News and Reviews: 29th September 2004

28 Sept 2004 Ray Davies And His Band , The Bloomsbury Theatre ,London. First of 5 London gigs to celebrate 40 years since "You Really Got Me " was released by this songwriting legend . A 2 hour set of acoustic and electric songs that mainly have North London in the 1960s as their common theme. Rare songs from "Village Green Preservation Society" were played near the start and there were plenty of classics like "Sunny Afternoon" "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" "Tired Of Waiting For You ""All Day And All Of The Night "and of course "You Really Got Me ". Great encore of "Waterloo Sunset " "Thank You For The Days " and "Lola " and parted by saying we will be changing the set by a couple of songs each night . Lots of little stories as well made it a good show. 24 Sept 2004 Fender Strat Guitar 50th Birthday Concert ,Wembley Arena ,London. Massive event featuring a dozen well known guitarists.Superb backdrop with a dozen giant Fender guitars either side of the stage and a huge video screen that has clips of Fender players not here tonight inc Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt and some great old footage of Rory Gallagher in between breaks. First up is Buddy Hollys band The Crickets who are joined by Brian May and Alvin Lee for a pair of songs before Ronnie Wood comes on and joins them for "That'll Be The Day".Hank Marvin does a few instrumental tunes that have his great guitar sound.Mike Rutherford and Paul Carrack featured "How Long" and "I Cant Dance" in their 4 songs. Gary Moore is the first to really play proper rock guitar solos and goes down really well. After the interval a couple of youngsters Jamie Cullum and Amy Winehouse try to get involved but not many are interested . This is a concert by old codgers for old codgers. Paul Rodgers does a great "All Right Now " and " Cant Get Enough " but for some reason has to bring his son and daughter on to play a track from their album . Joe Walsh does 4 really good songs inc "Lifes Been Good " "Life In The Fast Lane " and a mega "Rocky Mountain Way " .Dave Gilmour brings on his rare and battered 1954 Fender serial number 0001 to play pristine and stunning versions of Pink Floyds "Coming Back To Life " "Shining Light " and " Division Bell " that get the most cheers of the evening. Ronnie Wood comes on for " I Wish I Knew " and "Stay With Me " and everyone comes on stage and does a short solo which was great fun. The show lasted for 3 and a half hours and had a couple of duff momemts but overall it was a very good event. See aftershow section for this gig too. 23 Sept 2004 Dead Men Walking ,The Anvil , Basingstoke. Hardly a proper rock n roll venue but its nice to have cosy seating every now and then. DMW back again for their annual month long tour of the UK .A stella star line up feat Glen Matlock on bass ,Slim Jim Phantoum on drums and Mike Peters ,Kirk Brandon and Bruce Watson on guitars. A near 2 hours set of their best hits mixed in with new material this was a great night out as always. So many classic songs "Spirit Of 76 " "Burning Sounds" "Rumble In Brighton" "Chance " "Westworld " "Rock This Town""God Save The Queen""Rescue Me " "In A Big Country " "45rpm" "Runaway Boys" "Stray Cat Strut " and rockin encores of "Pretty Vacant" and "Steppin Stone" . If the tour comes to your town you really have to go along. as its a great night out. 21 Sept 2004 Tom Jones With Jools Holland And The R n B Orchestra ,Hammersmith Palais ,London. This was an invite only show for 1500 comp winners and guests of Radio 2 .Tom and Jools have an album of covers out paying homage to Jerry Lee Lewis , Soloman Burke and other country ,rnb and blues acts. Jools is a great piano player and Tom can make any song sound fantastic.Only well known Tom Jones track played was "Green Green Grass Of Home " . Plenty of good time boogie woogie covers played. Rockin versions of "Great Balls Of Fire ' and "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On " got the crowd dancing and it was an enjoyable 90 mins set. 19 Sept 2004 Tickled Pink Concert For Breast Cancer, Royal Albert Hall ,London.Big colourful event with the stars being picked up and dropped at the venue by a pink cadilac and a pink rolls royce before the show to be paraded down a "pink carpet" for loads of photographers. Most of the girlie crowd are dressed in shades of pink and it looks like half of sponsors Asdas check out girls are here .Nine music acts did a couple of songs each and 3 very good comedy acts did a turn .There were a few boos when news broke that headliner George Micheal had pulled out due to an attack of laryngitis .Darius did " Colourblind " Rachel Stevens did "LAX " in a lovely oufit .Natasha Bedingfield and Beverley Knight both have got great voices.Tom Jones And Jools Holland got the crowd dancing to a couple of boogie woogie cover versions as 20 pairs of knickers were thrown at the stage. Lemar did a stunning r n b version of The Darkness "i Believe In A Thing Called Love" Lisa Stansfield choose a pair of boring songs .Geri Halliwell got the dancers out for "Its Raining Men" and " Look At Me " and was entertaining enough .Last on was Ronan Keating with a pink ticker tape and balloon explosion dropping from the ceiling.Overall nothing really mega musically but a good mix of music and comedy and all for a good cause.

Posted 29th September 2004