Forthcoming gigs.



City hall last night for Divine Comedy. Band were outstanding. Sitting for the first 3/4 wasn’t ideal for getting the audience involved. At that point Neil (lead singer encouraged everyone up, into the isles, down the front) and the atmosphere really picked up. Until security tried and failed to get everyone back to their seats, and then went on stage to threaten to cancel the show. ...... fun stealers of the city hall.
 
droppedshoulder said:
City hall last night for Divine Comedy. Band were outstanding. Sitting for the first 3/4 wasn’t ideal for getting the audience involved. At that point Neil (lead singer encouraged everyone up, into the isles, down the front) and the atmosphere really picked up. Until security tried and failed to get everyone back to their seats, and then went on stage to threaten to cancel the show. ...... fun stealers of the city hall.
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I was there too. Miserable bastards like. Still an absolutely cracking gig. The first time I saw them was hall 1 Sage and they had a standing area at the front which massively contributed to the atmosphere. Last night’s set list at that firs gig’s set up, would’ve been a near perfect Divine Comedy gig.
 
droppedshoulder said:
City hall last night for Divine Comedy. Band were outstanding. Sitting for the first 3/4 wasn’t ideal for getting the audience involved. At that point Neil (lead singer encouraged everyone up, into the isles, down the front) and the atmosphere really picked up. Until security tried and failed to get everyone back to their seats, and then went on stage to threaten to cancel the show. ...... fun stealers of the city hall.
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Funny enough I tried to go to the toilet at the Arena and couldn't get out as the tickets were in my mates phone. There was a few getting worked up about that. And the average age at the Arena was quite high!!
 
droppedshoulder said:
City hall last night for Divine Comedy. Band were outstanding. Sitting for the first 3/4 wasn’t ideal for getting the audience involved. At that point Neil (lead singer encouraged everyone up, into the isles, down the front) and the atmosphere really picked up. Until security tried and failed to get everyone back to their seats, and then went on stage to threaten to cancel the show. ...... fun stealers of the city hall.
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Why would they have the seats in for the Divine Comedy..Kraftwerk or someone fair enough but not them.
 
King Kareoke said:
@mickb2112 - were you there last night?
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Europe were the band of the night for me. Still the same line-up they had nearly 40 years ago. Joey tempest sounded fantastic and John Norum is a class guitarist. They are much, much more than just the Final Countdown. Foreigner - no original members for the whole set until the last 3 songs when a very frail looking Mick Jones came on. Too many solos and faffing about when they could have played a couple of extra songs. Still sounded great though and Kelly Hansen is a good frontman and singer and Jeff Pilson great on bass but I didn`t like the keyboard solo instead of the sax solo on Urgent.
Whitesnake - great band, looked fantastic. Coverdale still a master showman but his voice is totally shot. I noticed Dino the keyboard player doing a lot of the vocals along with Coverdale - if you`ve never heard him you should check him out.
Overall a really good night`s entertainment. How can you complain when two of the set`s end with a Number One single and the final one ends with a Deep Purple classic.
 
mickb2112 said:
Europe were the band of the night for me. Still the same line-up they had nearly 40 years ago. Joey tempest sounded fantastic and John Norum is a class guitarist. They are much, much more than just the Final Countdown. Foreigner - no original members for the whole set until the last 3 songs when a very frail looking Mick Jones came on. Too many solos and faffing about when they could have played a couple of extra songs. Still sounded great though and Kelly Hansen is a good frontman and singer and Jeff Pilson great on bass but I didn`t like the keyboard solo instead of the sax solo on Urgent.
Whitesnake - great band, looked fantastic. Coverdale still a master showman but his voice is totally shot. I noticed Dino the keyboard player doing a lot of the vocals along with Coverdale - if you`ve never heard him you should check him out.
Overall a really good night`s entertainment. How can you complain when two of the set`s end with a Number One single and the final one ends with a Deep Purple classic.
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Really enjoyable night - Europe are very underrated. I did enjoy Foreigner (first time I have seen them) and Whitesnake - well nice to be there (I am greedy and would have loved some more of their earlier stuff) but a great night out. The young girl on bass looks like she has a canny career ahead of her
 
