overlap

I'll happily own up to being more interested in numbers than is healthy but then that sort of thing has kept me in a decent living for the last dozen years or so, so this shouldn't sound like I'm complaining. It's now a matter of record that in the meantime I've seen Magnum once again, pulling off a performance that belies their combined 270-odd years of age. Still on excellent form, and the new album sounds even better in a live environment.

On that same note, it's another vintage line-up that leads to one of those great little venue incongruities. When you're in a council-run venue where getting into the gig means passing within sight of the bathers in the swimming pool, it doesn't quite seem especially rock n roll at its clichéd, dramatic worst, but at least we are spared the vision of Lemmy in Speedos. Once upon a time all gigs were like this; a decent raised stage and a line of big black boxes called things like Marshall, Peavey and so on. Add a stack of lights and a bunch of sweaty people in denim and t-shirts, and you're about there.

The guitar intro to Demolition rings out for some time before Girlschool come into view, closely followed by a broad grin that I can't shake for a day or two afterwards. By the time we get into Screaming Blue Murder, there's a tear in my eye and I'd have felt £25 was worth it for those three and a bit minutes on their own, because it's perfect popmetal guitar, and because of where in my life it takes me back to. In fact it turns out it's twenty years since I last saw Girlschool, and on this showing I really shouldn't let that happen again.

Kim cheers-you-lot McAuliffe seems ageless, Jackie Chambers plays a big white Flying V with a great big grin, Denise Dufort drives it along while doing a decent Chris Griffin impression, but the revelation for me is Enid, rocking singing and playing like there's no tomorrow. Setlist goes something like Demolition, Hit And Run, I Spy, Screaming Blue Murder, Race With The Devil, Emergency - I may have missed one, and I'd have loved Nothing To Lose to have been in there, but that is just nit-picking and they were the highlight of my night by some distance.

I like The Damned, and the last (and only) time I saw them was an absolute cracker. And again it's the pop sensibilities (pun intended) behind the franticness that does it for me. "Hello, I'm Captain Sensible and you might have seen me on Top Of The Pops…" remains a fantastic intro, before New Rose rattles the building, the crowd and half the town into submission. Dave Vanian demonstrates that it is possible to make the inappropriate indoors shades thing look cool, when you're not a professional Oirish tax exile lecturing people on their spending priorities. Also included between the less familiar to me material are Neat Neat Neat, Eloise, and a closing run through Smash It Up before the Captain's brief closing burst of Happy Talk sees them off the stage. Excellent fun, and no less relevant than they ever have been.

A long time ago we went to see AC/DC because the Wildhearts were supporting, and expected to stay for just a few songs of the headliners but ended up staying right to the end. This was much the same thing. I can't say I'm a fan of Motörhead, and on the only other time I saw them they didn't leave a lasting impression. But a decent vantage point means I get a really good view of Mikkey Dee and Phil Campbell doing their stuff, and tremendously gifted they both are. Ace Of Spades is a design classic, and something everyone should see live at some point – I probably won't be rushing for a third go, but they were very good.

Girlschool though. Fantastic.

Labels: gigs, Girlschool, Magnum, Motörhead, The Damned

I have never in all my years seen such parody,such mind boggilingly bad awfulness masquarading as music as I witnessed in those 3 minutes. The 60 year old singer in leathers and a full blonde poodle mane gesticulating in the most over the top fashion to a salavating audience of mostly bald men was just too 'Tap-esque' to believe. Not my words, for more than one reason. But these are the words of a singer whose work I've been a fan of for a long time, talking about a band I've been a fan of for longer than that. This amuses me no end. There are very few bands still around who I go back further with, and I can pinpoint the day I bought Magnum's single Just Like An Arrow as a notable day in my life. I can also clearly recall going to see Magnum at Hammersmith Odeon sharing a car with someone who I'd been in the Cubs with and who asked me 'what happened, you were always a bit square' - the implication being that by going to see Magnum I no longer was square. The truth is I've always been square, or awkward, or different, and I can't say I've ever lost that much sleep over it. Fast forward twenty-plus years, and I'm watching the 20th anniversary of the Wings Of Heaven album, at a show featuring that album in its entirety. Back To Earth starts us off in the familiarly bombastic fashion, and I'm especially pleased to hear Pray for the Day and Different Worlds, as I don't recall ever seeing them done live before. More than thirty-five years into working together, I don't think Bob Catley and Tony Clarkin have that much left to prove to anyone, and at 60 years of age, give or take a few months, I'm not expecting any radical changes, which is fine as they're great as they are. I'm writing this just before heading out to see the band the guy quoted above sings with. I'm not absolutely sure he'll see the funny side when I turn up in a twenty-two year old Magnum t-shirt - but I know I will! Bob Catley, leather trousers out of shot! Setlist Back To Earth When We Were Younger We All Need to Be Loved You'll Never Sleep Midnight Vigilante < Wings Of Heaven album, start to finish> Days Of No Trust Wild Swan Start Talking Love One Step Away It Must Have Been Love Different Worlds Pray For The Day Don't Wake The Lion < encore > All England's Eyes Kingdom Of Madness

Labels: gigs, Magnum

There are very few bands still going from when I first started buying records and going to see live music, and this is an example of one that's had a few line up changes over the years, but last night saw me revisiting my youth in a remarkably noticeable way. Doing albums in their entirety seems to be an ongoing theme - this was the third such show I've seen this year, but the only one where the album in question is one I know especially well. In fact I'd probably put Magnum's On A Storyteller's Night in my top ten of albums most listened to, and it definitely says something when an album first released in 1985 is held up as someone's career highlight. It's more a coincidence of timing than a special relevance of the material that it all takes me back to the first time I saw them, and a point in my life that now looks like a significant departure into something. The performance is pretty much what you'd expect if you know the band to any degree, and to a certain extent it's incidental - we're none of us any younger and as a reminder of where I've come from it's hard to beat. < there used to be a picture of Bob Catley and a young Chesney Hawkes lookalike here, and now there isn't >

Labels: gigs, Magnum, rock