Steve"s Place

And we hope to see you again
sometime............






 The last few shows were put together on this page and I would like to thank Alan,Angie, Matthew and Ronnie for sending in these great reviews and pictures ........

Manchester
May 24, 2008

 Check out the show through Matthew Goldsbroughs camera by clicking on this site link.... thanks Matthew for always sharing ......

 Manchester Slideshow

BOARDWALK SHEFFIELD
May 25, 2008






Pete Thompson is not taking prisoners tonight as he bashes out the metalwork in the closing bars of ‘Twice removed from Yesterday’. He is not happy. Standing up with arms out wide, open palms and a bewildered expression on his face, he gestures towards the remote sound desk.
The ‘Steel City’ crowd is unusually quiet. Indeed, the entire metropolis seems to be asleep. City centre stores closed their shutters earlier with hardly a soul in sight.
Where were the usual splashes of red, white and blue? Had the battalions of Laws and Blackwell opted to move, instead on Wembley, with the rest of the Yorkshire clans to witness McAllister and O’Driscoll’s men fighting to the death?
The Boardwalk is something of a ‘tardis’. Nothing special to look at from the outside but a vast cavern inside, remarkably well equipped for rock and roll damnation. It’s what they do here.
The City centre streets may have cleared but the Boardwalk is heaving tonight, notably with many older couples in the crowd.
Sensing an unusual reticence on the part of the audience, Aynsley hammers into his final number ‘Balls of Steel’ like he is forging molten metal from a furnace. [Hey folks, don’t forget to check out the middle section of the recorded version of this number!]
Pete’s problem is sorted by ‘Shame the Devil’. He and Glenn really get into a groove on the outro. It’s not quite the disco funk of the recorded version yet Pete’s fills lift the counterpoint with Robin’s snatched notes. Wow!
Robin’s hammer on, hammer off on the beginning to ‘For Earth Below’ is a joy to behold. How is it possible to remember every nuance? From a back catalogue of over 200 songs, all the scores still sing.

I was disappointed to have to read a load of balderdash recently about musicians reading manuscripts and sticking to the script. It’s something you’d think they’d be expected to do as part of the job?
Do you know the one about the signer and the folder? Why anyone should get criticised for this, is beyond me. In a long and distinguished career you get called on to sing ‘000s of other people’s songs. You simply can’t remember them all. Such comments are totally out of order IHMO.
Davey sings ‘No Time’ with his eyes closed. Oh, yes! This ‘Passion’ killer is the tour’s unsung hero, its selection and location in the set bearing all the hallmarks of major strategy. It’s war!
The opening of ‘Bridge of Sighs’ looks like a scene from the John Carpenter movie with the band in almost complete darkness, four piercing blue lights growing in intensity and the sound of Robin’s looping tonal drama. All that’s missing is the toll of a bell, a bucket of water and the best canteen of cutlery to be found in the City of Sheffield.
Robin and his marauding army bring the battle to a successful conclusion with the forearm smash that is ‘Gonna be more suspicious’. Once more into the breach, a little ‘Madhouse’ creeps into the audience participation section of ‘Sympathy’. By now the whole of Sheffield has joined in. Sadly, I must leave the victory parade early.
Back on deserted streets, I head for wheels of steel and the road that leads, next, to the English south coast.
This is Alan Howard for ‘Steve’s Place’ reporting from the Boardwalk, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. 25 May 2008.

SOUTHHAMPTON
May 28

Review by Mr. Howard and Ronnie Kerrigan and some great photos courtesy of  our good friend Angie who travelled a long way just to catch the band in action...right Ang?

                    From Portswood to Poignancy

Tonight’s show at The Brook is something of a pilgrimage for diehard RTB fans. Jim Pearce and son Sam have made the 300-mile round trip from Plymouth. Ronnie and John Kerrigan set out on the road from Northern Ireland at 7am. One fan has even flown in from Texas to be here, home of the Saints!
Having joined the TKC [Trower Kent Congregation] convoy at Winchester Services, I am now standing in the queue talking to John Hammond, a fellow disciple and someone I have been privileged to know, through Trower, for the best part of over 20 years. It’s Robin’s third visit to the Portsdown venue in four years and we are really looking forward to it.
Miraculously, Martin Hughes has managed to dive into The Brook, only yesterday afternoon, to catch the last remaining ticket available. Yes folks, it’s yet another sell-out show on this brief 18-date UK crusade.
John Waters and Jacky are watching Laurie and Guy completing the final preparations on stage: an aerosol spray for the microphones - here; some energy drinks for the band - there. Guy is nestling Davey’s lyric bible down onto the floor, behind his microphone stand, and switching on the altar light.
Enter Pete, Glenn, Davey and Robin into the amphitheatre to huge rapturous applause. The ground floor ‘standing room only’ and first floor balcony pews are packed out. The venue’s lighting system may be stuck on red but the sound out front is great tonight.

