Face Of Cheam

Motely Crue provided the most profanity I have heard on stage. Between everysong we were called motherfu...rs and even Tommy Lee typical conversation was "I love fu..ing London, today I went for a fu..ing Walk and it was fu..ing nice weather you motherfu..ers". Still enjoyable especially Girls Girls Girls and set ender Kickstart My Heart, with an upside down drum solo earlier on. Tommy Lee goes round on a large ferris wheel and hangs upside down - youtube it if you're interested. Def took their US stadium show and transferred it perfectly to an Arena. The second half of the set they could not put a foot wrong, Armageddon It, Hysteria, Animal, Photograph and Pour Some Sugar, it is impossible not to enjoy.

Went to this solely because Quo hadn't played the O2 before. Surprisingly full except the upper tiers thoughts were similar to Brighton. Francis messed up the words to Paper Plane but still a rockin first half. Again should have left at the encore break.

Memo to self - don't go to Christmas Shows expecting a classic set.

We're the Kids In America wo-oh! Was the best song of the evening, the last in a short Kim Wilde set full of hits such as Cambodia & You Came. Elongated version too, something Bryan Adams could learn from (Summer obviously!). Roy Wood came on did a hits set of Blackbury Way, Flowers In The Rain, See My Baby Jive and obviously I wish It Could Be Christmas and was enjoyable. Quo did a good first half, enough to forgive them for playing the Wanderer, and songs like Paper Plane, Big Fat Mama and the more receny Beginning Of The End were heavy boogie tracks respectable of any rock band on the planet. The encore however was appalling. The irish jig nonsense of Burning Bridges is not my cup of tea but I appreciate some of the audience do enjoy it. However afterwards songsheets came out on a stand and with Kim & Roy in tow an awful medley of Winter Wonderland and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town was played, the latter making the Springsteen version sounding like a classic.

Celebrating 20 years since Waking Up The Neighbours this should have been a lot better than it actually was. I was fortuanate enough to see Bryan at his live peak between 87 & 94 where simply the shows were awesome. Unfortuanately here he got the setlist and versions of songs wrong. For some reason Summer of 69 is played far too early, versions of Hey Honey and Is Your Mama Gonna Miss Ya are played acoustically with a Micky Curry pots and pans solo. And again there are too many ballads. Possibly the most annoying thing however, was that he has lost his hardcore crowd. Not many people sand the first load of Nanananas in Cuts Like A Knife and only five people I could see were clapping in the solo of Run To You. Previously it would have been a whole stadium. He obviously won't return to his peak, but when he played Hearts On Fire and There Will Never Be Another Tonight the potential is there to do much better gigs in the future.

First British date of their tour on a Monday at the excellent Brighton Ceentre. After a mini crawl of the Pull & Pump, The Prince of Wales with Oranjeboom on tap, and two irish pubs near the venue including the friendly barmaid in the Fiddlers Elbow I find the venue to be scaffolded up and a mellee to get in a small entrance on the side. After this debacle I get to an appropiate place on the left hand side of the arena. Here Kasabian, entertained though probably not as electrifying as the last couple of times, purely because the new material fell a little flat and was not as high paced as some of the classics such as Shoot The Runner. Covered in lots of beer when a good 'un was played such as Club Foot. LSF which strangely was short and not the set closer and was replaced with the now classic Fire. Not quite as good as before but still one of the best live acts round today.

For the 20th anniversary of Freddie Mercury's passing, this was an evening of Queen music with a couple of coves thrown in such as Chris Thompson singing Blinded By The Light and the whole ensemble singing With A Little Help From My Friends at the end. Brian May turned up for the first three songs including Tie Your Mother Down which he did an hour or so later with The Darkness a few miles away in Hammersmith.

Excellent Who covers band play in the back room of a pub that is being refurbished. Worth going to purely for the Keith Moon type drummer.

Great acoutic show. Eddie Macdonald (founder member of the Alarm with Mike Peters) joined in for the encore with the Spandau Ballet guitarist also on stage for the last two songs (Cover of Wile Nile & Bob Dylan)

Set 1 - Shout To The Devil / Unsafe Building / Another Country / Hardland / The Wasting Land / This Is The Way We Are / The Day The Ravens Left The Tower / Higher Call / Walk Forever By My Side
Set 2 - Breathe / The Stand / A New South Wales / Drunk And Disorderly / Peace Agreement / In A Big Country / Into The Valley / Majority / Spirit Of 76 / Rescue Me / Without A Fight / 68 Guns ////// For Freedom / Knife Edge / Blaze Of Glory / One Guitar / Knocking On Heavens Door

Quite who decided that this would be on the same day as England Sweden at the stadium must be an idiot. Over twenty years since Roxette last played this venue it was surprisingly packed. Due to her illness Marie Frediksson isn't as mobile as she was but vocally she was spot on. A greatest hits set ensued and a great time was had.

Weekend of goth rock continued on the Sunday with my first view of Die So Fluid. Caught the last couple of songs from the support Attica Rage who were much more melodic than the name suggests.
The headliners didn't get off to the best start as front woman Grog slipped an fell on her arse when walking onto the stage. They recovered quickly however and played a selection form their three albums, all similar sounding dark guitar type riffs. A good energetic show.

Alas we missed the first two songs of the excellent Pretty Reckless but were treated to a White Stripes cover of ooh bobby zamora (Seven Nation Army) Taylor Momsen was looking as fit as ever.
Hadn't seen Amy Lee's Evanescence before and was quite impressed. Obvoiusly a show based on a bigger venue there were plenty of lights with the typical goth rock you'd expect. There was a nice solo piano section in the middle of the set with Amy dedicating Lithium to her husband. Bring Me to Life was played just before the encore and the show ended in time for us to get to Bootsy Brogans for a couple of snakey Bs.