Concerts I've seen

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Paul Claxton played some acoustic songs. Just him and a guitar. He was competent enough, but ultimately, quite dull. He played a cover of AC/DC's "Up to my neck in you", but I'd never have known had he not announced it to the crowd beforehand. Ultravox had been the favourite band of my formative years. I'd last seen them at Wembley 23 years earlier, and so naturally, I jumped at the chance to see them on this, their reunion tour. To be honest, I was doubtful they could still put on a decent live performance, after all these years, and I wasn't expecting much. I was extremely pleased to be proven wrong. The lights dimmed, and the familiar "tink, tink, tink" of "Astradyne" came through the PA. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I knew it was going to be good. Astoundingly, Midge still has a great voice, even now. He also brought a smile to my face when he said "I don't know what this place is called these days, but to us it'll always be the Hammersmith Odeon", a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree. In addition to their nominal native drums, bass and guitar, Warren, Chris and Midge all had their own synths on stage, in addition to Billy's synths. Highlights for me were the aforementioned "Astradyne", plus "Passing strangers", "Hymn" and an end of set "The voice", complete with all four members on drums, just like on the cover of "Monument", which incidentally was recorded in this very venue over a quarter of a century earlier.

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I'd been impressed by Testament at Bloodstock, and was looking forward to this show. Sadly, it just wasn't working. I can't put a finger on where it went wrong, but where at Bloodstock they were engaging and entertaining, here they seemed to largely just be going through the motions. That's not to say there weren't high points, like "Practice what you preach". But overall, it was a disappointing performance. The same could not be said of Megadeth. Strangely, although they've put on some reasonable shows, their live shows have always seemed a bit lacking. Not tonight, though, and they put on a great show. The band were as tight as I've ever seen them, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and they rattled through a strong setlist. My picks would be "Hangar 18", "À tout le monde" and a spine tingling "Symphony of destruction", but they really didn't go far wrong throughout the set. A few years ago, Judas Priest had released possibly the best comeback album of all time in the form of "Angel of retribution", and had put on a correspondingly good live show at Hammersmith. Then they bizarrely decided to throw it all away by releasing the comparatively weak concept album, "Nostradamus". So I wasn't sure what to expect from this show. Fortunately, they peppered the set with enough classics to keep everyone happy, and even the new material came over reasonably well live. Every time I've seen him, Halford seems to be lacking in confidence at the start of the show before getting into the swing of things, and tonight was no exception. "The hellion" and "electric eye" are always going to go down well, and "Painkiller" was right up there as well, along with a somewhat surprising "Angel", which worked remarkably well. A good showing from Priest, then, but for me, Megadeth just edged them out for my band of the evening.

I'd come straight from work, but didn't arrive in time to see H.E.A.T. Andre Matos had left Angra some years ago, and embarked on a solo career. He's still got a decent voice, and put on a reasonably good performance, but I feel something's lacking in the songwriting department, and apart from a rendition of Angra's "Lisbon", nothing much stood out. Edguy have long been a strong live band, so I was expecing big things. But for whatever reason, they just weren't on form tonight. Partly, that was a poor choice of setlist. For example, we didn't hear "Tears of a mandrake" or "Mysteria" tonight, both of which were very much missed. "King of fools" was the highlight, but overall, an off night for Edguy.