Band:
Whitesnake & The Quireboys Venue:
City Hall,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Date:
8 October 2004
Opening
up for Whitesnake tonight are local hero's The Quireboys. Who, much like
Whitesnake, have seen a number of line-up changes over the years, but as
with Whitesnake, as long as the vocalist remains the same the heart of the
band is still alive and beating strong.
Spike
continues to keep the spirit of The Quireboys very much alive. We’ve seen
a recent resurgence with their latest album ‘Well Oiled’ receiving some
good reviews it seems that The Quireboys are back.
Opening up
with ‘Good To See Ya’ off said new album, it’s like they’ve never been too
far away from our hearts as the crowd soon welcome the boys home. The
ever flamboyant Nigel Mogg is dressed like a poor mans fifties gangster
complete with pin striped suit and trilby to which Spike informs us that
cigarettes and watches will by available from him after the show.
The band
continued the show with ‘Misled’ and ‘Tramps and Thieves’, both of which
seem to have got the crowd on their side. Spike doesn’t seem to have lost
any of his stage presence as he twirls the microphone stand around his
head, and although he seem a little cramped on the small amount of stage
that the band have to perform, it still amazes me that he has never
decapitated a member of his own band.
They
continue with some classic Quireboys as ‘Hey You’ and finish of a somewhat
short set with the must play ‘7 o'clock’. This has to be one of their
finest performances for some time and I'm glad I was there to see it.
As the
lights went down to indicate the start of the main event the whole
auditorium rose as one to hail the entrance of Coverdale and Co.
The
Whitesnake that appeared here many moons ago may be a thing of the past
but as a snake sheds its skin, so Whitesnake have shed their skin on
numerous occasions. But after each a member goes he is replaced by a
seemingly greater force and after many reincarnations the present
Whitesnake is like a who’s who of rock.
With Tommy
Aldrich being the longest serving member apart from Mr. Coverdale himself,
the powerhouse bass lines are provided by one of my favourite bass players
Marco Mendoza. Providing the guitars are non other than Doug Aldridge, a
guitarist with an outstanding pedigree, and also on guitar is one of the
most under rated guitarist of all time, Mr. Reb Beach. Lastly,
undertaking the duties on the keyboards is Timothy Drury.
With the
venue holding so many memories for many a Whitesnake fan, it seems like
only yesterday that Whitesnake played the City Hall for the first time.
Opening up with ‘Burn’, from Coverdale’s Deep Purple debut album, then
mixing in a little ‘Stormbringer’ for good measure. You knew that this
was going to be one special night.
This was
supposed to be the second date of this tour, but as David informed us,
they had had to postpone the Glasgow date because he had some sort of
bug. Although this certainly didn’t seem to affect his performance at
tonight's show.
The band
continued with ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Love Ain’t No Stranger’. Both songs
intertwined with Coverdale soloing in between songs that were called out
for by the audience. It’s still is hard to believe that he is 53 years old
and still manages to have the majority of the female members of the
audience screaming out his name.
With a
backing band of such a calibre it was obvious that there would be one or
two solo slots in tonight's gig, and two there were. Firstly Doug
Aldridge doing his bit, and later Tommy Aldrich beating the skins to
death, firstly with sticks and then without.
Solos
aside the mainstay of tonight's show had to be Coverdale’s vocals as they
scythed though the immense back catalogue that is Whitesnake. His voice
has never lost any of it’s power and emotion. This was never so prominent
as in one of my favourite Whitesnake songs ‘Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of
The City’, as the crowd sang along to the chorus it took me, and I'm sure
many others, back to the night when we first heard it played live, and I'm
telling you there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Finishing
off what had to be nearly a 2 hour set with ‘Here I Go Again’ the band
left the stage for the first time. With the capacity crowd baying for
more, more we soon received with ‘Take Me With You’ and ‘Still Of The
Night’.
And as the
lights went down for the final time Mr. Coverdale walked out on to the
stage alone to receive a standing ovation to which he gave us a solo
rendition of ‘Soldier of Fortune’ before leaving the stage for the last
time. This has to be one of the finest performances I have seen from the
band and over the years I've seen quite a few.
