Saturday, October 31, 2015

The Pink Fairies- Borderline London, Oct 30th, 2015

Sue and I tried 4 different beers at a great place called the Craft Beer Company.. It was pretty packed with beer enthusiasts. We had wheat beer, a cherry sour, excellent pale ale (Pressure Drop) and Chinook London IPA. Yum.. Then some tapas at Jamon Jamon, which was a bit expensive but very nice food…  

Tim Rundell and George Butler

         Admiral Sir Cloudsly Shovell were to open the gig but a younger guy (not many of them this night) we were talking with said they cancelled as the venue could not or would not even provide them with enough money to cover the cost to get there and back. Pity.. Tim Rundell, he played with Mick Farren in the past and whom we saw here a couple of years ago, did a 30min set of blues with slide guitar originals and some covers, including a Larry Wallis track. They all sounded a bit too much the same except the one where he removed the slide and said it was a song he had written for his daughter 30 years ago. He was a nice guy, I talked with him a bit. He was joined for most of the set by George Butler, who would later play with the PF also.

Set List: Underclass, Without Her, Upside your Head, Ti na ni na nu, Po Boy, Lonesome Blues, Price is Right, Cuban Refugee, Waiting til Tomorrow

Jackie and original drummer Russell Hunter
         The Pink Fairies hit the stage even before time and sadly only had Sandy from the original line up. Russell is suffering from emphysema (like Mick Farren, who collapsed and died on that very stage also had). Sandy did come out during the 3rd or 4th song and play a bit of djembe and try to sing some vocals. He was not looking well and struggling to breath. Sandy was also not looking well and around this time also had stumbled backwards and was leaning against the back wall of the stage.  They had Jackie on djembe, keyboards and vocals (seen her with Space Ritual, Paradise 9) as well as Andy, played with Mick Farren for years on lead guitar and lead vocals.  It was a strange set as they played no early material at all (except War Girl). Some quite funny banter between songs and some funny subjects in the song lyrics, some of which Mick Farren wrote. They played a few brand new songs and said they would have a new studio album out early next year. Waiting for the Man and the Larry Wallis track, Police Car were recognized by the audience and enjoyed. The set was short and Sandy had got a chair to sit on and some water but was not doing well and collapsed on the stage during the 3rd to last song, Skeleton Army and the show abruptly ended. He had not been playing that well with some noticeable grimaces from George the drummer at times. Anyway… the band took a 10min break as think they had only played like 60mins. They came out and played one last song, the Snake. The set list said they were to play Uncle Harry’s Last Freakout but that was probably going to be a long jammed out thing and Sandy probably could not manage that…

I have to say it was not the best concert and a bit sad. I really hope that it is nothing serious with Sandy and just some dehydration. It was not that hot in the club at all but there is very poor ventilation.  IT was also a completely different set list than what I had expected. I have not had very good luck coming to see shows at this club lately, as last year was saw Space Ritual and Mick Slattery was terrible and more or less ruined the show. He had also been ill.  An ambulance was arriving at the place as we left so that was not a good sign.


Set List: Golden Bud, Waiting for the Ice Cream to Melt, Runnin’ out of Road, War Girl, The Hills are Burnin’, Stopped at the Border, Waiting for the Man, Police Car, Naked Radio, Skeleton Army, The Snake

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