Ray's Gigs

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Wednesday 29 March 2023.

Wednesday 29 March 2023. ENDY CHOW (now aged 43) live at Shepherds Bush Empire. Endy Chow is a Hong Kong actor, singer and songwriter. Over the past 20 odd years he has appeared in many films, many TV shows and has released many albums during this period as well. He headlines arenas back home in Hong Kong. Could be interesting to see what kind of show he puts on , as normal tickets are £80, and VIP tix are £200, for early entry and entry to the meet & greet after the show. ----------------- Levels 2 and 3 are closed tonight, so maybe 800 or so here tonight. It is pretty much a 99% crowd from Hong Kong heritage. A very polite crowd, and not many folks are drinking booze. ENDY CHOW and his eight piece band arrive on stage at 7.50pm and play for 2 hours 25 mins. Pretty amazing how long he was on stage for. There is a nice big screen mixing live gig footage with pre-recorded images. Many of the songs were ballads of sorts , and mostly sung in the Hong Kong language. There was an English song 'You Are My Sunshine'. A few tracks were a bit rockier as one of the guitarists riffed out on his Flying V guitar. No surprise to say that the music was a big tame overall. ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ Wednesday 29 March 2023. Two huge surprise shocks. PAUL O'GRADY has died aged 67. Paul was an English comedian, broadcaster, actor, writer and drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, through which he gained broader popularity in the 1990s. O'Grady subsequently dropped the character and in the 2000s became the presenter of various television and radio shows, including The Paul O'Grady Show. Paul was such a great entertainer...and he loved animals , especially dogs too. He was an ambassador for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for the past decade. I saw Paul on stage as Lily Savage and at The London Palladium Christmas Panto. ------ SCOTLAND beat SPAIN 2-0 in their World Cup Qualifier. -------------------------------- -------------------------------- Monday 27 March 2023. CHERIE CURRIE live at The Underworld, Camden. Cherie Currie (now aged 63) is playing a UK tour to promote her new album 'Blvds of Splendor'. I saw Cherie Currie when she was the singer in the all-girl American band The Runaways in Oct 1976 , when i saw both their debut London shows at The Roundhouse. Check out the YouTube video of their classic debut single 'Cherry Bomb'. I saw her at this same venue on her last solo tour visit of the UK, which was in 2015. It was her first UK tour for over 35 years, and another great female rocker Suzi Quatro came on for a duet. Tickets are £18 plus £3 booking fee. www.theunderworldcamden.co.uk - Visit their website here for more info and to buy tickets for all shows at The Underworld. --------- Nice to see Del and Mannie from West London punk legends THE SATELLITES here tonight. BLUE RUIN arrived on stage at 8.15pm and played for 45 mins. Blue Ruin are a punk-inspired all girl five-piece band from Auckland, New Zealand. Their sound is influenced by various genres including punk, hardcore, pop-punk, hard rock, riot grrrl and metal. Blue Ruin enjoy rocking out, not taking things to seriously, but with awareness in their lyrics of issues like anxiety, sexism, relationships, and societal expectations....an enjoyable set. The interval had the venue pa playing all AC/DC classics. CHERIE CURRIE and her all male rock band arrived on stage at 9.25pm and play for 60 mins. Cherie Currie arrives on stage, and is amazingly looking 20 years younger than her real age. She is clearly glad to be back playing at this Iconic London club venue. Every song gets an introduction of sorts. Like my recent gigs by Killing Joke and The Skids at The 100 Club, it is really great to be at another intimate venue like this to see Cherie up nice and close. The 14 song setlist was evenly split with seven Runaways oldies and seven others. Two new album tracks in the middle of the set were written by members of Guns N Roses. Cherie got very emotional during her cover of 'Life on Mars' , as it was dedicated to her younger brother who died just before the start of this tour. A couple of mentions of fellow Runaway member Lita Ford suggests they don't exchange Christmas cards. It was great hearing all those Runaways classics again , and Cheries guests all joined her on stage for a rousing finale version of 'Cherry Bomb' which was fantastic. A great show. Full CHERIE CURRIE setlist played tonight... Queens of Noise (The Runaways song) California Paradise (The Runaways song) Roxy Roller (Sweeney Todd cover) (with Gretchen Bonaduce) (new album track) Rock & Roll (The Velvet Underground cover) Mr. X ( new album track) Rock & Roll Oblivion (new album track) Is It Day or Night? (The Runaways song) Life on Mars? (David Bowie cover) Midnight Music (The Runaways song) You Wreck Me (new album track) Heartbeat (The Runaways song) American Nights (The Runaways song) C'mon (The Runaways song) Cherry Bomb (The Runaways song) (with Gretchen Bonaduce and support band Blue Ruin)