Joe Rocks Rotherham TakeII

As the original post got obliterated I will have another go... mistakes and all......

As always when I visit South Yorkshire the Sirens of Sheffield lured me away from the correct path and tempted me into the wrong direction, so following two sorties past Meadowhall and some eagle-eyed sign spotting from my fellow traveller, my Bona-Brother John, we picked up the “Magna” signs and found the venue. We were very surprised to find ourselves walking in alongside Steve Mclaren and his son. For those of you across the pond or not fans of Football he is a former manager of the England National team and now leads Dutch outfit FC Twente. So Joe has a celebrity, or at least sporting, fan base.

I resisted any attempt to make sarcastic comment about umbrellas or why he was not in South Africa and left him joining the very small queue of people who had “proper” tickets whilst we tagged on to end of a vast snake of humanity who possessed “e-tickets”. This, in microcosm was the whole problem with the venue, it is so obviously not a music venue, poorly signed, badly organised and awkward for access and egress.

We sidestepped the ridiculous queues for a pint, despite really fancying one and weaved our to the hall (shed?) It is a long thin venue and we managed to muscle our way to a reasonable position about half way back. Sandi had done her bit and in no time at all Iron Maiden were heralding the arrival of Joe and the band. The new stage set up, back drop and lighting is very impressive and really makes it a show rather than just a “gig”. Let’s hope that a big screen soon follows so people who are smaller than a basketball player are able to see what is going on and prevent the sad sight of people walking out because they are unable to see the visual spectacle.

Now onto the nitty gritty, after a slightly dodgy start whereby the sound quality of “The Ballard of John Henry” was somewhat muffled the sound guys did a grand of producing crystal clear sound throughout the rest of the set. It was a brilliant performance by the whole band, driven by Carmine and Bogie (whose loose-limbed power is relentless) and augmented by Rick, who was very audible during the whole evening, whilst upfront Joe was truly remarkable. “If Heartaches…” was the best I have ever seen, “Sloe Gin” as always made the hairs back of neck bristle and filled me with a sense of deep satisfaction. Wonderful stuff!

The new tracks dovetailed very nicely with “Blue and Evil” the pick of Black Rock selection. Having said that “Bird on a Wire” is a far better live than it is on the album. Mountain Time was as joyful as ever and Blues Deluxe would convince anyone with any doubt they were in the presence of guitar greatness. Never has the Blues Fish given up it scales to such a worthy cause!

Joe was spellbinding, pitch, tone and note perfect throughout the whole show, he works incredibly hard, makes genius accessible and whilst writing great songs never fails to give a nod in  the direction of his influences and peers either through covers or arrangements.

Over two hours after if began Joe waved his flying V in the air and the show was over. Another memorable evening had come to an end. If I were to add anything critical it would be that Joe has very limited verbal interaction with the audience, when he does it is generally well received and witty, When Joe plays the Hard Rock festival later in the year to an audience who are not there to see him alone it is a huge chance to make many more fans, and song introductions and banter may well help him along the way.

So a great show in not a great venue, thanks to Joe and his consorts and to my Brother John for his kindness and company. 

Steve aka Rockinhorse