"Black Earth and the City Falls" from "Splinterheart" (2010)
Playlist
Various - Top 20 Albums
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Starlightnight
UK - Live in Philadelphia 1978
UK - 2012 Setlist
Not much sleep and up super early to leave the house at 6:46 am...
The beast was about to be about its business in London...
To Waverley Station, ludicrously early for the 8:30 to Kings Cross...
On to the train, into the "quiet carriage" and ready for the four and a half hour trip...
...which flew by...
Newcastle at 9:53...
Darlington at 10:22...
York at 10:50...
And,from there, non-stop to Kings Cross, early, at 12:45...
Crossing the road to my hotel, just a couple of minutes walk from the station, at the end of this road, the greenish building in the distance is the hospital to which Anne and I accompanied Sister Pam late last summer...
But today is a day of happier times...
The hotel was cheap and cheerful - a very, very small room on the third floor...
In and out and back to Kings Cross station...
...for the tube to Fulham Broadway...
...via a packed Kensington High Street Station...
Far too early, so I took a walk around Fulham...
Here the Universal building...
Here, another building whose identity remains unknown...
Around 3:50, I arrived at Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge stadium...
...and, round the back, joined the queue of beardy weirdy prog-lovers awaiting VIP entrance into UK's only British date of their world tour...
In the queue, I got talking to a Japanese lady, Takoko, who had been to every one of the fourteen USA and Canada gigs and had flown yesterday from Los Angeles to be here...
As we waited outside, we could hear the soundcheck numbers wafting from the hall - it sounded brilliant - but then, I am biased...
Finally, with our numbers swollen to around 100, we were allowed in to watch the end of the soundcheck...
Eddie Jobson spoke to us from the stage, advising that drummer Gary Husband had joined them this afternoon and that this soundcheck was his only rehearsal before tonight's gig...
The sound was crystal clear, as they stop started and fine tuned a particularly complex piece, while I tried my best not to look at the setlist in front of the lighting engineer...
One more song then it was over...
...and the stage was set...
Mr Jobson and John Wetton came out and mingled with the "VIPs"...
I didn't speak with Eddie but did exchange a few words with Mr Wetton and, in true fanboy stylee, had him sign my notebook and my ticket, as I explained how I'd waited 34 years to hear this material live...
I also had a chat with Eddie Jobson's sister and their 90 year old dad, who advised he hadn't seen his son play live for over thirty years - later in the night, after thanking everyone for coming along, a tear was in Mr J's eye as he introduced his dad to the audience - "90 years old and at a rock concert!"...
Pre gig though, the room started to fill and anticipation was high...
Your correspondent was in the second row...
As the room filled up, he was trying his hardest not to look at Mr Wetton's setlist...
At 8:10, "Alaska" started and we were underway...
The first piece, comprising four sections, lasted 18 minutes - by the end of just the third, King Crimson's "Starless" in all its glory, including the long, ever buidling instrumental section and hair up on the back of your neck finish, we were forty five minutes in...
I was directly in front of John Wetton's bass stack - what a sound!
The main set came to a close after another hour or so of absolutely top notch prog excellence...
An encore was a guaranteed certainty as the crowd went mental...
A further two songs from the second album...
It looked to be all over...
But we were afforded a second encore, with Jobson on piano and Wetton on voice and it as all over...
In all, every song bar three from the two LP back catalogue of the band was presented, along with two Crimson covers and a raucous violin/keyboard solo from Eddie Jobson...
People had flown in from Europe, the USA, Japan, Central and South America, Indonesia and China for this gig - and I thought I was doing well coming from Scotland...
And that was it, out, back to the tube station and to Picadilly Circus for a bite to eat...
...before heading back to the hotel around midnight, knackered but what an excellent night of music indeed...
Amazing to watch and hear this music I've loved for over thirty years being played live - Husband was brilliant considering the soundcheck was his only rehearsal and Alex Machachek efforlessly replicated the great Allan Holdsworth's solos from the band's debut album...
If they’re playing near you, do not miss this - Wetton was stonking - and Jobson must be one of the most under-rated keyboard geniuses of prog...
Absolutely worth every minute of the effort to be there and every penny spent on the trip...
Setlist
Alaska/In the Dead of Night/By the Light of Day/Presto Vivace & Reprise
Thirty Years
Starless
Carrying No Cross
Keyboard/Violin Solo (Eddie Jobson)
Book of Saturday (John Wetton)
Danger Money
Nevermore
Encore I
Caesar's Palace Blues
The Only Thing She Needs
Encore II
Rendevous 6:02
Highlight of the Day : Finally seeing UK live...
No comments:
Post a Comment