mickb2112 said:
Europe were the band of the night for me. Still the same line-up they had nearly 40 years ago. Joey tempest sounded fantastic and John Norum is a class guitarist. They are much, much more than just the Final Countdown. Foreigner - no original members for the whole set until the last 3 songs when a very frail looking Mick Jones came on. Too many solos and faffing about when they could have played a couple of extra songs. Still sounded great though and Kelly Hansen is a good frontman and singer and Jeff Pilson great on bass but I didn`t like the keyboard solo instead of the sax solo on Urgent.
Whitesnake - great band, looked fantastic. Coverdale still a master showman but his voice is totally shot. I noticed Dino the keyboard player doing a lot of the vocals along with Coverdale - if you`ve never heard him you should check him out.
Overall a really good night`s entertainment. How can you complain when two of the set`s end with a Number One single and the final one ends with a Deep Purple classic.
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Think that is word for word what I would have said - felt Coverdale going through the motions and not much interaction?
 
King Kareoke said:
Really enjoyable night - Europe are very underrated. I did enjoy Foreigner (first time I have seen them) and Whitesnake - well nice to be there (I am greedy and would have loved some more of their earlier stuff) but a great night out. The young girl on bass looks like she has a canny career ahead of her
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I have to say, the band Whitesnake have now are outstanding. All great showmen and women. Tanya O`Callagham on bass was brilliant as were Reb Beech and Joel Hoekstra - they looked like a Rock band should look like. It was pure entertainment. Quite how Tommy Aldridge at 71 has so much energy on the drums is anyone`s guess. Coverdale is one of the great frontmen but his voice is totally shot. I think Europe suprise a lot of people. They don`t realise that they are nothing like the poodle haired Pop Rockers of the charts in the `80`s - they really are a top class Hard Rock band. I`d definitely recommend that you check out some of their later albums such as Last Look At Eden and war Of Kings.
Liveanddangerous said:
Think that is word for word what I would have said - felt Coverdale going through the motions and not much interaction?
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I can see why Coverdale brought Dino Jelusick into the band. Check these out:

A cover of Jefferson Starship`s Jane with Mike Portnoy (ex- Dream Theater) and Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake) with Dino on vocals, bass and keyboards:


Here he is covering Depp Purple`s Stormbringer - so a direct comparison with Coverdale:

 
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mickb2112 said:
I have to say, the band Whitesnake have now are outstanding. All great showmen and women. Tanya O`Callagham on bass was brilliant as were Reb Beech and Joel Hoekstra - they looked like a Rock band should look like. It was pure entertainment. Quite how Tommy Aldridge at 71 has so much energy on the drums is anyone`s guess. Coverdale is one of the great frontmen but his voice is totally shot. I think Europe suprise a lot of people. They don`t realise that they are nothing like the poodle haired Pop Rockers of the charts in the `80`s - they really are a top class Hard Rock band. I`d definitely recommend that you check out some of their later albums such as Last Look At Eden and war Of Kings.

I can see why Coverdale brought Dino Jelusick into the band. Check these out:

A cover of Jefferson Starship`s Jane with Mike Portnoy (ex- Dream Theater) and Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake) with Dino on vocals, bass and keyboards:


Here he is covering Depp Purple`s Stormbringer - so a direct comparison with Coverdale:

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Was it rumoured that John Norum was at one time thought to be joining UFO
 
Quinninho said:
Just started listening to these as they popped up as a recommendation on YT. Think I'm in love with the singer 😍

I really like " How can I make it Ok?" She reminds me of a blonde Kate Bush
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Elle is amazing

I found them after a track appeared on the Trainspotting 2 trailer , I had ignored them at festivals and was so wrong

Blue weekend was my album of the year
 
King Kareoke said:
Was it rumoured that John Norum was at one time thought to be joining UFO
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Yes. He was poised to join and I think he had rehearsed with them but Europe reformed and he went with that instead. UFO was his favourite band too I believe.