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Once again, Davey delights with his heartfelt assignation on “No Time” – ‘why did you fight just to prove yourself right, when you knew you were wrong?’ he pleads.


 

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“Islands”, Robin’s instrumental favourite, is a lesson in how it’s done with Glenn’s bubbling bass line providing a lilting accompaniment to the melody, edging up Pete’s lively and inspired time-keeping.

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“Day of the Eagle” and ‘”Bridge of Sighs” are massive Trower hymns served up with faithful adoration tonight. The ‘holy trinity’ follows with Glenn’s hypnotic ‘Daa-de-der-de-der’ bass line in “Victims of the Fury” driving on the audience to a chorus of approval.
 

Davey gets so emotional during “Hannah”, his powerful and hard-hitting homage to his friend and countryman, the late great James Dewar.

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It doesn’t get much better than this. It’s an experience of miraculous and religious proportions. For the best part of 90 minutes, we are in heaven!
This is Alan Howard reporting live and direct for ‘Steve’s Place’ from The Brook in Southampton. 28 May 2008.

....and from our good friend Ronnie Kerrigan

Sentimentality, or nostalgia, does not bring me back to listen to Robin Trower’s music or to witness his ‘live’ performances – it is his art, humility and, above all, it is one of the joys in life. My brother, John, and I flew in from Belfast on the day of the concert.  The Brook is a great venue to see and hear a band – tonight it was evident the sound system and stage monitors were operating at optimum level – the vocals and individual instruments were well balanced (Laurie Brace at the sound desk deserves praise).
The venue was filled to capacity and tonight there were a wealth of smiles, shaking heads and clapping hands - and that was before the music started – must be the water in Portswood!
Robin's playing and soloing, the band - Pete, Glenn and Davey - the fans, the venue, and staff all contributed to one of the best concerts I've attended. After the Paris gig I thought the dizzy heights the band reached that night would not be attained again on this tour – I was, thankfully, mistaken.
The RTB were given a great, warm welcome when they arrived on stage, and from the sound of ‘’Twice Removed From Yesterday” you knew it was going to be an exceptional night.  The whole band seemed to be in great spirits; each number in the set was played with enthusiasm and zest.
Robin played like only a virtuoso can, accompanied by an excellent band that generated warmth and intensity. I believe when Huddie William Leadbetter “Leadbelly” said “No white man ever had the blues” he was mistaken.  Robin is a blues guitarist of the highest calibre, capable of creating music that touches your soul - most fans tonight, I’m sure, felt totally connected to the music. Performances this magical never leave the memory.
Pete and Glenn provided a superb rhythm section for Robin to fly above with his solos. Tonight Davey’s vocals could be heard clearly and were great on “Shame the Devil,” “Day of the Eagle,”“No Time” and For Earth Below.” Robin seems to be playing with greater zeal during the solos on this tour – how he achieves it at 63 is beyond me? – long may it continue.
The vibe and soloing during “The Fool And Me,” “No Time” and “Rise Up Like The Sun” was exceptional.
A welcoming cheer and clapping always accompanies the trill at the beginning of “Bridge of Sighs” – tonight it is a roar. The band and the crowd are as one. Robin’s playing is so spontaneous; he just feels the vibe and goes with it. During the solo he indicated to the band to take it up a notch and he began to make his guitar wail for a few minutes gradually falling to a whisper - enthralling.  While it’s great to listen to the studio version, or one of the numerous recorded live versions, nothing beats hearing this song played live when you are there. I believe it only truly exists each time Robin plays it – when the sound is hitting you from the stage, and Robin is completely lost in his art. To me great music and guitar playing – as evidenced tonight - provides release from conscious thought, engenders tranquillity, and has a wonderful therapeutic value.
Thanks to Robin, Pete, Davey and Glenn for a truly riveting concert. Also, thanks for enhancing the evening after the performance by your friendliness. It was the icing on the cake. Also, Laurie for being Laurie. Some great photographs and memories.
It was great to meet up with Angie again – hope you enjoyed the guinness? Also, Alan Howard, Jim Pearce and John Waters.
Thanks also to Dylan Clarke, Manager at The Brook, whose kindness and co-operation helped to make the concert special for my brother and I. It’s a great venue with great staff and facilities.  Just wish it wasn’t so far away.
What’s next? Who knows? – but it will be hard to beat tonight’s concert, atmospheric crowd and venue.

