HW: Blackheath

[sultan of swing (The)]

On Sun, 8 Jun 1997, Jon Jarrett wrote:

>         Dear All,
>                   well, Andy is expecting me to post a set-list, and since
> big Mike hasn't done it yet, I shall undertake this mighty oeuvre... my
> first ever BOC-L review. I feel so humble...

And as I agree with practically everything I shall add very little, other
than it was good to see everyone who was there, and for those of you too
ill to  make, or too full of other responsibilities, well I'm sorry but
you missed a good one. AS Jazza said, they rocked. Infact it was more full
of rock than blanga (by which I mean to imply it was faster than previous
heavy HW, but not rocky in the sense of Huwie twiddly HM guitar bits).

> .. eventually Huw
> came on, mumbled that this was an acoustic set and played several "little
> ditties" - they were OK, and he did a couple of bits that indicated that
> he can indeed play, but basically it was nothing much, I thought. Maybe if
> I'd known the songs: Mike W has a set-list for it.

A word on his band, a flautist and bongo player, who also did bass on a
couple of tracks. Huw played acoustic throughout. Set list:
WARS ARE THE HOBBY THERE (From Like an arrow... through the heart)
SO LONG WAITING          ( "    "    "   ")
SMOKE STACK LIGHTING
5TH SECOND OF FOREVER/WIND OF CHANGE (Huw's version, not HW's)
I SHALL BE RELEASED
MOONGLUM (with bass)
SOLITARY MINDGAMES (with bass)
DEATH OF A CLOWN (by the kinks, just huwie)
ROCKY PATHS
FUR KIRSTY
HURRY ON SUNDOWN
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
HURRY ON SUNDOWN
AN ALEXIS KORNER BLUES NUMBER (maybe 'I got a woman')

I would agree that it was enjoyable rather than good in an absolute
musical fashion, but hearing Fur Kirsty again was worth it, let alone HoS,
which should be done with HW with Dave on harmonica. I demand it....

>         Anyway, he went off soon after, and some woman (his wife? some
> attachment of his? I don't know, she'd been dancing on stage)

That would be Marion Lloyd-Langton.

Jazza's HW set list with my recollections:
start 9:30
> ASSAULT & BATTERY/THE GOLDEN VOID
    lovely to hear again, I thought they were good versions
> BLUE SKIN
> STEPPENWOLF
    during this I was happy to see Ron playing proper HW bass, you can be
    profficient bass player, but not be a good HW bass player, but with
    the interesting bass runs that I saw on this track convinced me that
    bass playing is safe with Ron.

> [A NEW SONG] - REPTILE VISION
    I liked this. It was at this point you could tell HW had lost a bass
    player who enjoys playing synths, and got a bass player who used to be
    in a band called Bastard. It would be about 5th track in you would
    expect a synthy noodling bit, but no we move on to something that
    rocked. I noted it down as '? fast', so there we have it.

> ASSASSINS OF ALLAH/SPACE IS THEIR PALESTINE/ASSASSINS OF ALLAH
    I thought it worked well with only one synth with Richard's drumming
    for SitP, when everyone else (well the other two) left the stage.

ANOTHER NEW SONG, or at least a heavy fast instrumental that could be the
new intro to LIS, but I'm claiming it is another new song.

> LOVE IN SPACE
> AEROSPACEAGE INFERNO
   Note for Jazza - infact this was 'damn good'
> SONIC ATTACK
> [ANOTHER NEW SONG](about which I can remember *absolutely nothing* except
> that Dave had a poem in it, "whispering words I could not hear.. ")
   I guess if that is what Dave was saying then he was reading 10 seconds
   of forever, but I couldn't hear a word he said. However the spoken bit
   was surrounded by new music that I called 'boogie' (of course I was
       very very drunk at this point)

> BRAINSTORM/THE CAMERA THAT COULD LIE/BRAINSTORM
   I was down the front and danced and saw monitors get burnt.
      Rock and roll
10:53 pm
encore
>
> EJECTION
> NEEDLE GUN
 end 11:07

and it was brill. and I enjoyed it. and the new line up looks and sounds
good, and Ron can play bass, and dave brought his guitar and played it.
Everyone seemed to have a good time.

cheers

Mike w