Liverpool - City of Culture 2008 (Page 1 of 4)

Damn!! wish we(SteelyDad and I) could have stayed behind to meet Joe but we had a lond drive back to the Midlands. Great gig anyway,  loved Joe's new axe and new look. Had an issue with the fact that I was standing behind the tallest group of fans at the gig and struggled to see but I was determined it wasnt going to spoil my fun. Joe seemed to be struggling with his sound... not sure what the issue was he still sounded awesome to me.

I really loved the little Beatles riff in one of the songs(was it from "a Day in the Life" ?) .. The highlight for me these days is Just Got Paid / Dazed and confused.

Was really tempted to bring my les paul down and try and get Joe to sign it but the prospect of lugging it around all night was not so good.

Anyway, thanks for a great night Joe and it was great to meet the forum members.

Nightfly.

This is the first time I have posted a message on here. I went to see Joe at Liverpool and yet again was blown away by the guys talent and presence. This was my second Joe gig and I was not dissappointed. I went to see him at Morecambe so that is where i had my Bonabaptism but last night we took a friend to see Joe for the first time and he was awestruck. I thought the gig last night was pretty amazing but i prefered the venue at Morecambe. Thankyou joe for another awesome night. May you continue to rock my world for many years to come!!!

Neptune is far too small (Tiny) now for Joe. First saw Paul Carrack there in Liverpool, he now plays the Philharmonic and has recorded a couple of his DVDs there too! Oh man, if Joe were to play the Phil, his sound would be awesome! It's all seated though!

GEOFF

Fantastic write up.
Makes it even worse that I couldn't be there.....and only a few miles up the motorway !!
Not sure I can look at the pictures when you get them on without grimmacing about a missed golden night.

Joe really is now in the bigger league and needs bigger venues.

I would prefer a choice of sitting or standing so that all tastes are catered for - see Nightflys comments.....I'm not very tall and not everyone is capable of standing for a long time for pain reasons.
But there's no feeling like being at the front I agree !!

Morecambe offered this but was too small.....and with Mr Lynch unusually seated I believe !!

Preston Guildhall is a large standing and seated venue at the same time. Ideal for Joe !!
Saw Gary Moore, Alvin Lee and Stereophonics there as well as quite a few others. Pretty good.....and good pubs in area and an integral large bar area as well at the venue.

Shall I book it now Joe ??

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWSOME Night Chaps...

Personal Fave would be Mountain Time and Just Got Paid and Askin Around and ... oh hell, ALL of it ... Good to shake hands with few forum "faces" too - Eva, The Tripsy Sisters, Geoff, Michael, Cheshire Lass and Just John to name but a few... Sloe Gin T shirts to the fore Gents !!

Many thanks to my trusty chauffeur Nightfly - soz I slept most of the way home ... but 'twas the sleep of a satisfied man ;-)

Now to plan the next ... only 47 to catch Michael up !!!!

Well I’ve just about recovered from last night (explanation below), so I will attempt some kind of review, though how coherent it will be I don’t know!

Liverpool was our second Joe gig, having first seen him in Crewe last Feb. We’d decided to travel by train as Crewe station is only 10 minutes from where we live and the venue very close to Lime Street. Plus no rush hour traffic, parking etc. and we could have a leisurely picnic on the train.

We made it to the Lord Nelson in plenty of time for a couple of drinks and a chat with some of the forum members. It was great to put some faces to names… Tripsy, Geoff, Eva, Michael, Ian & others.  Sorry to anyone whose names I’ve not mentioned; I am notoriously useless with names!

We (being me and my other half “Just John”, as he is now known) left it until around 7.40 before moving next door to the venue as I have trouble standing for a long time due to back problems (and guess who’d forgotten her painkillers… doh!!). I agree with Ges’s comments above about all-standing venues for people who are vertically challenged or have pain issues. And don’t even get me started about the fight which is necessary to get to the bar or the loo!! But it was wonderful to see the venue completely packed out and the whole place buzzing with anticipation.

SSR were LOUD indeed, but went down well. John commented to me that it must be pretty daunting coming out to play guitar knowing you’re gonna be followed by Joe. Yup, I don’t think it gets much more daunting does it?!

Just before Joe and the guys came on stage, the atmosphere was totally electric and needless to say the welcome from the crowd deafening. As Geoff says, a leaner, slicker Joe… and I thought a more confident JB delivering a more polished performance. Joe seemed delighted that a 1200 capacity crowd had turned out on a Monday night and from a couple of comments he made about the success of Sloe Gin over here and, “you guys changed my life”,  I wonder if he now believes that he could easily fill much bigger venues.

