Portsmouth/Southsea

[Si Halley]

 Myself, and two companions (HW live newbies) arrived at Southsea about 6.45
and headed to the pub in front of the venue for a beverage or three.
Worryingly the pub was pretty empty but I reasoned from past experiences
that this didn`t really mean anything. After a relaxing chin wag we moved up
to the venue proper. Sure enough it was pretty full so that was sorted. I
went in without a hitch but my companion was stopped and sent away for the
heinous crime of having a camera about his person. Good job we`d driven as
the security wouldn`t let him in with it so back to the car it went. Shame.
This pissed off said companion a great deal but such is life. Strangely they
didn`t even search me and I had a camra in my pocket as well. What is HW`s
policy on amuteur cameras?

I thought the venue itself was pretty cool and there was some food available
which was handy as we`d been on the road since about 3pm doing various
pickups and stuff. About 5 minutes after arriving Huw took the stage and
worked his way around some of his HW tracks with good humour. We took up a
place to stage right in front of Dave's gear and  against the barrier with
the plan to move more central if the sound proved to be poor. We never moved
which is a good sign. Before "..Sundown" Huw asked for the Dr Brown bloke to
join him on Harmonica "as he always has a few on him". Said Brown appeared
near us trying to signal Huw that he in fact didn`t have said
instrumentation but to no avail as Huw couldn`t see him. Oh well.

Quick run to the loo/bar and the Hawks appear one by one and head into
"Angela Android". Why don`t people like this? I thought on first listen it
was great and female newbie with us was rocking back and forth contentedly.
All was cool. Would certainly rather have this on the new album then yet
another "Silver Machine" with or without Lemmy.

The set continued as has been listed before. "Hassan.." aside (time for
quick beer run in the middle!) I enjoyed the mix of new/old/rare choices in
general although I`m not convinced about the synth-based "Spirit Of The
Age". It didn`t seem to have the power of previous versions. The set seemed
to sometimes really take off (Right stuff, encores) before coming back down
to merely great. Dave and Alan seemed to be enjoying themselves although
Dave, from our angle, was hidden a lot of the time, as usual. Shame.

All in all a cool gig. Not the greatest but far from the worse and I really
enjoyed it but in the end I have to agree with others that they need a lead
guitar or Sax or frontman or something. Doesn`t matter which and any of
these would have possibly added the right element. Oh, and a real
keyboardist to release Alan and Dave a bit.

Anyway, end result was that newbies thought it was, quote: "excellent"
though were surprised at no "Silver Machine". I explained most of us were
sick of it and they understood. Should have told them before but as I never
expect it I didn`t think about it!!

Picked up a programme (which I`ll check in a minute before bed), and the
"Spaced.." CD that I had planned to pick up (£14 in Southsea) and am
listening to it now. Very nice, although limited packaging is a bit
disappointing as someone has mentioned earlier. Such a shame when  the
front, back and music is so good!

Ramble over. Sorry for typos.

Si
(note to self: Don`t miss a tour again!)




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