I actually interviewed him a few years ago when he put out a solo album and he said this:

On the subject of your influences, you were a big UFO fan. A while back you were lined up to play with UFO when Michael Schenker left. What happened with that?

I was in America at the time around 2003. I actually knew the guys from UFO from when I met up with them on the Walk on Water tour. They knew about me and wanted me to hang out with them on the bus and stuff like that. One night we were drinking beer together and I gave them a copy of my Face The Truth album which they popped into the boom box they had on the bus, they seemed to really like it especially Phil Mogg. Anyway I said if Michael ever leaves, for the 100th time, to give me a call. You know, I just said that as a sort of joke and after a while Phil called me up and asked if I’d be interested in coming to England to play as Michael had left. I was like “Wow, this is great” What happened is that a few days later Ian Haughland, the drummer from Europe, called to say they were having a meeting in Stockholm to talk about a reunion of the Final Countdown line up. There seemed to be a lot of things happening at the same time. I flew straight to Stockholm and had a meeting with Europe. I thought that maybe it was just going to be a reunion tour and that was it but they wanted to push ahead and write new music too. I called up UFO`s manager and the first thing he said was “Hi, welcome to UFO!!” and I had to say that I couldn’t do it as I was doing the Europe reunion thing and he said “can’t you just do both??” I decided to do the Europe thing as they are like my family but it would have been nice to do something with UFO as they are one of my favourite bands. I used to listen to them all the time and used to play along with Strangers in the Night and learn every solo. I pretty much knew all the songs but I thought it was better for me to play my own stuff that I wrote and recorded myself rather than be a copy of someone else. I think after a while I’d have got bored with it just like I got bored with Dokken where they just wanted me to play as close to George Lynch as possible. It started getting boring after a while. It’s probably OK if you’re in your 20`s but it was a little silly in your 40`s playing other people’s material.
After a brilliant Robert Jon and the Wreck (a cross between vintage Skynyrd and Mick Taylor era-The Stones) on Friday and Europe/Foreigner/Whitesnake last night, my next is the Von Hertzen Brothers tomorrow night at Trillians for some classy highly melodic Prog Rock with a hint of Folk from Finland
mickb2112 said:
Yes. He was poised to join and I think he had rehearsed with them but Europe reformed and he went with that instead. UFO was his favourite band too I believe.

I actually interviewed him a few years ago when he put out a solo album and he said this:

On the subject of your influences, you were a big UFO fan. A while back you were lined up to play with UFO when Michael Schenker left. What happened with that?

I was in America at the time around 2003. I actually knew the guys from UFO from when I met up with them on the Walk on Water tour. They knew about me and wanted me to hang out with them on the bus and stuff like that. One night we were drinking beer together and I gave them a copy of my Face The Truth album which they popped into the boom box they had on the bus, they seemed to really like it especially Phil Mogg. Anyway I said if Michael ever leaves, for the 100th time, to give me a call. You know, I just said that as a sort of joke and after a while Phil called me up and asked if I’d be interested in coming to England to play as Michael had left. I was like “Wow, this is great” What happened is that a few days later Ian Haughland, the drummer from Europe, called to say they were having a meeting in Stockholm to talk about a reunion of the Final Countdown line up. There seemed to be a lot of things happening at the same time. I flew straight to Stockholm and had a meeting with Europe. I thought that maybe it was just going to be a reunion tour and that was it but they wanted to push ahead and write new music too. I called up UFO`s manager and the first thing he said was “Hi, welcome to UFO!!” and I had to say that I couldn’t do it as I was doing the Europe reunion thing and he said “can’t you just do both??” I decided to do the Europe thing as they are like my family but it would have been nice to do something with UFO as they are one of my favourite bands. I used to listen to them all the time and used to play along with Strangers in the Night and learn every solo. I pretty much knew all the songs but I thought it was better for me to play my own stuff that I wrote and recorded myself rather than be a copy of someone else. I think after a while I’d have got bored with it just like I got bored with Dokken where they just wanted me to play as close to George Lynch as possible. It started getting boring after a while. It’s probably OK if you’re in your 20`s but it was a little silly in your 40`s playing other people’s material.
After a brilliant Robert Jon and the Wreck (a cross between vintage Skynyrd and Mick Taylor era-The Stones) on Friday and Europe/Foreigner/Whitesnake last night, my next is the Von Hertzen Brothers tomorrow night at Trillians for some classy highly melodic Prog Rock with a hint of Folk from Finland
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Not sure why my last post ended up being tagged onto the John Norum interview excerpt????
 
