www.18tilidie.co.uk


		11/03/08 - ST JAMES CHURCH, PICCADILLY, LONDON Review by Steven Stanley: "Wowzer!" exclaimed the random Caribbean pirate DJ on "Ya mon FM" who had taken over the car radio as myself, Nat and Jack coasted in to crazy London for yet another BA show. We had been held up in traffic for a couple of hours and were running out of time. We were always gonna be cutting it fine, as I had a prior appointment before the show. Thankfully, we parked up in Wood Green with enough time to spare and caught the tube to Piccadilly. St James Church is literally only 100 yards from Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London. A fully functioning, well.... CHURCH!!! - such a cool place for a gig. Instantly, we knew it would be a gig of biblical proportions! We instantly metup with gig buddies Karl, Darren, Mave, Shelley, Teen... it was great to see everyone. As everyone made their way in to the show, myself, Karl, Jack & Darren hung around outside for a bit. We caught Bryan on his way to the show and he was nice enough to stop and ask us how we were doing. With the show being inside a place of worship, Darren kept putting song ideas in to Bryan's head...Genesis' "Jesus He Knows Me" & Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" being classic examples. We had a good laugh anyway! In to the venue we proceeded, and oh yes it really was a church inside too!... We took aisle seats right at the back of the church floor (there was balcony space either side too) and planned on legging it to the front when he came onstage. The place really was no bigger than your average sized church... famous faces sat around us included Mel C, Elle McPherson & Annie Lennox. Myself and Darren we're making funny conversation about "running down the aisle" and the sound guy behind us even told us he had 'the wedding march' on the computer! We also spotted the pulpit and thought how funny it would be to go up there during the encores and rockout for the laugh! Anyway, "the candles went out" and we ran for the front... Karl & Darren were down there anyway talking to a friend and got the prime spots... proving once again ya don't need to queue all day to get a decent spot. Myself, Jack, Mave & Nat were right behind them... we were all at the front under BA's mike, but more importantly we were all together and thats all that mattered! At this point during the madness Bryan was already singing the opening lines to 'Tonight We Have The Stars', and it sounded very good indeed. Bryan mentioned this was the first time he'd played in a church, to which Darren commented to him "this is the first time I've BEEN in a church!" which got mass laughs. Bryan also asked us if we could smell toast... we all said yes..."yeah well I started making toast backstage then all of a sudden the toaster was on fire!". Simple but effective lighting lit up the whole of the inside of the church, it looked amazing. To say Bryan had only an acoustic... he did well getting the crowd going. Tracks like 'Back To You' and 'Can't Stop' we're full of energy... he did struggle on some songs but we'll come to those bits later! Bryan then played 'Something To Believe In' for the 2nd ever time - he did really well fitting in all the words on a live performance... very impressive. However on the build up to the first chorus, Darren beat him to it with a big Yorkshire "IT'S DOIN MY BRAIN INNNNNN!!!!" which got mega laughs and could be heard above everything! Bryan couldn't stop grinning it was really funny. We all kept the 'na na na's' going at the end of 'Cuts' too... to which Bryan said "ok ok thats enough!" New track 'Oxygen' sounded good - but obviously it will really come to life when done properly with the band... '69 had the best crowd energy of the night... even done as a one man band it was still great. 'Walk On By' was up next and Bryan mentioned he'd gone back to working with Jim Vallance on this album (mass cheer from the entire church) and this was one of the tracks. He said... "we got together over the internet for this track..." then came Sue's loud quick witted line "WHAT?!? AT MATCH.COM???" Legend! You could hear a pin drop during this song though, very good indeed. Reminds me of Goo Goo Dolls' 'Acoustic #3'. And... if you're playin' in a church I guess it's almost gonna be nailed on he'll sing 'Heaven'!... and yeah, he did! 11th track of the night was 'Run To You' which got everyone going again... until he got to the bridge and Darren said to him "I bet you wish Keith was here now don't you!?!"... Bryan laughed and nodded. He just about managed to pull it off though while we all gave him a 'drum beat' to help him along! After that he left the stage and people thought he had done because that was the 11th track (gigs had been billed as 11 songs) but he did come back onstage armed with the acoustic guitar he'd JUST got out of the vault today - the famous MTV Unplugged Guild. Was cool to see it again after all this time. Sounded pretty sweet too. Darren mentioned he should play some "bonus tracks" and Bryan agreed! "It's UK bonus track time!" exclaimed Bryan! We got 'Straight From The Heart' and 'The Only Thing', which as always was brilliant. So, the gig was over and I tried to say hi to as many people as possible... it seemed like everyone was here tonight. Everyone really pulled together for this one and we got as many people in as possible. No fights, no feuds, no bitchin' - just a great great vibe all round. We moved on outside, I got to shake BA's hand as he left before he was totally mobbed by fans. Just give the guy room and show some respect - no need to mob the dude. I did see some paps too... out in force circling the church for pics of all the celebs in there. 5 minutes later, Chris arrived with the camera and he began filming a spoof video of the gig... (as we did with Snowpenair '07) we tried to get as many fans in it as possible, and had a great time filming it... even in the bar at the end the cameras we're still rollin! Karl is such a pro at this and really did an awesome job - not only can he play awesome guitar, he's a great film editor too! You can see the video below: So, yeah... from the gig we walked up past Piccadilly Circus and to Leicester Square where we finished the night drinking outside at a cool bar... everyone had a great time. Thanks to everyone that made the night such a good laugh!... Karl, Darren, Nat, Mave, Shelley, Chris, Teen & Drew, Lizy, Chelsey, Jon, Mikala, Helen, Sue and Sabina. Also a special thanks to Jack who managed to get me down here in the first place and has been a legend all week. Feel really privileged to have been a part of such an awesome, awesome night... you could say it was a night to remember ;) Setlist: Tonight We Have The Stars Back To You I Thought I'd Seen Everything Can't Stop This Thing We Started Something To Believe In Cuts Like A Knife Oxygen Summer Of '69 Walk On By Heaven Run To You UK Bonus tracks! Straight From The Heart The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You

	Ž 2008 18 Til I Die.co.uk. All rights reserved. Web site comments to admin@18tilidie.co.uk