Long time ago 80's She/they were support to a U2. Concert I went to at Bell end rd. Brilliant. Enjoy mate. Loads of great hits as you will be aware. I'll check for any other dates. Edit Bugger. Manchester, Liverpool, York and Sheffield (last tour date city hall). all this week. And I'm away. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
We booked to see them in February originally and the tour was cancelled but we hung onto the tickets...Sheffield was added a few months ago
Not "one of", it was the biggest hit. Only no 1 they had. Like you say, though, strange they didn't play it.
You’ll get to see my favourite guitarist then, and his brother. I first saw James Walbourne playing with Joe Pernice at the Social in London, over 20 years ago, when he was just a kid. I was chatting to him in the queue to get in and we saw James Dean Bradfield, from the Manics, going in the club. There were only about 70-80 people there. Towards the end Joe said he was going to bring his friend James up to do a couple of numbers. We presumed he was referring to the Manics singer, but it was the kid from the queue, and he was brilliant. I saw him play in Peter Bruntnell’s band at the Borderline shortly after, when he stole the show. He’s not really a showy-offy guitar player and his playing always compliments the music, but he’s just ******* brill at it. He played in the Pernice Brothers for a while, so I saw him a couple of times with them, but I saw him most often in the Boogaloo in Highgate, every Sunday night, playing with Bap Kennedy. It was a free evening of (mainly country) music, very loose, but great fun, always ending with a rowdy version of Hank Williams’ I Saw The Light. If there was a country singer in London they’d often drag them up to Highgate for a few numbers. I got in early one Sunday and Noel Gallagher was in there, so I thought we were in for a treat, but he left before the pub started filling up. James has played with a wide variety of people, like Dave Gahan, St. Etienne, Ray Davies and the Pogues (Shane MacGowan lived in the Boogaloo for a while). Even Jerry Lee Lewis! He then married the daughter of Richard and Linda Thompson, before joining The Pretenders, where Chrissie Hynde described him as the last of the guitar Gods. He really is a great player. Even Mr. C said that James was better than himself, a compliment he doesn’t hand out lightly! James’s brother has now joined the band as drummer. He used to play in the Boogaloo sessions too, but he was very young back then and still learning, so it’s good to see he’s made a career out of it. I’ve just wandered off to YouTube to find a video of him playing By the Time My Head Gets to Phoenix with Peter Bruntnell to attach, and came across a video of Scott Doonican singing it! But I found this great video of him playing in the Boogaloo with Chrissie. In fact, there were loads of videos of him playing with various people in there, so I’ve just been watching them and reminiscing. They used to have a brilliant music quiz in there that me and Mr. C used to go to. Fiendishly difficult and teams made up of music people, so not an easy one to win and a sense of achievement if we scraped the runners-up prize. Bernard Butler was often in one of the teams. Oh to be young again! Hope you enjoy the gig. I read a review for a recent show the other night and they said it was a mixture of some of the singles (no Brass in Pocket though) and some deep cuts, which should keep devoted fans happy. In the meantime have a watch of this.
I saw them in their heyday in Sheffield when the first album came out the original members,they were fantastic rocked the place to its rafters I think even now her voice is still brilliant.
Fantastic gig last night, Chrissie is 73 now and sounds exactly the same as she did 40 years ago. As stated James Walbourne on lead was superb one of the best I've ever seen....and yes they did Brass in Pocket
Glad you enjoyed it, and that you got to see a song that those earlier on the tour didn’t. It’s always a tough one isn’t it. I can understand why some bands are sick to death of playing their biggest hits at every show, but they have to remember that there will be many who are seeing them for the first time. Soft Cell famously didn’t play Tainted Love at their first US gig, attended by stars as big as Michael Jackson, and it backfired on them. I was once stood behind two blokes who chatted through most of Gary Numan’s set, or were glued to their phones, even though his newer stuff is awesome, and then when he did Cars and Are “Friends” Electric? they suddenly came to life and…watched the songs through their phones as they recorded them! Drove me mad! Joe Pernice used to get fed up with people shouting for his song ‘Bum Leg’ (brilliant song) all the way through his shows, so he started opening with it. Whereas Aerosmith once told someone they got bored at their gigs cos they hadn’t written anything new for a while, spending most of their days too smacked off their tits to be able to write anything new, and just played the same old setlist. So someone suggested that instead of ending their show with Walk This Way, like they usually did, why not shake it up a bit and open with it. So that night, somewhat refreshed, they went out, played Walk This Way, shouted “thank you, goodnight” and all walked off the stage thinking they had finished the whole show!
