Face Of Cheam

Hammersmith Odeon is legendary. Unfortunately it has been called the Apollo for some years now and although the house beers are Tuborg and Red Stripe, they are a hideously expensive £3.85 a pint and having started the evening in there at the early time of seven thirty it meant an expensive night. The reason we were here so early was of course for a gig. Journey are a rock band I had heard of but not known much about besides a virtuoso Neil Schon is their guitarist. However, as the show was seated and the opportunity was there to buy front row seats we felt we’d give them a go. A listen of the greatest hits CD justified the decision and I was looking forward to it. However, better was to come as on the day we found out that John Parr of St Elmos Fire fame was to support. I only really know that song (albeit one of the all time classics), or so I thought. One of the early songs was ‘Naughty Naughty’ which was the unsuccessful follow up. At this stage things could have gone horribly wring with John Parr moaning that the house music had been left on and screaming at the mixing desk to turn it off. Things didn’t get better when the roadie had plugged his guitar into the wrong lead and did not remove a stool at an appropriate juncture. How things got better with the song ‘Under A Raging Moon’ written for Roger Daltrey and being a big Daltrey fan I knew every word. However, even more recognisable was ‘You’re The Best A Man Can Get’ a song including the jingle from the Gillette adverts. After a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’ including a snippet of ‘Walk This Way’ he ended with the Man In Motion song itself which is brilliant. All in all a great unexpected half hour.
Journey, have recently changed lead singer who is Malaysian. Given the counterparts in the audience you could be sceptical as to the reason he was chosen was the same reason Park plays for United. However, he actually was very good, with a vocal range that was impressive and there was no doubting his enthusiasm as he bounced his way from side to side of the stage, even shaking my hand during ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ which is an American karoke classic, which I know from its use in Family Guy. They ended with ‘Anyway You Want It’ a song I first heard in The Simpsons (Mr Burns son episode for like minded geeks). All in all a good evening out for a band I knew little about when we booked up.
Finally we ended the evening in Hammersmiths ‘Distillers’ pub, which despite being a Tuesday was open till midnight with no rush to herd people out, a rarity these days midweek for pubs.