 COX'z Yard
MAY 29
The Play’s the Thing





Something rather extraordinary happened tonight, something quite magical. Robin, totally spellbound it seemed, delivered some of the most unusual lead breaks I have ever heard. It was jaw-dropping improvisation, totally intoxicating.
The magic started as early as “Shame the Devil”, the second song in, and lasted until the end of the show. There was much ado about something here. He made it sound like he’d discovered notes that hadn’t ever been played before.
What’s more, he managed to weave all his weird and wonderful cadenzas together in a dazzling display of craftsmanship. Measure for measure, it was, quite simply, a breathtaking performance and one of the highlights of the tour, thus far.
Cox’s Yard is an attractive wooden, pitched roofed, clubhouse-style building, located on a green on the edge of Stratford town centre, beside the River Avon.

The band was positioned at the far end of the hall on a tiny six inch riser. Visibility was not the brilliant but; at least, the venue provided two ceiling mounted TV monitors for the benefit of punters in the middle and at the back of the room.
As Pete rightly noted at the end of the evening, as a venue, Cox’s Yard “shouldn’t work but somehow it does!” The band’s performance seemed to suggest “no one else would do its wood more good!”
Maybe it was the venue’s excellent acoustics, which so inspired our leader, on the night?
Huddled together on the tiny stage yet dazzled by the bright lights in front of them, Robin, Davey, Pete and Glenn mesmerised their audience with the most perfect elegy, “For Earth Below”. Robin’s soaring lead break at the end was huge shock and another outstanding highlight of the night.
Even the outro on “Day of the Eagle” came hideously close to clipping the wings of Robin’s seminal performance at ‘Night of the Guitars’ back in London, in 1991.
By the time, we got to “Bridge of Sighs” Robin was on Jupiter or Mars. Or so it seemed. Lucid, fluid and cascading lines of notes emotionally spun to perfection and scattered like stardust, almost as though, Oberon and Titania were in the room, aiding and abetting our hero.
The show was a complete sell-out. Great to see Karen and John Wilson! Fabulous to spend a little post show time with Angie and Pete! Many thanks to the Manager and staff of Hussains on Chapel Street!
This is Alan Howard reporting live and direct for ‘Steve’s Place’ from Cox’s Yard in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of the world’s greatest ever playwright. 29 May 2008.

Birkinhead
May 30
 
 


 

Fab Four in Birkenhead!

You have to say the members of this band must have the most incredible reserves of stamina. The fact that they are still giving it their all, having been ‘on the road’ for five months, virtually non-stop, is truly amazing.
What’s more, this tantalising tour by our very own ‘Fab Four’ has got better and better with every show. But where do they find the energy to come out and turn in such sensational performances, night after night?
The last time Robin Trower and his band played in the wonderful Wirral was the night after a show in Aberdeen. On that occasion, back in November 2005, they delivered one of their best performances of the entire tour. This was in spite of the fact they had had to endure a 360-mile plus journey from Scotland, earlier that day.
Tour manager ‘supremo’, Alan Robinson has organised a somewhat less stretching journey, this time round. The trip, 135 miles northwest from Shakespeare country, brings them to Birkenhead, just across the water from the City of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture Year 2008 celebrations. Indeed, Evertonian Sir Paul McCartney is due to play Anfield, the magnificent home of Liverpool FC, in two days time as part of that party.
The Pacific Road Arts Centre is one of the largest concert halls on Merseyside and home to the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra among others. It holds 600 standing and is just the sort of venue the Robin Trower Band should playing, not least now after four successful ‘home’ tours in as many years.

Tonight, I am with Pete ‘Glenn Hughes’ Allen and his mate Pete. To get the optimum sound, we stand in the middle of the hall. The room is big, somewhat cavernous, and, although packed out with punters, the very high ceiling means the P.A. will, once again, be working overtime.
The stage is big too. Pete Thompson is further back than we’re used to. But you can’t fault the venue. The sound and lighting are both absolutely spot-on with Laurie at the very back of the hall, orchestrating manoeuvres with exquisite precision, as ever.
The audience absolutely love the show, clapping and signalling their approval from the outset. Robin, Glenn, Davey and Pete are in great spirits. Davey returns to the stage after Robin’s outro solos on ‘For Earth Below’ and ‘Islands’ pointing the finger at our hero and with a huge “that’s what I’m talking ‘bout, ain’t he, the man!” expression on his face.
Glenn is smiling too. As a student of the bass, I really admire his playing. He is the first bassist I have seen in a while who bends the strings, step aside Stanley Clarke!
I have marvelled at the sheer diversity of Glenn’s playing on this tour. On both ‘No Time’ and ‘Bridge of Sighs’, he steps up the accompaniment to Robin’s soloing by playing two-tone chords at the top of the fretboard on his beautiful sky blue ‘Glenn Letsch Pipemaster’ signature bass guitar.
In between numbers someone in the crowd shouts out “Now then, now then, Robin. Errr, is that Rod Stewart on bass?” Chuckles all round, all you need is love.
There is definitely something special going on in the Trower rhythm-section. The dynamic duo [of Pete and Glenn] has found a new groove, playing with boundless energy and newfound space and time, a looser, freer vibe.
Pete Allen tells me later that tonight’s ‘Bridge of Sighs’ is the best rendition he’s ever heard. He should know. This is a guy who used to drive around Merseyside listening to this Robin signature tune non-stop. He leaves me pleading “get ‘em to play ‘I can’t wait much longer’ next time, Alan!”
Robin, Glenn, Davey and Pete emerge to sign a few autographs at the end of the night. Thank you, Gentlemen!
Having travelled here, there and everywhere since Fort Pierce, Robin and the band have just one more, hard day’s night to complete. Heading north from the City of Liverpool, I too, have just one more ticket to ride.
This is Alan Howard reporting for ‘Steve’s Place’ from the Pacific Road Arts Centre, Birkenhead, and the warm and sunny climes of the Wirral but heading towards the conclusion of Robin Trower Live UK 2008. 30 May 2008.


