Band:
LA Guns Venue:
Manchester Students Union, Manchester, UK Date:
29 September 2001
All I can say is aaaaaaarrrrrghghghghhhh!! 12 years guys!!! Why so long?
The lights went down in
the venue and the smoke machines come out to play. On wanders TRACII GUNS
except I didn't recognise him until he started playing the guitar.
He just looked so different from those 12 or so years ago, no spiky long
hair, no leather jeans, the tattoo's where the same but with the smoke
machine engulfing them in clouds so it was a bit hard to make out the
tattoo's on his shoulder until the spot lights fell on him.
Steve Riley (the original) on the drums and new guy Muddy on bass.
They played a five minute intro and them on wanders the sex god of glam
rock n roll, Mr Phil Lewis. He had a huge cheeky grin on his face as the
crowd lifted and screamed his name.
This man must have a pact with the devil; he doesn't age and hasn't really
changed that much at all. Still wearing skintight black jeans and black
vest tops, still got the long black hair (minus the bandanna) still sex on
legs. Pretty Cool! (Cold shower for me!)
They played a multitude of songs from their collection (12, I think in
total) of albums of the past and present.
To our great enjoyment they played most of the songs from their
self-titled first album, a few from Cocked and Loaded and a hand full from
Hollywood Vampires. Including Kiss Love Goodbye, No Mercy, Sex Action,
Never Enough and newy Hypnotized, which Phil dedicated to all the would
be, wanna be vampires in the audience.
Then there was a handful from their latest album including Man on The
Moon, Good Thing and Beautiful to which the audience sang along willingly.
The patter from them was
brilliant. Phil took great pleasure in telling us all that he was proud to
be British, especially after the recent atrocities in the US with the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
He said "I'm not very good at this sort of thing but you guys are great
and I am so proud to be British, especially all the help and love that has
come from over here it is fantastic ……you know what I mean".
He then changed the subject to something different, as he seemed to get
rather emotional about it all.
Tracii Guns was amazing, he could still out play the majority of guitarist
to this day. He played some absolutely amazing guitar solos (like in the
middle of Long Time Dead) and to show what a good showman he is, (or a
clever bugger) he even played his guitar intro to One More Reason with a
violin bow.
The audience went wild when Phil came back on to stage and told us "We are
LA Guns and we are what you call, Old School" and they went into a
fantastic version of "No Mercy". Some of the crowd were so enthused about all the singing and jumping up
and down ever time that Phil came near the front of the stage, that they
decide to try and … ahem, tackle his tackle.
The arms came searching up from the front like something from Queen's,
"Crazy little thing called Love" video and groped as much as they could
handle.
After an hour on stage they left telling us that if we wanted more we
would have to shout for it so we all obliged with chants of LA Guns to the
tune of Here We Go, just like footy fans!! And loads of feet stomping
which made the floor thunder under foot.
God knows what the people down stairs must have thought, was the ceiling
going to tumble on their heads like "Chicken Licken"!!!!
Five minutes later back
on stage they come bouncing around and bowing to the applause. We had a
load more songs from the guys including, Over the Edge and Electric Gypsy.
They played a mixed version of Crystal Eyes and Ballad of Jayne, which
started with the first verse and chorus of Crystal Eyes (dedicated to a
girl called Trinity - who is now fast asleep) and then into the whole of
Ballad of Jayne which was totally mesmerising, as we were all invited to
sing along.
Phil introduced everyone to the band, including a ditty about Tracii Guns
and then it was the last song of what could only be described as a
fantastic night.
The climax was a brilliantly elongated version of Rip n Tear, which
brought the house down and the night to a close. The guys did the
customary line of bows and then walked off into the darkness of the abyss.
In whole the gig was something else - it totally knocked the socks off and
for the guys to be on stage for over an hour and a half was amazing. They
really entertained.
The only down fall was the PA in the University, as the bass amp or
something kept cutting out and the smoke machine was on overload, but
apart from that, the band, the songs and the atmosphere was fantastic.
God, PLEASE come back again soon, don't leave it another 12 years, because
after all you're a Long Time Dead.
The lights went down in
the venue and the smoke machines come out to play. On wanders TRACII GUNS
except I didn't recognise him until he started playing the guitar.
The patter from them was
brilliant. Phil took great pleasure in telling us all that he was proud to
be British, especially after the recent atrocities in the US with the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Five minutes later back
on stage they come bouncing around and bowing to the applause. We had a
load more songs from the guys including, Over the Edge and Electric Gypsy.
