Brother Don caught Teenage Fanclub in SF last night...

"Show was unbelievably GREAT!! TFC rained down a torrent of majestic pop -- one gem after another in a relentless onslaught of melodic gorgeousness!!! they were even better than last time if that's possible. not one but two encores. place was packed and crowd was euphoric throughout as was the band (especially mr blake).

To backtrack a bit... radar bros opened. quite good. kinda remind me a little of that band Spain. a little Spain, a little Luna, a little Floyd - post Syd/pre-dark side and a touch of The Band if that's possible.

TFC opened like gangbusters with "Start Again". Norman had a Gibson 335 which he kept trading for a cherry red Epi 335 with capo. small fender amp -- vibra-something. Bass was a fender precision thru big ampeg tube head and 8 X 10 rig. lead guitar was a fender jag thru slightly bigger fender amp than Norman's but similar (w/reverb). Frank had Gretsch drums. keyboard guy had I a Roland (i think) with a little casio mt-40 (!) on top. they quickly moved to stuff from the new album which went down very well: "The Past", "Shock and Awe" and then the masterpiece: "Baby Lee" -- as good a song as the band has ever done (and that's saying something and a half when you think of how many killers they've delivered over the yrs).

they also did another new fave of mine: "When I Still Have Thee". Plenty of classics to keep all happy: “Sparky's Dream”, “Ain't That Enough”, “I Don't Want To Lose Control”, “The Concept” (talk about killer songs!), “Don't Look Back”. the encores... “Can't Feel My Soul”, “I Need Direction”, “Everything Flows” (keyboard guy played a Tele on that so there were 3 guitars and it was just massive). 2nd encore included an explosive version of "What You Do To Me". just unbelievable.

my only criticism is that it was almost too much of a good thing. .."

Guess I didn't post yesterday at all. I did start but sidetracked.



Whistle stop weekend and posting Phast’s favourite Solomon Burke song ties in nicely with an episode during said Saturday into Sunday, phew...

Met up with Sister Qina down “the London” and packed as much into the allotted time as was humanly possible. This included eating at The Pillars of Hercules, meeting Tony and Vanessa and going to The Phoenix Artists Club, heading for Camden and another reacquaintance – Sister Donna Reeves of Dallas , TX. Grand to catch up and even put in a call to Brother Randall who is minding the store at home. I hadn’t seen Donna since they dropped me in Springfield, Mo. in the summer of ’92. Cue Percy Faith via The Skeletons.

This was the first of two visits to The Spreadeagle, the second after we met young Nick West at The Blues Kitchen. This was just a couple of weeks after visiting the Rock Kitchen in Madrid. Anyway, we went there to see Swedish combo, Stupidity and someone who was with them told me they’d be on at 10.30pm.

This turned out to be tosh because when we got back, I think we only caught the last 5 songs. They were great though and the Rev. Sid Griffin said it was the best he’d seen them. They brought a little bit of the ol’ Hope and Anchor to that corner of London on Saturday night. Prior to that, it was very cool to run into Nick Garrard and Rob Hughes. I had never met Rob and it must be at least a quarter century since I last saw Nick and he hasn’t really changed. In general, recent re-connections are going a long way to keeping me afloat – I hope there are a few others in the pipeline and I feel that the most important one was the catalyst for all this. Never figured myself as the spiritual type but I have my moments. Nice to see Mia there too, it was her birthday!

Nick travelled back to the area we were staying with us and we had a nightcap at Broderna Ollson in Frith Street. I always dug those joints but there was a wee hiccup in that I was told they didn’t accept Scottish money. Being that I make a point of carrying nothing but that, this was the first time I’d encountered such behaviour in a considerably long time. Just as well that Nick had some “real” money then. Cheers man. From there, Qina and I set off in search of some food to end what had been a very entertaining evening. Typical of the UK in general and London in particular that all we could find was Subway. It was fine though because we were famished. So then breakfast and the 9am train back north.

Qina is in Hong Kong now, starting a big adventure that I just know will be a gas.