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First of all I'd
like to apologise to Maiden England who were also appearing on tonight's
bill, but due to unforeseen circumstances I didn't make the theatre until
about 10 minutes before the end of their set, so I wouldn't insult them by
trying to do a review on them based on that.
Powerage were heralded to the stage by a
group of bagpipes and drummers standing in front of the stage, and as they
burst into their familiar show-starter "Riff-Raff", you could tell that
this was the only place they should be playing tonight as they looked so
at home on stage, being able to move about more than usual.
As "Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be" began,
I began to notice that the place was about 3/4 full and what was more
surprising was the amount of kids there with their parents, which goes to
show that decent music is being passed on to the younger generation!
Some of them were giving 'Angus' a run for his money as when he started
his trade-mark duck walking, some of the kids had blow-up guitars and were
copying!
Now that they were in full flow on stage,
the front was 3 - 4 people deep, head-banging and 'horn-thrusting', the
songs were coming thick and fast when 'Bon' stopped the music to ask if
there was a lady in the audience who'd like to join them on stage for a
song, so eventually we had a good dance along to the crowd favourite
"Whole Lotta Rosie" which went down a storm. Not to be outdone,
'Angus' got carried on someone's shoulders up and down the aisle of the
theatre whist still playing!
A slight change of costume for the singer
saw him become a priest for "Let There Be Rock", giving out his sermon to
the pack of fans at the front, showing that the stage was well and truly
theirs now. As the show came towards the end there was only ever
going to be one way to finish, and sure enough after 'Bon' emotionally
thanked the audience for turning up, the band of bagpipes and drums
returned to the stage and what I can only describe as a 'hairs on the back
of your neck' version of "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N
Roll)" filled the theatre with sound and the crowd went mad! They
absolutely loved it and at the end, Powerage were given a standing ovation
which was well deserved after such a great show.
Hopefully we'll get
another gig like this at the Journal Tyne Theatre, so it's a case of
fingers crossed for 2007.
*A big thanks goes out
to our special guest reviewer Bob Baldwin for this review.
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