, last night the five-piece
band, based around Gregg Allman’s 40-year-old son
Devon on guitar, played in London as part of their first
European tour. They’ll have been slightly disappointed
by the turnout at the Jazz Café in Camden, but
boy… what a great show. I was lucky enough to have
sat in the venue’s top bar eating a tasty meal as
they ran through most of the album’s songs, including
a spellbinding 15-minute jam of its take on the Grateful
Dead’s ‘Fire On The Mountain’. As an
ABB devotee I dug out a fabbo tie-dye garment that I bought
when I saw the Brothers performing at the Greek Theatre
in LA in 1995… one of my all-time favourite gigs.
Anyway, I digress… RSB will be back in the UK next
year again after the release of an in-concert DVD and
some solo albums. Believe me – they’re well
worth checking out.
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Wednesday 7th November
As Mick Box might say: “Happppppy dayzzzz!”
Crystal Palace are now on top of the Championship after
last night’s 5-0 annihilation of Ipswich Town. What
a fantastic evening. 15,517 fans and a wonderful atmosphere
beneath the Selhurst Park floodlights. I had to laugh
when Brazilian midfielder André Moritz came on
as a sub after Glenn Murray completed his hat-trick to
a playful roar of: “Get Moritz, get Moritz out,
get Moritz out for the lads!” Great times to be
an Eagle.
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Tuesday 6th November
If Nightwish don’t make Floor Jansen their
singer on a full time basis after last night’s triumphant
gig at Brixton Academy then they are a bunch of idiotic
plums. Tarja Turunen has said that the only way she would
consider returning is if all of the band and its management
was changed, which I thought a pretty hilarious comment,
but with Floor on board permanently they wouldn’t
need her. The contrast between the Finnish group’s
last Brixton show in March 09, with Anette Olzon failing
badly, was little short of resounding.
The hiring of ex-After Forever/current ReVamp singer Floor
Jansen, until the end of the band’s current touring
plans, is a masterstroke. The Amazonian Dutchwoman sounded
and looked perfectly at home, delivering material from
all stages of Nightwish’s career, even singing ‘Amaranth’,
originally voiced by Olzon, with all of Turunen’s
operatic gusto. Her voice also meshed brilliantly with
that of Marco Hietala, the bearded bassist who handles
all the gruffer parts, leaving band leader Tuomas Holopainen
to smile his approval from a bizarre-looking keyboard
contraption that suggested a cross between church organ,
coral reef and the Batmobile. When Floor nailed the final
high note at the end of ‘Ghost Love Score’,
the epic track from 2004’s ‘Once’, the
Academy bellowed its approval.
Afterwards there were a few minor moans about an acoustic
mid-section that surprisingly housed the hit ‘Nemo’,
and of course the usual grumbles were voiced about a perceived
reliance upon pre-recorded orchestras and choirs (yawn,
yawn, yawn…), but from my own perspective the show
was about as close to perfect as you can get. So much
so that I’m gonna go back for another listen to
Nightwish’s new conceptual album, ‘Imaginaerum’,
which I’ve found pretty impenetrable till now. Anyway,
the set-list ran as follows: ‘Storytime’,
‘Dark Chest Of Wonders’, ‘Wish I Had
An Angel’, ‘Amaranth’, ‘Scaretale’,
‘Slow, Love, Slow’, ‘I Want My Tears
Back’, ‘The Islander’, ‘Nemo’,
‘Last Of The Wilds’, ‘Planet Hell’,
‘Ghost River’, ‘Ever Dream’, ‘Over
The Hills And Far Away’, ‘Ghost Love Score’
and ‘Last Ride Of The Day’.
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Monday 5th November
Last night was spent at the Borderline watching
Vega, one of the best relatively new acts around. What
a great little set! Their new song ‘White Knuckle
Ride’ is gonna be buzzing round in my head again
for days to come… bastards! We were treated to quite
a few selections from a forthcoming second album entitled
‘What The Hell’ that drops in January and
many road-hardened tunes from their highly regarded 2010
debut, ‘Kiss Of Life’ (viz ‘Kiss Of
Life’ itself, ‘Stay With Me’, ‘SOS’,
‘Hearts Of Glass’, ‘Headlights’
and an encore of ‘Into The Wild’). I’ve
been privileged to receive an upfront listen to ‘What
The Hell’ and can report that it sees the British
band taking more chances than ever before, whilst maintaining
a firm grip on the hook-infused hard rock that makes them
so special. ‘Not There For You’, ‘Bless
My Soul’, future crowd favourite ‘Hands In
The Air’ and its highly rhythmic title cut all work
exceptionally well onstage. If Vega play their cards right
then 2013 could be a very special year.
In the morning I defied the rain to visit the Orpington
Record Fair. Picked up a copy of an album I’d never
seen this before – ‘Now Hear This’ by
Status Quo... basically a re-titled US version of ‘Whatever
You Want’, complete with revised sleeve artwork
and running order. Well worth a quid! Also purchased mint
vinyl editions of Roger Chapman & The Shortlist’s
‘Live In Hamburg’ and a Jimmy Buffett that
I didn’t have (‘A1A’ from 1974).
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 4th November
How Dougie Freedman must be regretting his decision
to walk away from Crystal Palace, who yesterday extended
their unbeaten run to 11 games (yes, ELEVEN!) with a convincing
2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers, with new boss Ian Holloway
looking on contentedly from the director’s box.
Amazing stuff. Long may it continue!!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 3rd November
Well, that was the toughest secret that I’ve
ever had to keep but the news of Status Quo’s ‘frantic
four’ reunion tour is finally out there in the public
domain and there are some pretty excited folks over at
the group’s message board. My exclusive interview
with all four band members appears in the issue of Classic
Rock dated November 6. When Rick Parfitt told me that
the ‘Live’ album from the Glasgow Apollo “will
be the template of the set” I swear I almost soiled
my underwear. A précis of the story from the Classic
Rock website is here.
P.S. Can I have a season ticket please, guys?
Oh, and look, just as Eddie and I prepare to leave for
Selhurst Park to see Palace’s game against Ipswich
the club have confirmed Ian Holloway has signed a four-and-a-half-deal
to fill the manager’s chair. I feel a bit of a cider
frenzy coming on…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 2nd November
Sky Sports News say that Crystal Palace are in
“advanced talks” with Blackpool boss Ian Holloway
over the club’s managerial vacancy… wow, what
a coup that would be! In fact, co-chairman Steve Parish
has just told reporters he is “confident”
of landing the ex-QPR, Plymouth, Bristol Rovers and Leicester
manager, who loves to play the game as it’s intended
and gives the best post-match press conferences in the
business. All footie fans will have their own fave Ollie
pearl. Mine came in the wake of a particularly unlucky
game when he pronounced: “If I fell into a barrel
of boobs, I’d come out sucking my thumb!”
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Thursday 1st November
A nice day’s work lays ahead with the transcription
of an interview with Sir Steve of Overland of the mighty
FM. Always a pleasure and never a chore. Meanwhile, I’ve
found the time to update the Playlist
and YouTube pages.
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