Billy Idol playing Glasgow tomorrow!!!

thomasross20

He's playing Glasgow tomorrow and I just got two tickets - YES!!! 

FelineGuitars

Great - saw him on this last tour in London - great show 

Last album was really great

not_the_dj

I'd love to see him, I've only recently gotten into his stuff as we've got White Wedding and Rebel Yell in our set so I've been watching a lot of live footage on youtube. Both tracks are floor fillers for us and bloody good fun to play.

Enjoy the gig.

thomasross20

Yeah we do White Wedding too! Rebel Yell rocks - please post vids of your band doing those if you have them!!

The new album is awesome!!

Was also going to book FLeetwood Mac but tickets seem to be £140 each

vasselmeyer

Steve Stevens is a MONSTER guitarist with a great touch. My last band also put Rebel Yell and White Wedding in the set and they went down a storm. We also put Mony Mony in a few times which was funf for the audience by a little boring to play so we canned it.

thomasross20

Yep Stevens is a fave of mine - very melodic lines - natural!

not_the_dj

thomasross20 said:

Yeah we do White Wedding too! Rebel Yell rocks - please post vids of your band doing those if you have them!!

The new album is awesome!!

Was also going to book FLeetwood Mac but tickets seem to be £140 each

Hooefully this works. The land lord filmed it from the bar, I don't have the original file so this should be a link to face book. You'll notice I cheat on the intro and get the bass player to do the walk, I can finger pick it fine but I fumble getting my pick back on my fingers for the riff. https://www.facebook.com/242952352502934/videos/655786901219475/

not_the_dj

....and our singer misses his first line....only just noticed that!

thomasross20

Just listening!

Here's ours (not perfect!)!

Woah check out the mohawk at the front lol!!

That's a kick-ass bass sound - tell your bassist!

Great singing on that - really cool. 

Haha great guitar my man!! Very good - I wish we were doing this song!!

not_the_dj

thomasross20 said:

Woah check out the mohawk at the front lol!!

They're all members of a punk band (The Shots) that play around here. Great guys, and they really know how to enjoy themselves!

vasselmeyer

@thomoasross20 I think you're playing that a little too fast and the end is a bit sudden. We often did  White Wedding as a set closer and did a big finish.

Here are our Billy Idol covers from my old band. Terrible sound quality but here's the first time we ever played Rebel Yell. Not even a rehearsal! It was a little sketchy but we managed to get throught it and it was the end of the night and the audience was bladdered so it went down a storm.

Here's White Wedding with the other guitarist playing lead on his out of tune Epiphone (end of the night, blazing hot, guitars going out of tune all over the place). Our singer is a big guy and jumped off the stage to sing the "little sister" to his actual sister and he had a lot of trouble getting up again!

thomasross20

Totally agree - it's too fast!!

I did suggest to the band that at the end they all stop and I keep doing the double stop bit - think it sounds great - but they went with the sudden stop. 

Just checked those - good stuff!! Better to have male vox for those tunes for sure

Gagaryn

I'm going to see Classic Qudrophenia at the Albert Hall next month - he's making an appearance at that apparently, as the Bell Boy I expect.

thomasross20

My review!

The bad:

- Show was meant to start (or at least doors were meant to open) at 7pm. We get there at 6:16 and there was a queue so we were glad we got there when we did. One guy said doors would open at 7:20pm and that was bad enough as it was FREEZING outside. Then no word until doors finally opened at 7:50pm - I know it's *only* a 50 minute delay but seriously, it was baltic outside and lots of people were complaining. Some folk were questioning whether or not the band were going to show up (was he going to do an Axl Rose?). Because of that the opening act were on and off quickly and didn't get much recognition (sound was ok but generic). 

- It took 35-40 minutes for the sound check for Billy's show!! I thought it was a bit OTT...

- It was very, VERY, VEEEERY loud. I'm glad I brought my ACS Pro17s but even sitting in the balcony my girlfriend had to have her hands over her ears during the entire gig. Even I thought it was loud whilst wearing the earplugs! It seems to be a common trend these days but I think the kick was mic'd up TOO much and the bass was a tad overpowering - so those would often hit you in the chest and muddy the whole thing up. WHy does it have to be so loud anyway - to combat crowd noise? 

- Billy Idol was good but couldn't always hit the notes (throughout he whole show) and sung flat at times. Still, I was impressed with what he could manage but it took a little shine off. 

- the venue wasn't great. £3.70 for two VERY watered-down half-pints of Pepsi! And they didn't serve food. Say whaaaaat? We were STARVING by the time it ended lol...

The good:

- Steve Stevens. The man is a god. His playing was flawless - great technique but also great command of the instrument. His note choice was superb (not cliche at all - always catching you off guard) and oh so musical. Truly inspiring. He looked the part in his leather flares, low-cut top with chains and massive hair. His guitars looked amazing - several sparkly Gibson-type guitars, what looked like a Wolfgang, this crazy acoustic (Godin?) he did an amazing Spanish solo on etc. He loves his Digitech whammy - maybe I should get one as it was great! I've got to admit the guitar playing caught my attention more than anything else. He used all the tricks in the book which was cool - pick scrapes, whammy bar, harmonics a-plenty, playing with the teeth and behind the head, striking amazing poses, playing in a lower register and then higher up (really effective) - you name it. Absolutely SUPERB. 

- An electric moment when they started to play White Wedding and Billy looked caught off guard as the whole crowd sung along - it was a bit magical!!

- Drum solo toward the end was very cool.... You can't beat a drum solo with flashing lights!!

- Billy Idol giving it big licks, taking off his top had the ladies going lol... He did put on a good show but as per the "bad" section was flat often. 

- The guitar was loud enough to be heard, thank heavens.Last time I saw Slash play I thought the guitar was a bit low in the mix...

Steve Stevens was always a fave but having seen him live.... he's definitely one of my top guitarists now. I prefer just the right amount of flash guitar work combined with slower more riffy and melodic lines compared to all the high-speed fusion you get these days. 

I'd say I'm glad I went, just to see Steve Stevens. It was almost £90 for the two tickets - I wouldn't pay the same again, especially at that venue - but I'm glad I saw it the once. Maybe I'll just buy some DVDs now! 

thomasross20

Just watching some of his videos online. Lots of cool atonal notes thrown in, lots of arpeggios, and while he's in a particular key (say a minor one) he'll use pitch axis so he can switch between different arpeggios in different modes.