Artist:  Whitesnake & The Answer

Venue: City Hall, Newcastle

Date:   26 June 2006

It's been nearly one year and seven months since Whitesnake last blew me away at this very same venue.  The support that time was local hero’s The Quireboys, but tonight that slot was filled by one of the best new up and coming bands I’ve seen for such a long time, Irelands The Answer.

The Answer have been at Newcastle now four times and I have had the pleasure of seeing them at every show and they have impressed me from the very beginning.  Tonight’s show was just as impressive if not more so.

The band led by Cormac Neeson deliver pure 70’s hard rock with a modern edge.  Opening up their account with ‘Follow Me’, the band got backing from the three quarter’s full auditorium straight away. The set continued with ‘No Questions Asked’ and those in the crowd who were blown away by Neeson’s vocals on 'Follow Me' were simply gob smacked by his performance on 'No Questions'.  He seemed full of energy and was definitely up for tonight’s show, as indeed were the rest of the band.

Next came ‘Keep Believing’, the song that first got me into the band and was the favourite song of many of the crowd who had already heard of the band.  Indeed I suspect it ended up being the favourite of a lot of those folks who haven’t seen the band before as well.

The band kept the momentum going with ‘Under The Sky’, which is the opening track from the band's debut album 'Rise', that had just been released the day before.

The band showed that they aren’t just a 70’s revival band and delved into the music archive for ‘Preachin’, a 30’s blues song that the band made their own with some excellent slide guitar from Paul Mahon, who just ripped up the blues and put his own stamp on them.

The band finished off another top-notch performance with ‘Be What You Want’, which was probably Neeson’s finest vocal performance so far.  Indeed this was probably the bands finest hour, or should I say forty minutes, for me and will do the band a power of good as it's this type of crowd that will appreciate them more than any other and let's hope this is the stepping stone the band need to bring them the attention the deserve.  Although they were limited to a forty minute slot, in that forty minute slot the managed to win over more fans than any of the previous performances that I have had the pleasure of seeing the band at.

Now to the main event of the night, as the lights went down and the band stepped onto the stage there was only one line-up change to the band that I had seen nineteen months ago and that was the absence of bass maestro Marco Mendoza, but filling those boots tonight was Uriah Duffy who in the past has worked with Pat Travers, Carmine Appice, Christina Aguillera, Sly and the Family Stone and his current word Flametal, a mix of Flamenco and Metal.

The set opened up in familiar style with the medley of 'Burn' and 'Stormbringer', but if you thought that this was going to be simply a re-run of the last tour and a carbon copy of the 'Still of the Night' DVD then you are surely mistaken.  Coverdale has enough of a back catalogue to mix it up a little and although there were a few songs from the last tour, these are songs that if they were left out, the band would never get out of the venue alive.

 

The set continued with ‘Slide It In’ and ‘Love Aint No Stranger’, after which Coverdale did a few birthday announcements to various fans in the crowd before going into the moving ‘Aint Gonna Cry No More’.

Then it was time for something new and a song that would be played for the very first time ‘Ready To Rock’, which is a storming song that showed that there is still plenty of life in the old dogs song writing yet.

Then it was back to the classics with ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Ready and Willing which saw the first of the obligatory solo’s.  First up was Doug Aldridge who just ripped out his now familiar blues style solo, then it was Reb Beach's turn to show what he could do. 

 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, in my opinion Reb is one of the most underrated guitar players around today.  His more aggressive style of guitar playing is definitely more my cup of tea.

‘Crying In the Rain’ was next hailing the way for Tommy Aldridge to show what a true master of the skins can do.

After the band introductions by Coverdale is was time for one of my all time favourite Whitesnake songs ‘Aint No Love In The Heart Of The City’ a song that had show the City Hall choir still had a fine voice.

As I glanced over to the clock on the balcony it was hard to believe the band had been on stage for nearly and hour and a half, the time had simply whizzed by, the set was nearly at a close but there was still time for a few more classics before the band left the stage first up ‘All Your Love’ and ‘Here I Go Again’.

After a short interlude it was back to business with ‘Take Me With You’ and the now must play song ‘Still Of The Night’.  The band left the stage for the final time it was time for Covedale's swan song, his solo spot if you will.

As he gave thanks to the crowd and asked them to sing along on ‘Soldier Of Fortune’, this rounded off another special night of Whitesnake classics.  With such a vast back catalogue behind him I’m sure it won't be long before we are treated to another Whitesnake tour and then I might get my wish list fulfilled and 'Lovehunter' will make an all to long return to the Whitesnake set.  

 

 

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