happy hammond
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 187
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
M3 Wolverhampton - Review
Wolverhampton Civic Centre is a rather small, cozy venue and I should have known it was going to be a rather special night when I bumped into Mickey Moody in a pub, just before the show.
Bob Catley opened the show with his guitar buddy, Vince O'Regan, with a great 45 minute acoustic set of Magnum and solo songs. If you're not familiar with either, check them out. You won't be dissapointed.
M3 were a little late on stage - strange, seeing as how there was no other gear to be cleared but nonetheless, they started with that familiar power chord that built into a crescendo before "Walking in the shadow of the blues" Mark Stanway was too low in the mix and his keys didn't seem to cut through but Tony Martin did a stirling job on the vocals, singing rather than shouting in the way our David used to and, whilst he doesn't have the same stage persona, it worked for me. He tended to use his old Sabbath devil hand signs rather than grabbing his you know what!
The rest of the 2 hour show was a nostalgic trip thru the early eighties - strange that we critise Purple for not doing new songs and here we are enjoying 20 year old music, maybe it's because it's been such a long time since we heard Lonely Days Lonely Nights, Crying in the Rain, Don't break my heart again, and Ready 'n' Willing (great version)
Mickey's solo spot was his faultless slide guitar master class and Bernie Marsden played a blinder even dusting down the old twin necked Gibson SG. Jimmy Copley the drummer was excellent, particularly in Slow & Easy - dedicated to Cozy Powell - but Neil Murray seemed a little downbeat, his playing was rock steady but with his long blond locks now a lighter shade of grey, he looked more like an eccentric professor than the man who ligged for a thousand years!
This was a great show with the inevitable "Ain't no love" to close the main set and an encore of "Here I go Again" and a rip roaring version of "Take me with you!"
"I know love an' what it means...a skinny lil' girl in tight ass jeans..." sigh, they don't write 'em like that anymore.
To all those detractors of rock music, this was a lesson in how to do it. A bunch of old men? Maybe, but superb musicianship and an all round professional job.
See this show if you can.
|
21/11/2003, 14:55
|
Link to this post
Send Email to happy hammond
|
unchained
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 1227
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
Hi HH,
Glad you enjoyed the show, the Robin gig earlier in the year was even more cozy and the atmosphere even more electric.
I did look for you but your description fitted about half of the audience so a meet wasn't possible.
Funny how you met MM before the show, we met Bernie beforehand when he was getting out of his car. Couldn't speak to him as he was on the mobile phone but we said hi and shook hands.
|
21/11/2003, 15:05
|
Link to this post
Send Email to unchained
Send PM to unchained
|
happy hammond
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 187
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
I missed the Robin show as I was away but my band have played there a few times and it can be a great atmoshpere when it's full.
Thoroughly good show, shame about the beer
|
21/11/2003, 15:54
|
Link to this post
Send Email to happy hammond
|
mcpurple
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 788
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
i think a lot of us around the country would love to see this band, but i am afraid the nearest for me is cardiff on a wet sunday night, tonight!
thats a 3 1/2 hr, 200 mile trip each way.
i just want to know why there has only been 4 dates, 2 in wales (and just 40 miles apart), only one in the midlands and one in the north west!
even the north east got shafted when they pulled the show there.
|
23/11/2003, 20:07
|
Link to this post
Send Email to mcpurple
Send PM to mcpurple
|
Christos Gatzidis
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 2517
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
No disrespect to the M3 guys but I really think they're plagued with the 'pub rock' mentality, not so much in music issues as in organisational ones. The scheduling of the gigs is simply appaling (and it was similar with COS unfortunately for those who remember) and is what sets them apart from Coverdale. At least when he tours the UK you know he's going to cover the length and width of the country and play in decent sized venues instead of small clubs and pubs. I think it could do wonders for M3's popularity and their cause if they decided to do a proper UK tour with some thought put behind the scheduling of the gigs.
|
23/11/2003, 20:55
|
Link to this post
Send Email to Christos Gatzidis
Send PM to Christos Gatzidis
|
mcpurple
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 788
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
fair comment, but there are many pub/club sized venues around the country.
i can rattle off 3 in essex without even thinking about it!
there is no reason, with them having rushed out what appears to be a great live album, why they could not tour properly to support it.
i give the relatively recent bonnet/airey gigs as an example.
they had nothing to promote(together,) but toured the whole country before doing a show in barcelona!
m3 need to be thinking along the same lines.
|
24/11/2003, 0:47
|
Link to this post
Send Email to mcpurple
Send PM to mcpurple
|
Big J
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 6083
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
quote: mcpurple wrote:
i give the relatively recent bonnet/airey gigs as an example.
they had nothing to promote(together,) but toured the whole country before doing a show in barcelona!
The whole of England maybe...
|
24/11/2003, 10:07
|
Link to this post
Send Email to Big J
Send PM to Big J
|
happy hammond
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 187
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
That "pub-rock" mentallity is probably right. I think BM suggested lack of record company support for shutting down CoS so it may be difficult for them to organise a full-scale tour. Perhaps they're just testing the water.
|
24/11/2003, 11:22
|
Link to this post
Send Email to happy hammond
|
mcpurple
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 788
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
but 2 shows 40 miles apart!
if i lived between swansea and cardiff i would have been a well happy bunny.
|
24/11/2003, 12:12
|
Link to this post
Send Email to mcpurple
Send PM to mcpurple
|
unchained
Purple fan
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 1227
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: M3 Wolverhampton - Review
mcp,
you will just have to wait your turn to see this great act in your neck of the woods. I am sure that during 2004 they will do a more comprehensive tour of some of the UK's smaller venues and I cannot beleive that London & the South East would be missed out.
Meanwhile, you could always hop on a plane and catch them at one of the following:
quote: M3 - classic WHITESNAKE
EUROPEAN DATES
4th Dec Planet Music,Vienna
5th Dec Z7 Basle, Switzerland
6th Mila, tbc
7th Turin tbc
15th Dec Colossaal, Aschaffenburg
16th Dec tbc
17th Dec L'Atelier, Luxembourg
18th Dec Hammonie, Bonn
Bob
|
25/11/2003, 12:32
|
Link to this post
Send Email to unchained
Send PM to unchained
|