Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

After months of waiting, finally the day arrives, the day I finally get to see Steve Harley after 30 odd years. Unfortunately he's playing Shepherds Bush, but I can get over that. I make sure I've got the tickets before leaving for work, nothing can go wrong today...

And, of course, it does. A shit day at work doesn't set me up right for a night of musical fun but I'm going to enjoy it. The plan for enjoyment slightly fades when we queue behind a group of drunken middle aged men to get in. It fades even more when we get onto the hall floor and everyone seems drunk. The demographic is definietly middle-aged white men. Most of whom seem to have had several pints before arriving and then continue to drink. And how come they're all so tall? Why do people turn up to concerns only to talk amongst themselves - there's a show on, y'know! Half-way through a fight nearly started which the security guys ignored and left to the respective wives/gfs to sort out and escort the menfolk out...

I couldn't actually see Mr Harley so after a few songs we moved to the back of the hall and up a few steps to the bar so we could see over the audience a bit - even there we couldn't see much.

But Steve's stage-craft is what puzzles me. Or lack of it. Why open the set with a relatively quiet acoustic song from the new album that few in the audience seemed to recognise. Then bounce into 'Here comes the sun' - that should've been first, people knew it and it made the drunks shut up for a few minutes. The sound quality was pretty dire - when Steve spoke to the audience I couldn't actually hear him. Didn't he know that? Or did he just not factor in his demographic talking to each other.

I'm terribly disappointed, particularly since Chris didn't want to go but felt obliged. Not a fun night at all. Why play so many slow, quiet songs when the audience is so rowdy?

At least he did 'Coast of Amalfi' (my favourite from the new album), 'Sebastian (from his first album) and 'Make me Smile' (yes, you know it!).

We left at the start of the enchore - enough is enough really. I'd like to see him again, at a proper concert hall and without a drunk audience.