Recent Gigs

Over the last couple of months I've been too a couple of great gigs.

The DAMNED - June 5th - Manchester Academy

Those that know me well will know The Damned are one of my favourite bands and I have been lucky enough to see them many many times. Junes gig at Manchester's Academy was one of the best performances I've seen from the band, they were on fire.

Ed Tenpole Tudor provided the support doing an acoustic set and very entertaining he was to, he included the songs the crowd wanted too hear such as "Swords of a Thousand Men" and "Who Killed Bambi" and included a number of anecdotes around the songs.

The Damned kicked off with "Wait For The Blackout" and then proceeded to play a blistering set which included a number of songs such as "Gun Fury" "Limit Club" Bad Time For Bonzo" and "Thrill Kill" that haven't been aired live properly for a number of years.

The set still included the classics "New Rose" Love Song" Eloise" and "Smash It Up" as well as a Seeds cover "Satisfy You" which they will be recording for a tribute album.

The band seem so comfortable on stage together with Vanian & Sensible the main focus of attention. Bassist Stu West and Drummer Pinch provide an impressive rhythm section with Monty providing the keyboards and some manic dancing!

All in all a top gig from a band who in my opinion at least have been vastly underrated and under promoted for years.

The second gig was:

PiL - July 24th - Liverpool O2 Academy

I saw PiL in December and they blew me away, so when this 2nd part of the tour was announced I jumped at the chance of going.

Lydon's voice is so unique and powerful and the band produce such an awesome noise and this gig was even better than the one last December.

There was no support act but PiL were on for nearly 2 and a half hours and it flew by. The set started with "This Is Not A Love Song" and featured some of there best tunes as well as a couple of Lydon solo tracks such as "Physcopath".

For me the highlights were "Warrior" "Religion" "Disappointed" "Death Disco" and the 3 song encore of "Public Image" "Rise" and "Open Up". 2 and half hours over far too quickly.

I take quite a lot of photos when I go to gigs and this can be seen on my Flickr page