All that you have is your soul (Tracy Chapman).

Sunday 17 December 2006

Review: Status Quo

My good friend, Larrythelamb very kindly gave me a ticket to the Quo Concert at Wembley Arena last night, as his daughter had not been able to attend. I have to say that I'm not much of a fan, but hey, what the hell!

So we went, his son, brother and a friend and I. The evening didn't start that well, granted that the support bands were pretty horrendous. The first proudly exclaimed that they were Australian and I spent the next half hour waiting for them to get the first plane back home. In fact, they were so bad that I left the auditorium twenty five minutes in.

Quo came on at 9 pm and apparently performed a "stunning" set. Not knowing their songs didn't really help and all I could hear was one excrutiatingly loud song after another. Saying that, people were having a great time, so I know that I was pretty much alone in my negativity.

I took it for about an hour until I feel the need to walk out, head throbbing and feeling myself becoming partially deaf. One of the stewards, a very nice girl offered me a set of earplugs and this helped immeasurably in my enjoyment of the next hour. Additionally, eighty minutes in, they actually played some that I knew, such as Whatever You Want and Rockin' All Over The World. On hearing these, my attitude changed and I had a fantastic time bopping along - for approximately six whole minutes.

Sadly, these two songs signalled the end of the concert! They came back, played another excrutiatingly long and melodiless mess of a song but redeemed themselves somewhat with a great version of Burning Bridges, followed by Rock And Roll Music (a Beatles' standard) which endeared them to me a little more. Saying that, as performers, they were extremely likeable.

And then it was over. Everyone left happy and I spent the rest of the evening trying to hear properly again.

Larry, I really appreciate your generous offer and I did have a good time, but next year, I don't think I'll be joining you. The most fun I had was watching everyone else (including Quo) having a rocking good time. Glad I went along though.

No comments: