Yet another Lost Weekend

OK, it's taken me a week to get round to writing this, cos I've been so busy.

Last Friday I headed off to Stourbridge's Rock Café to see Lost Weekend and Bob Catley. If the truth be known, I really went to see Lost Weekend more than Bob Catley, cos I'm seeing Bob Catley tomorrow night anyway, at the Celtic Warriors Birthday Bash.

We got to the hotel mid-afternoon, had a beer, met up with a few mates and went off for a ruby, before going back for another beer and then off to the gig.

We were joined by our very own Lou & Andy, in the form of Krammer and Yoda. Yoda decided he didn't want to bother using the subway under the ring road and hurtled off at great speed, the wrong way down the road, with Spike in hot pursuit, convinced that he was going to get splattered. Having successfully negotiated the crossing of the ring road, Yoda then proceeded to hurtle down the steep hill to the Rock Café, waving his arms in the air and screaming "No brakes! No brakes!", much to the concern of the assembled fans outside the venue.

Despite a few teething problems with the sound, Lost Weekend soon got the place rocking. Dave T still pulls some amazing faces and new guitarist Squiz definitely adds to the great feel of the band. I didn't get to say hello to him, but I was pretty impressed. I had a chat with the others after the gig and I think they were happy to be on tour again, despite the hassle of the travelling and setups. Paul has a really strong voice, and I was interested to read on another forum that Jack has been compared to Nicko McBrain - praise indeed! Robin, usually the quiet man of the band, seemed pretty chuffed with the response to the set and the positive comments from fans new and old. After all, they were bloody good!

I have to say that I was rather disappointed with Bob Catley's set. It got off to a pretty poor start, and I lost interest within the first two numbers. However, about half way through, it picked up and I was singing along to the end. The accoustic version of 'Days of No Trust' was excellent, but I was surprised that Bob did three Magnum numbers, given that it's supposed to be his solo tour. I would have liked to have heard a couple from When Empires Burn, cos I really like that album.

Krammer and Yoda had to leave before the end of Bob's set, and Spike went to wave them off. Dave T nearly spat his beer out when he asked Spike if he was leaving and he said "No, I'm just chucking out the cripple."

Having read comments about this tour on various fora, it seems that the general opinion is that Lost Weekend blew Bob Catley away and folks want to hear a lot more from them. It's about time that they got some more exposure, perhaps on the rally scene. They're a damn fine band with some solid tunes and I reckon that they'd go down a storm at biker parties.

Photos here.