The Who: Beaulieu
James arrives in the mighty 1ooo cc chariot o' rock. And the 3 hour drive is ready to begin from Islington to the land of the bumpkins.
Errrr, hang on...have we taken a wrong turn...doesn't look very rock n roll Acton to me...
Ah, but keep faith...
Then this High School band turned up and played a few of their wistful tunes about love, life and jam making.
Casbah Club were as ever right on the money! Good in Beaulieu, a shorter set than in Hyde Park...where frankly they kicked arse and were pretty damn convincing. Woke up this morning with Casbah Club songs in my head...never thought that would happen. Seriously.
And then these fellas called The Who turned up...at right royally kicked ass for the second night in a row. Hyde Park had been the most fantastic gig, and The Who did a great job with a big crowd, but this was a very different kind of venue.
But they were loud and energetic. Pino's bass seems to be a lot louder than in 2004, and it really makes a difference. Zak is constantly surprising me when I hear him.
As for the other two fellas. Man, that Roger Daltrey he's got more power in his voice than the Hoover Dam. He's sounding great. Better than in 2000 and and 2004. In fact, he is on a different planet from 2000. Its strange how if you saw the band around then - particularly on the Royal Albert Hall DVD - The Ox is the complete star of it. No-one comes close.
But it seems that this is shaping up to be Roger's tour. Pete is sounding great too, but he didn't have some of the dodgy patches that Roger did five years ago. Christ, the man has just renewed my faith in the Who by writing the Mike Post Theme. Which frankly, at the moment, is the best fucking track on stage. If only it'd be a single. But then again, I don't think that Baba O'Reilly was either.
Fantastic stuff.
Tom.
posted by Tom Matchett @ 10:23 am
2 Comments:
Hi Tom,
Cool you made it to Hyde Park and Beaulieu! I caught the webcast of Hyde Park last night, it looked fab. I really liked the stage screen images, thought it was really well done, very pop art. I went to the Leeds union and Leeds o2 gigs. The O2 gig was great but paled in comparison to the Union. I was just too far away to get the full effect, the band were minute dots on the stage whereas at the Union we right in the thick of it. Looks like you got a good view from your photos. Do you have plans to catch any of the other gigs? I'd go to all of them if I could. They're truely stunning, god bless em!
Hope you don't suffer the post-who blues that has been affecting many of us in blogland!
Cheers,
Moonpie
PS If you still need photographs let me know the brief and I'll see what I can do, I'll work for free, I just enjoy having projects.
Fantastic pictures, Tom. I am psyched about going to Berlin and eventually seeing them here in Toronto after reading all the amazing reviews from blogland, and from seeing the webcast from Hyde Park.
Glad you had a great time.
Cheers,
Anne-Marie
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