A
Night To Remember
Driving round London tonight, the sky was alight with Fireworks.A sign full of omenous portent as it turned out - Bonfire Night sparks were coming early, in more ways than one, tonight.
Simon played a solo acoustic set to open tonight's show. He was using a Taylor cutaway acoustic, rather than the Takemine or, in more recent times, the Gibson J200's, it sounded really fine. Wonderful, fiery performance.
Tony Butler, (of Big Country fame, also played with Simon's brother Pete on e.g White City), then played a short acoustic set, using an Ovation. He has written some nice songs, and is planning to put out an album at some point. Again, a fine performance.
Main act of the evening was the On The Air reunion - this was the band Simon formed with Tony Butler on bass and Mark Brzezicki, (with the same Big Country, PT credentials as Tony), also on drums. Simon said this was the first time they had all performed together in public for 20 years. The rehearsal had apparently gone extremely well, and they immediately gelled, right from the opening song, to turn in a fantastic, very tight, performance. Simon was driving this capable band hard, with some fine guitar, but seemed very relaxed in doing so. Tony and Mark are really great players, the whole band combination fairly sizzled throughout the set.
We have followed all their careers now over the past 20 years, and so we were <<particularly>> looking forward to this gig.
Set list:
Simon solo - he came onstage at 8:38pm.Medicine
The Taylor acoustic has a nice, well rounded sound, characterised by an exceptional, bright top end. Simon wore a cool pair of specs, and a dark top with the red, white and blue RAF target symbol right in the middle of the chest. That familiar, ascending chord sequence chimes out, and we're away........The Way It Is
'Anyone here own an album called Among Us? It's one of, I guess, my finest hours, took me about an hour to make......boom boom(!) This is one of the tunes from that, it's called The Way It Is'.Gorgeous verse and chorus, which had the audience listening intently, and applauding loudly at the end.
Simon has written so many wonderfully evocative songs that have 'Classic' running through their entire length, (rather like those sticks of seaside rock, that kids of all ages love throughout their lives). This song was, quite rightly, many people's choice as the First Single from Among Us, but it is a <very> difficult choice, there are so many gems on that CD.
(We've lost count of the number of people who have said that this song knocks them out. One memorable example was on the Who Quad tour in '97, where Simon, of course, played some blindingly good solo electric throughout. The AU album was played before each show. We were with some German fans we had met up with in Dortmund,
and they asked if we knew who was playing - they had also been to quite a few shows on the tour, and had heard it and liked it. Their faces lit up when they realised it was Simon, who would be be performing in front of them a matter of minutes later).Girl In New York
'Could I have a touch more guitar in the monitors for this one, please?'.As Simon pointed out later, this was so he could hear himself play the delicate guitar finger picking featured in this song. Truly great songwriters and performers can use the whole dynamic range of the sound spectrum effectively. Take a soft, finely crafted guitar figure, an emotive melody with a delightfully romantic story line, as here, and you have one great song.
Unusually, for a rock crowd, you could have heard a pin drop while Simon played this song; clearly, he was delicately wringing emotion out of every line, and the audience recognised that.
'Thank you, fantastic. That's so wonderful you listened to that one, thank you. I've played in bars in Minneapolis, where I couldn't hear myself playing that song!'.
Ecstasy Heaven
'This is my last acoustic song, I want to keep this fairly short and get on with some loud stuff. This is Ecstasy Heaven'.Another one of our particular favourites, containing a wonderfully woven lyric, driven along by some strongly played chord work, combined with an anthemic chorus, all of which Simon delivers perfectly, to bring the first part of the show to a rousing close.
'There's more to come, Tony will be up in 5 minutes to do a few songs, see you later'
Tony Butler solo
Very good, confident performance, with Tony playing the Ovation acoustic.
He said that 'some of you are more used to seeing me play a guitar with less
strings on than this, this is all a but mind blowing for me, but we're getting
there.....'.
'May Queen'
This was a well performed song, about the various happenings of May 1st, the carnival, procession, maypoles. He did not announce what the song was actually called, but we felt the above fitted reasonable well as a description.I Believe In Angels
Very catchy tune, very singalong melody accompanied by some nice guitar strumming.One Day To The Next
Tony explained that this was autobiographical, and related to an experience he and his family had actually been through. As we all get older, it becomes easier to identify with the sentiments expressed in this song - those times when the intensity in your own personal world, for example when a close relative or friend is very, or terminally ill, and the world just has to pass by for a time, almost without you noticing it at times.'This next song I'm going to do was requested by a good friend I got to know because we drink a lot together. He asked me to do this song - I have not done this song for many years, its's a song that's extremely close to my heart, because it's got a lot to do with the plight and concern I had with my family at one stage. I made a record of it to bring awareness to this probme, as people do. I thought I'd play it to you because this is the first time I've played in London on acoustic guitar'.
'There's nothing here to comfort me at midnight,
why do I feel so scared and alone?
Give me courgage, give me answers in the dark,
I'm so confused it's been so long,
one day to the next is the way I get along'.He was joined onstage by a female backing vocalist towards the end of
this song.'This is a song about wanking' - Tony's intro
....as this song is concerned with the powers of observation, in particular of the female form! A fun, but yet still pensive account of love and yearning.'Thanks very much, we'll be back in a little while for a lot of nostalgia'.
On the Air
Simon played a regular vintage style sunburst Strat, (the good old original
style dot pole piece pickups, not lace sensors), and a Tele for one song (SMFM).
He also used a wah and volume pedal, along with a Boss foot pedal, (overdrive?).
The Strat seemed to give him quite a different sound than of late, but it
suited the older, newer and brand new songs perfectly. You can always rely
on a Strat to cut through a lively rhythm section! Simon played much more
lead than usual. Laney backline, (from Birmingham!), as usual. He was getting
an exceptionally very full, and solid sound, with this kit. Interestingly
he also played piano onstage for two of the songs in the set.
Typically English
They came onstage, plugged in, before Simon said to Mark and Tony, 'Yeah - Let's do it' , He than came to the mic: 'OK - hello, this one's called Typically English'.Right from the off we have Mark's tight drums, Tony's trademark punchy bass line with that treble edge, played well up the Fender Precision neck. Wah guitar solo from Simon. A real shin kicking opener.
Another Planet
This is a great song, another long time favourite, whcih came out as a single, which included TE above, in 1980 - dig the pic of the three boys on the back! 'We're going to Another Planet' - a sentiment shared by many disaffected young and old people at the time, as one M Thatcher had come to power in the year before! Really great to hear this song again.
First Time
'OK - a couple of old ones for you. Now we're going to do a couple of new ones. This song's called First Time'.This featured some great drum fills from Mark, and solid bass from Tony - a good demo of why they formed one of the finest rhythm sections in rock from the 80's onwards. A slow, but hard edged song, with fantastic wah guitar from Simon.
Ages
One of Simon's recent CD singles - and simply a classic song that features one for those choruses that once heard, constantly sticks in the memory - plus a great live song. By now the band were seriously cooking........Soul Searching
Starts with a guitar intro from Simon. A slow tempo, intense rocker.Raised
'It's really nice you've all turned out here. Yesterday we had our one and only rehearsal. 25 years, no 20 years on. Anyway, we did the rehearsal. We did Typically English and it was just very strange how it went really. (They ran through each song, perfectly, once only). We're still a great band aren't we?' (Single female voice "No") ST: 'We're gonna have to prove her wrong then!(!)'Guitar intro, with rim shots from Mark - he later added some incredible 'machine gun' fills.
Good Boys
'This is an oldie' Simon and Tony on vocals. Tony plays a fantastic, fast, bass solo at the top of the neck, to bring this song to a closeJimmy Dub
Legato guitar intro, followed by bass, and then Simon played piano. Highlights are the wah guitar and the skank/bluebeat guitar pattern inferred in the title.Save Me from Me
ST straps on the Telecaster for this song (to save a bit of tuning down?)'OK - something from Among Us for all my fans, (strums Tele), nice sound that eh? (he's right of course, sometimes nothing can beat a good, old, Tele on a track). We're early, no we've got about 3 songs left, and we're gonna play one of them now, let's do it - Save Me From Me'.
The reliable STB barnstorming rocker. Fantastic riff, and many of the audience sang along to this one. Tony also played particularly well on this, we thought.
On The Air then left the stage for a few minutes, to voluminous applause from a well pleased looking audience.
Encore:
Our Time
'Great band then, great band now. By the way, you can get this On The Air album from Track records'. (Online orders possible via the Track Web site, right now).
Simon actually started this on the Tele, the quickly switched to the (regular tuned?) Strat.
Until Tomorrow
Simon put the guitar back in its stand and played piano on this. Slow tempo, a good choice to end what had been an outstanding, well paced set.Simon: 'Thank you - thanks very much for coming to see me and my friends. Take Care'
Tony: 'And have a good Christmas!'
Some of the original OTA tracks, which were never released in album form,
(although some of the tracks were issued as singles which were very rare at
the time, and so even harder to find now now, we picked up the one we missed,
from OTA2, a few months back in Holland - 20 years on, in mint condition cover/record)
What would have comprised the original OTA - Ready For Action album has now been released on the resurrected Track label - it's available to buy now online, and features the old album contents, as well as some new tracks written by Simon.
We met up with Paul Townshend at the end of the show. The band he is managing, Tetra Splendour, has been featured in NME, (and Smash Hits, he told us when we chatted recently due to the fact that they are a new emerging and interesting band, we stress), recently. Big hugs all round. 'Great to see you again, it must be years since we saw you last, (smiling), actually no, it's only a few months innit?'.
Simon came out to mingle with the fans later. More big hugs. He really didn't need anyone to state that he'd just played a great set, his upbeat manner and broad grin said it all, but we told him anyway! This OTA gig is a one off, and he's planning a headlong drive into his solo career next year, which should prove very interesting.
It's a great pity that they are not playing more OTA shows - we know Simon has a lot of fans out there, as do Tony and Mark, who would have surely appreciated a show like the one tonight.
Kim+Lester
A great big thank you to Kim and Lester for their continued generosity! Great review, and thanks for all the scans! - kathy v.