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mickb2112 said:
Yes. He was poised to join and I think he had rehearsed with them but Europe reformed and he went with that instead. UFO was his favourite band too I believe.

I actually interviewed him a few years ago when he put out a solo album and he said this:

On the subject of your influences, you were a big UFO fan. A while back you were lined up to play with UFO when Michael Schenker left. What happened with that?

I was in America at the time around 2003. I actually knew the guys from UFO from when I met up with them on the Walk on Water tour. They knew about me and wanted me to hang out with them on the bus and stuff like that. One night we were drinking beer together and I gave them a copy of my Face The Truth album which they popped into the boom box they had on the bus, they seemed to really like it especially Phil Mogg. Anyway I said if Michael ever leaves, for the 100th time, to give me a call. You know, I just said that as a sort of joke and after a while Phil called me up and asked if I’d be interested in coming to England to play as Michael had left. I was like “Wow, this is great” What happened is that a few days later Ian Haughland, the drummer from Europe, called to say they were having a meeting in Stockholm to talk about a reunion of the Final Countdown line up. There seemed to be a lot of things happening at the same time. I flew straight to Stockholm and had a meeting with Europe. I thought that maybe it was just going to be a reunion tour and that was it but they wanted to push ahead and write new music too. I called up UFO`s manager and the first thing he said was “Hi, welcome to UFO!!” and I had to say that I couldn’t do it as I was doing the Europe reunion thing and he said “can’t you just do both??” I decided to do the Europe thing as they are like my family but it would have been nice to do something with UFO as they are one of my favourite bands. I used to listen to them all the time and used to play along with Strangers in the Night and learn every solo. I pretty much knew all the songs but I thought it was better for me to play my own stuff that I wrote and recorded myself rather than be a copy of someone else. I think after a while I’d have got bored with it just like I got bored with Dokken where they just wanted me to play as close to George Lynch as possible. It started getting boring after a while. It’s probably OK if you’re in your 20`s but it was a little silly in your 40`s playing other people’s material.
After a brilliant Robert Jon and the Wreck (a cross between vintage Skynyrd and Mick Taylor era-The Stones) on Friday and Europe/Foreigner/Whitesnake last night, my next is the Von Hertzen Brothers tomorrow night at Trillians for some classy highly melodic Prog Rock with a hint of Folk from Finland

Not sure why my last post ended up being tagged onto the John Norum interview excerpt????
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Amazing thanks
King Kareoke said:
Amazing thanks
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Bugger did I miss Robert John. Must check in future. I had tickets lined up pre Covid gig
 
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I’ve been reading y
mickb2112 said:
Europe were the band of the night for me. Still the same line-up they had nearly 40 years ago. Joey tempest sounded fantastic and John Norum is a class guitarist. They are much, much more than just the Final Countdown. Foreigner - no original members for the whole set until the last 3 songs when a very frail looking Mick Jones came on. Too many solos and faffing about when they could have played a couple of extra songs. Still sounded great though and Kelly Hansen is a good frontman and singer and Jeff Pilson great on bass but I didn`t like the keyboard solo instead of the sax solo on Urgent.
Whitesnake - great band, looked fantastic. Coverdale still a master showman but his voice is totally shot. I noticed Dino the keyboard player doing a lot of the vocals along with Coverdale - if you`ve never heard him you should check him out.
Overall a really good night`s entertainment. How can you complain when two of the set`s end with a Number One single and the final one ends with a Deep Purple classic.
Click to expand...
I’ve been reading your reviews and enjoying them and a friend on Facebooks reviews and just realised you are the same person 😂
 

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