Venue: The Cluny, Newcastle Upon Tyne

With 13 albums under his belt and having worked with the likes of The Dead Daisies, Angora, The Scream, Motley Crue, Union and ESP, Ratt, Twenty 4 Seven, Zen Lunatic, Brides of Destruction and Angel City Outlaws, the name of John Corabi has been around for some time now and he has always put 100% into everything he has done.  His acoustic shows have been no exception. 

Tonight John sat alone mid-stage, guitar in hand and put together a set of some of his greatest songs, a few covers and a whole bunch of stories around the songs. 

With no setlist, he set out his stall early opening up with the Union’s 'Love ( I Don’t Need It Anymore)'.  Right from the off Corabi had the crowd spellbound, well apart from some pratts behind me who'd had a few too many sherbets and couldn’t keep their mouths shut. 

For one guy to sit there and go through over 2 hours of music and chat, and to be able to keep the audience fully engaged throughout is a real skill, I certainly couldn’t do it.

Hearing him telling tales of how he joined Motley Crue and the subsequent firing five years later were enthralling.  Tales of how he me his hero Steve Tyler for the first time, and then how he and Bruce Kulick got together for Union when both of them has been fired from their respective bands was so interesting to hear firts hand.

The set itself was a journey through Corabi’s career covering songs from Motley, Union and of course The Scream, even throwing in Bowie cover, a little Aerosmith and a touch of Kiss.    

But it was the stories behind the music that really made this an interesting show.  When you’ve read the articles and heard the rumours, it’s not until you hear it from the horses mouth first hand that you really get a feel of what this Rock n' Roll business is all about.  Those dog eat dog tales are all true. 

Highlights of the set for me had to be 'Seasons of Wither' from Aerosmith and ‘Father Mother Son’ from his Scream days.  This song may be some twenty eight years old but it's still a classic and still pulls at the heart strings.  The Motley Crue songs 'Hooligans Holiday' and 'Misunderstood' were given a great new spin, especially Hooligans, it sound great acoustically.  

Even Corabi’s current band The Dead Daisies got the acoustic treatment on 'Dead And Gone' that had the audience singing along.  It was Canada’s day as one member from Alberta shouted out 'Hard Luck Woman' and got his wish, as this Kiss song originally sung by Peter Criss really rocked out as we Cluny choir sang along. 

The set closer was the song that got me hooked on Corabi and was of course 'Man in the Moon', a great climax to a great show and one I would recommend everyone check out.  This great man is currently on his European Acoustic tour and if you do check him out live on this tour, I promise you won't be disappointed. 

I couldn't help but think this show would be have been better billed as "An evening with John Corabi", as this was not just a show, this was a real evening to get to meet the real John Corabi, who even came out straight after the show to hang with fans and have photo's taken and to sign whatever they wanted.   

Setlist: Love ( I Don’t Need It Anymore) (Union), If I Never Get To Say Goodbye, Father, Mother, Son (The Scream), Seasons of Wither (Aerosmith), If I Could Only Sleep, Dead And Gone (Dead Daisies), Dead (Union – Second album The Blue Room), Misunderstood (Motley Crue), With You And I, Hard Luck Woman (Kiss – Peter Criss), Robin’s Song (Union), Lady Stardust (Bowie), Hooligans Holiday (Motley Crue), Man In The Moon (The Scream).

Review by: Barry McMinn

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