WOW. What a day. What a night. What a name-dropping opportunity this review is!
Achim(Schreiner) and Pete(Stanford) arrived at my house just after 10am and after a couple of bacon rolls we headed off down to the pub where I had arranged for them to meet Mel Galley for a couple of drinks. Some great chat, some pics together and a Trapeze cd signed for Achim. Then we headed off to Musically Yours (
www.musicallyyours.co.uk) where the guys were given a demo of the latest stuff available for budding musicians/songwriters. Impressed, we headed home to prepare for the show.
A last minute phone call from my friend Rose meant we had to detour on the way to JB’s to pick her up but we arrived on time then headed off to the pub to meet Mel and friends as we had been invited for a pre-show drink. Incidently, one of Mel’s friends was wearing an original Trapeze tour shirt.(no he wont sell it to you Chip

) After a pint we went down to JB’s where we met Hackney just arriving himself.
Inside we headed straight for the merchandising were we met Carl. There were plenty of cd’s for sale including Jeff’s. Red or White T-shirts are £15. See my pics for what the red one looks like. The lettering on the white one is purple and looks really good. On the backof them is “The Voice of Rock”. I asked for FFF and bought enough for my USA requirements (

Chip

). We soon found David, Cameronip and Musicman. Then just before the show began as we headed down to the front of the stage, we met Mel again as he was coming in and said another hello!
The setlist is as above. The sound as always at JBs wasn’t spot on but improved after The Valiant Denial. I thought that occasionally Jeff was lost in the mix and Glenn’s bass was a bit too upfront. It seemed to change between his playing the Gibson and Flying V. And got worse again for the encores. Absolutely nothing wrong with the bands playing though. Tight. And they looked like they were having fun too with lots of smiles at each other. This drummer really is good. Nothing flashy but quick, powerful and some great work all round the kit. Check out his thunderous bass pedal work in Into The Black Light. Keyboard guy could only be heard during the quiet bits and his solo’s but for a first gig this was top stuff all round.
The M4TD songs are great live and fit really well with the set list. Don’t Let Me Bleed had a different ending which is REALLY GOOD. Fits the song perfectly. Jeff’s intro to Mistreated was cool and Bluesy, nothing like Blackmore’s original.
AND THEN!!! Right before It’s In My Blood, Glenn says to the crowd, “I don’t know if Wolfy Smith is here tonight but he’s gonna get his wish”. Achim and I look at each other. Did he really say that?
Frantic waving and shouting “I’m over here Glenn”, (we were in the middle near the front but he hadn’t spotted us). Then during the song he spots me and gives me a hello. This is one great day!
I know some will criticise the 2 covers but these are great songs performed brilliantly by a guy still at the top of his game. None GHPG crazy people will always want Burn or Stormbringer etc , especially in the UK, so Glenn feels obliged to do a couple of DP songs. Maybe Lay Down Stay Down could appear for a change. I thought this set list was great. Yes, there’s stuff from every solo album and HTP/HTP2/HT etc I would like to hear but he cant play all night.
After the show I finally spotted Shirl & Jen. Then Achim and I found Henry Le Chat and we went to say hello to her and her family. Bonjour Nathalie.
Glenn did the longest signing session ever. Chatting to everyone who came up. Us GHPG’s all had a word with him and Rose passed on a message from Spike of The Quireboys who she is mates with and Glenn knows well. Glenn was very pleased to see Achim and let him know he really appreciates fans travelling such a long way to see him. Glenn and Carl are very determined to get a proper UK tour together for next March. Jeff and Mark also came out to say hello to people. What a great guy Jeff is. Dead laid back and down to earth. Getting a few pics and chatting to him was no problem at all.
All in all we had a great time
I will be at the Northampton show so if you see me come over and say hello.
ps I have some more local press items i will post later this week too.