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| Georgina H-K meets The Strypes |
On
Thursday 27th I was at The Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton with my
daughter, Georgina, for the 550 capacity sell out show of The Strypes. As you
would expect from your roving reporter, I was right at the front and directly
in line with lead guitarist Josh – already a guitar hero at such a young age
(with the passing resemblance of a youthful Jimmy Page/Jeff Beck and plenty of
attitude too).
Playing
authentic R&B, they covered much of their regular set list (see my review
of their March gig at Nottingham in the current issue of ‘Scootering’) like a
modern day Yardbirds, but also introduced a couple of new originals, ‘Angel
Eyes’ and ‘That’s A Shame’, which were both excellent and keeping to their
rhythm and blues style (no pressure on them from their major label just yet,
thankfully). They played 17 songs in their main set, came back to the demands
of the crowd to give us ‘Route 66’, and then came out after the show to meet
their fans and have a few pictures taken.
All in
all, a great night of Maximum R’n’B – and talking of Maximum R’n’B brings me
nicely on to the following night and a little matter of The Who playing
Quadrophenia at the LG Arena in Birmingham. Although a considerably bigger
crowd (15,000), I was once again right at the front against the barrier (it
helps being a member of The Who’s fan club).
They
played the entire Quadrophenia album back-to-back as per the original double
album (no gimmicky minor celebs coming on to be Jimmy or the Ace Face,
thankfully). The vintage film footage being played behind and above the band
was amazing, and it was great to see film of John Entwistle segued into the set
(the band played along to a bass solo from him) and Keith Moon (via old
footage) was able to take his place (via the huge screens) singing ‘Bell Boy’.
Although
now 69/70 years old, Messrs. Townshend and Daltrey still have bags of energy
and desire and put on a fantastic show (aided by Pete’s brother Simon on second
guitar). After playing the full double album, and having a brief respite as
they talked and joked with the audience, they launched into a ‘Best of…’
sequence featuring the likes of ‘Who Are You’, ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘Baba O’Riley’,
‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, ‘You Better, You Bet’ etc. and in all played for
almost 2 & ½ hours. Very impressive indeed.
A
fantastic two nights of top Mod entertainment and good to see Karen & Trish
from Sheffield at The Strypes show (apparently Tony B & Howard from Brum
were there too, but I wasn’t about to leave my place at the front to find them –
sorry guys), and Maggie (of Peggy Jane) and Andrea (of Rimini Mod Rally/Lowestoft
Dreamsville fame), plus Anthony ‘Burton Brewer’ Gregory, at The Who show.
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