Birmingham review. - - - - - - don't know where to start and probably will miss loads of details out, but if I don't do it now after too much sauce I probably won't get chance. Appologies in advance.
My 7-year-old and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time last night up in Brum. It was his first live gig from a proper band I've not forced JT on him, it's just something that he's got into and has got me to make a couple of compilation CD's for him. Other favourites of his are The Damned and Iron Maiden.
Both of us have really enjoyed HE and I've lost track as to how many times I have listened to the album. I loved Taab 2, and really feel that IA has surpassed himself with this recent album - it's a corker. Top 3 tracks for me at this moment in time:Pax Britannica, Tripudium ad bellam , After these Wars. My son's are: Turnpike Inn, Doggerland, Old Blood New Veins
So to the live performance.
We had a visual intro to set the scene regarding the background to HE for peeps who were listening to this work for the first time, plus lots of other footage and bobs inbetween, which really worked. Flo, John, Dave, Ryan and (I think - can't remember) Scott, also had a little live narrative each just before a particular song. So much thought had gone into the the first half of the show to help newbies understand the concept as well as enhancing the ride for those of us who had our private journey through our audio equipment.
The footage during the songs were very clever and many elements amused my son and I greatly.
Regarding the live performance, I think that they pulled it off to a high standard, except for a few on the night errors: IA or Ryan missed a line, IA started flute on a wrong note a couple of times, which didn't really distract from the music, except for Tripudium as it cocked the improve section up a bit. Ryan had only a little bit more singing to do, but IA did a mostly grand job considering the extra syllables and melodic range. The only place he seemed to struggle on last night was Doggerland. The first half was well received and I reckon many CD's were sold in the interval and rightly so. It's bloody marvellous!
Best Of.
I made every effort to turn a blind eye to the set list so that everything would be a surprise on the night, but alas the program gave everything away. The tracks were listed with notes about the songs from IA .
I was unsure about live video footage, when the tour was announced, but it all worked really well, and the subtle and not so subtle changes to some of the arrangements really did help to make everything sound fresh. I have to say that IA vocals were the best i've heard since.....can;t remember! IA's vocals were so much better than I imagined on Teacher and APP - I really thing that he could tour the whole album. Ryan is a great find and can't think of a better voice to complement and enhance IA. There was only 2 places that I thought he was used unnecessarily, but cannot remember at all where.
Too Old to RnR was a real highlight for me. I've heard it live on various CD's and DVD's, and whilst I enjoy the original recorded track, the live ones always lacked something (Radio 1's Hammersmith live CD comes close as I love Pete V's keyboards)/ However, with Ryan accompanying a little more with John and Dave, it was rounded and complete - and the vid just made it even more special. Just a shame nothing from Broadsword was covered, but the same could be said for tracks post Crest too.
Locomotive was bang on! what a great arrangement.
We hung a round for a while at the end to try and meet IA to sign Vaughan's deluxe edition, but time and patience were against us - I was knackered and 1.5 drive is not fun when shagged......apologies to folks sat close to me as I was moshing and singing in my seat. Not my fault - IA shouldn't write great tunes
Could say more, but useless at this. I'm not the world's greatest talker, but would be better than writing.
It was refreshing to see IA ditch the bandanna and to keep specs on.