We’d managed to get a good spot at the front against the left hand wall, which was useful to lean against and a lot cooler than in the middle. Although we couldn’t see Bogie at all, we had a fantastic view of Joe for the whole gig.

What can I say? I for one just run out of superlatives when trying to describe the experience of watching and listening to Joe. Whether you watch his dazzling finger work or close your eyes during a solo and just let Joe transport you… it is an experience beyond compare.

Joe must love the Gold Top as he played it for the majority of the time. It’s really hard to choose any highlights; Sloe Gin, One of These Days and High Water were superb but I just loved it all! It was a definite bonus this time knowing Joe’s music better than I had before. The guys seemed like they were having a good time and (I think) we were treated to a slightly extended encore? John (also a Yes fan) was thrilled that Joe played Starship Trooper to finish.

Thank you Joe, Carmine, Rick & Bogie for an amazing gig!!

One of the things that left a big impression on me was the age range of fans. There were two small, young lads just in front of us. They couldn’t have been more than about 12 years old. I didn’t get to chat to them but they seemed utterly transfixed the whole time. And just to our right were a group of three young men of around 18. I chatted to one; it was his first Joe gig. He was absolutely blown away and told me he’ll definitely be seeing Joe in Manchester in November. There were others there who’d I’d say were in their late 60s and of course a good proportion of women. Joe really does have a wide & rapidly expanding fan base… hey, no comments about bum sizes, ok!

And finally, as to why have I only just recovered. Our train back to Crewe was cancelled due to signal failure somewhere or other and we had to get a replacement coach home... via ALL the stations the train would have stopped at. I think there were 4 or 5, but I lost count. So we finally made it to bed at 2 am!  Arrrgh “let the train take the strain” pffft! It’s ok for me as I didn’t have to get up this morning, but poor John… well I think he made it into work at some point!

Hope everyone else made it home in a less-eventful fashion and hope Eva & her Mum have a good trip back to Germany today.

Cheshire_Lass/Libby

Cheshire_Lass/Libby   (Bonabaptised: 22 Feb '08)

If I'm alive when I'm 99 I'm still gonna be saying, "Remember 4th May 2009 when we saw Joe at the RAH... what a night that was!"

A BIG THANK YOU TO JOE, BOGIE, CARMINE & RICK - YOU WERE THE BEES KNEES!

The support:

Stone Soul River were indeed LOUD! - a bit too loud in my opinion in that I actually felt like I was having a heart attack after the wall of sound hit from the bass drum (I was stage left at the barrier about 3 foot from the stage - practically right in front of the PA - the things you do for a good view of Joe )

BTW The drummer of Stone Soul River was spot on - enthusiatic, timing excellent, really held the band together - could't comment too much on the guitarist and bass player as I had difficulty hearing them over the drums - especially the vocals

The main attraction:

When Joe came on stage he had to walk round the back from right to left and he came on with his girlfriend Jessica who seemed kind of shy - it was really cute to see them walk on together and to see Joe making sure she was nicely settled at the back left corner of the stage on a stool that had been strategically placed by Dave earlier

Joe was looking "fit as" and as he said later 35lbs lighter than the last time he appeared in the UK in February. He'd ditched his suit jacket (which probably would have fitted him like a tent now anyway) and took the semi-casual look with suit trousers (also rather slack) and shirt opened at the neck showing off a few chest hairs and may I say a rather lean mean chest to those close enough and bothered enough to take notice

New shades?

Bogie was looking cool, Carmine very laid back and mellow and Rick very "on the ball"

The show got off to a roaring start and continued in the same vein throughout, Joe played his heart out as usual and I really felt for him that the venue's PA wasn't up to his exacting standards (quite a bit of distortion close to the PA (probably not an issue for those further back)) he also had some trouble with his category 5 amp and at one point I wasn't sure whether he was trying to cast a spell on it or knock it off his stack - he even got down to his pedal board and checked the connections - not a happy bunny

Did not spoil the show for me though - the guys really rocked - quite literally - they had re-vamped quite a few of the tracks and they had a heavier rockier feel to them - Jane H are you listening - look out for rock god Joe!

And Joe made the effort for all of us on the left to do a few solo spots on our side of the stage(rather than mid-right where he usually solos and still did to a large degree that night) but kudos for thinking of us - he's such a nice guy

Talking of nice guy - as usual he gave full credit to Rick on his solo spot, and he thanked us the audience (yeah you heard it right - HE THANKED US!)

