Blackpool was the beginning of the end for me.
I really enjoyed myself in the afternoon watching Stated Quo, what a great craic, with a few beers and a good gang of mates who know and love the old Quo tunes.
But the Opera House gig left me feeling deflated. The merchandise is rubbish. It's been
knocked together cheaply without any
care for design or variety. There were no
tour patches. There's always tour
patches.
Rossi didn't even mention
the new album, even though they've
been plugging it on TV & radio. I get the
impression that they've had zero input
into its release and they just don't care,
or are perhaps even embarrassed about
having to promote yet another greatest
hits.
They seem to be completely
at a loss about what to do with the
setlist. They tried putting in FF songs
last year, and that went down like a lead
balloon, so what have they done this
year? Brought back in The Wanderer and
Gerdundula. I'm guessing they moved
Burning Bridges to replace Hold You
Back, for the 'jumping' song.
The
only thing I enjoyed about the gig was
having Parfitt within arms length of me
at the front of the stage, hammering out
Bye Bye Johnny. He was so close that I
could see the detail of the mother of
pearl fret markers on his white tele. He
was so close that I didn't even want to
take a photo because I just wanted to
drink in the power and the awe inspiring
image of my rock hero doing what he
does best right in front of me. I will never
forget it and it was worth the ticket price
just for that precious minute.
But I
never really want to see Rhino looking
bored out of his brains playing The
Oriental again.
I'm going to
Birmingham and Sheffield, but I daresay
that's it for me now. If they announce a
final tour I'll go to say goodbye, but, like I
say, it was the beginning of the end for
me.