AND CHECK OUT THESE GREAT PHOTOS FROM
Matthew Goldsbrough

Pictures and review Matthews site  HERE

Fulfillingness’
Fleetwood
Finale

Wow! You can sense the huge relief emanating from both sets of musicians on stage tonight as they rattle off their respective sets. It must feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from their shoulders. Yes folks, it’s over. Tomorrow, they rest!
We’re up on the North West coast of England, a short tram journey from Blackpool [“that’s noted for fresh air and fun”]. Signed, sealed and delivered in the small seaside town of Fleetwood, once the home of a substantial deep sea fishing fleet.
A big ‘thank you’ and congratulations to local promoter, Alan Pearson and all at the Tower Blues Club for netting this gig and securing the “last show” slot on the tour roster.
The Marine’s main hall with its signature ceiling light and glass feature is half ballroom [standing room only to the stage] and half cabaret seating [to the back wall and sound desk]. As a venue, it’s definitely a “jack of all trades, master of none”.
Two, ten-foot high stacks of P.A. speaker cabs have been dumped on the ballroom floor, one to the left, one to the right of the stage. They are obviously not part of the furniture having been especially imported for tonight’s guitar fest.
Up close, the sound is absolutely deafening. Is this a 5 or 55k rig? Suffice to say, my ears ring for the best part of a week afterwards but, hey what, all in love is fair.
Aynsley Lister gets to play Master Blaster first. His outstanding highlight of the night is an exquisite, impromptu Prince cover. ‘Purple Rain’ is dedicated to Laurie and Guy for their sterling, sound stewardship of the Lister band over the 18-show tour. The extended middle section shuts the crowd up with its punctuated patches of silence. Absolutely brilliant!

Do I want to hear classic cuts from the albums ‘For Earth Below’ and ‘Bridge of Sighs’? Do I do! In particular, the ‘Earth Below’ songs have been stunning on this tour. But then again, they have an extra special significance for me. These are the songs that got me hooked on Robin Trower in the first place.
I have to say I’m overjoyed to see ‘No Time’ creep into the set, this time round. I have missed Bronzie on this tour but, as mentioned previously, Mr Glenn Letsch has filled the space between the lines in his own inimitable way.

This may be a patched up ‘Passion’ band but the combined chemistry  - of the song choices, Robin’s ‘on fire’ guitar playing, Davey dishing out the vocals like a man possessed, Pete playing out of his skin and Glenn’s unique syncopated, swinging bass lines - has been extraordinary, energising, explosive.

In a brief departure from the script, Robin returns to the stage after ‘Little Bit of Sympathy’ and says “tonight is our last night. We’ve been on tour since January so I just wanna say a big ‘Thank You’ to Laurie and Guy, my sound guys, and everyone in the band.”
The band go through their usual “one more” routine after ‘Go My Way’ and we are led to the higher ground that is ‘Another Time, Another Place’. You are the sunshine of my life.
Thank you Robin, Glenn, Pete and Davey for playing and singing your hearts out on these unforgettable shows, back home in Olde Blighty!
Our thanks also to the supporting cast notably Aynsley, Jo, Richard, Laurie, Guy, Alan Robinson, Alan on the merchandising stall, together with the local promoters and venue crews who kept the show on the road.
Great to meet up with fellow fans along the way! So many I have known for years, through Trower; many new friends too, connected, more recently, online. The response in the UK this time has been phenomenal. To see so many of the shows ‘sold out’. Absolutely fantastic!
This is Alan Howard reporting for ‘Steve’s Place’ for the last time on this latest Trower UK tour from the Marine Hall, Fleetwood, Lancashire. 31 May 2008.


 

And more pictures from the UK
HERE