BTW Joe - in the UK you are either a pop artist or nothing - we don't go in for the different genres as far as charts go (not enough good music here in the UK to spread so far in my opinion)

And thank you for coming all the way from the US for just four gigs in the UK and Northern Ireland - that really shows your dedication to the British/Irish fans

Didn't get to meet other forum members at the gig (didn't make it to the Lord Nelson) but did catch a glimpse of Eva at the right hand side of the stage after she was pointed out by Stone Soul River

More later - I'm a bonamassaholic - just don't expect me to go to bonamassaholics anonymous any time soon - I ain't lookin to be cured

Vicky

"Stellar" a word used by Joe Bonamassa (also apt as a description of the man himself )

O.k. guys, it´s already way past midnight as I type this, but I will at least start with my Liverpool story - and even though I´m not trying or even hoping to get anywhere near Sister Libby´s fabulous "postzilla", I will borrow her style of posting and write the actual show review in another colour so everyone who doesn´t want to hear tiring personal stories can just scroll down to that part . Or you can just have a look at the pictures - just do as you please...

Saturday

My mum and me started our trip to Liverpool with a rather long journey to Manchester airport via Amsterdam Schiphol, where I waved at Marianne, George and Annelies during the landing approach.... our wonderful hosts Geoff and Sue picked us up at Manchester airport in the evening and even drove us to the other side of the Mersey so we could have the best view on the Liverpool skyline first of all (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/).
We pretty much fell into bed right away, because it was already midnight when we arrived at the hotel.

Sunday

Our Beatles trip started on Sunday morning with a visit at the "Beatles Story" museum (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/) which is done very nicely and with a lot of good music playing everywhere . After  that we were strolling around at the beautiful Albert Dock (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/) until we met up with Sue and Geoff again. We actually wanted to go on the "Magical Mystery Tour" trip after visiting the museum, but it was already booked out so we decided to do that the next day ... the funny thing was that Sue had told us that she´s got a headache and wouldn´t be able to join us for that one. The "headache" was over pretty quickly when we told her that the Mystery Tour was sold out - Sue lifted the secret of her mysterious illness shortly after that and told us that Michael was planning to come to Liverpool too and that she wanted to pick him up at the train station without us knowing about it. What a nice surprise!
So we decided to turn the tables and surprise Michael instead of Michael surprising us.... when his train was approaching, Geoff, Sue and my mum hid behind a ticket counter and made me walk up to Michael (whom I had never met before) and say hello to him. So I went up to him and said  "Are you Michael?!" - (Michael with a pretty surprised look on his face) "Eva??"
That was a very funny first meeting really ... (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/)

Before we went to the station Geoff and Sue took us to Matthew Street to the old and the rebuilt Cavern Club (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/), the lovely "Hard Day´s Night Hotel" and some other Beatles sights (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/) - among other things a whole brick wall with the names of all the Bands who played at the Cavern Club (which is a pretty impressive list as I might add.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 20638189/) ... the Beatles are really present EVERYWHERE in Liverpool!

On Sunday evening we met up with Geoff, Sue, Michael and Lyn and Laurence, who had just arrived after a very long and tiring day on the road... but the good Italian food at Albert Dock put some life into them again . After dinner we had a "Bonamassa Gang" photo session around one of the famous "Lambananas" - funny art objects (a mixture between a lamb and a banana...) which could be found all around Liverpool, painted in different colours and styles - here´s Sue and Geoff posing with one of them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/ . And here´s one of all of us together: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/ .

We went back to the "Hard Day´s Night Hotel" then to have a look at the picture of Joe with his favourite Beatles album (which is "Help")- Geoff has already posted a picture of it on the Liverpool thread in "General topics" .... after that we went to the Cavern Club to listen to some very loud and good Beatles music blasting out of the speakers (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25162871@N … 320638189/) - it was such a cool feeling to stand in the Cavern Club (even in the rebuilt one) and sing along to all those Beatles songs! After some time there was even a Live Band coming on stage and they also played a lot of Beatles stuff... we sure had a lot of fun there. My mum said afterwards that she would never have imagined to stand inside the Cavern Club one day singing along to Beatles songs - after being a Beatles fan in her teenage years . We finally decided that it was time for bed because we knew that the next day was going to be a busy and exciting one ....

And here´s the point where I have to say To be continued , because it´s already 2 am now and I haven´t even gotten near the Joe show yet ....

More tomorrow,

Eva