ROBERT PLANT PRESENTS SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS AT MANCHESTER APOLLO/ INTERVIEWS/ BLUESFEST SSS ROYAL ALBERT HALL TBL PRE GIG MEET DETAILS /LOU REED 1942 -2013
Robert Plant Presents Sensational Space Shifters – Manchester Apolllo -Tuesday October 29th, 2013:
Set List: via Gary Wade – above photo by Dawn Atherton
Intro Morrocan music.
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You – Acoustic solo
Satan Your Kingdom Will Come Down
Bron Yr Aur Stomp
Spoonful
Black dog
Another Tribe
Going to California
If I Ever Get Lucky with Enchanter ending
Four Sticks
Friends
Fixin’ To Die
What Is And What Should Never Be
Whole Lotta Love
Encores
Big Log
Rock And Roll
Set list photo via Russell Cherrington
Above photo by Josh Wade
TBL Facebook Feedback comments:
The Apollo this time, bigger than the Palace and pretty full house. Robert was on superb form – you are in for a treat Thursday – Gary Wade
Just seen the gig of 2013 with the singer of my generation.. Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters…
Mind blowing – Russell Cherrington
Percy & Sensational Space Shifters from the Apollo October 29th 2013…fantastic gig…better than Wolves Civic Hall! – Paul Harrison
What an incredible show! – Dawn Atherton
Absolute magical night…Plant on top form…plenty of chat with the crowd and some awesome re workings of Zep classics…the Golden God never disappoints his flock –Mark Redman
A great show tonight Dave, full of fun within the band too –Paul Harper
It was a fantastic night Dave….Robert was on top form….as were the Space Shifters – Peter Whyte
Absolutely brilliant night-he just gets better with age like a fine wine. Great version of Rock And Roll to finish the night. Just wish he was like The Boss and made his shows last 3-4 hours as you can never get enough Planty! – Gary Holroyd
It was a truly wonderful night. The whole band were as one, this was Uncle Bob at his best. No one single highlight it was all a highlight, a night of complete and utter joy – Graham Walker
Above photo by Dawn Atherton
Above photo by Russell Cherrington
Above photo by Paul Harrison
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YouTube clip – Friends as performed by Robert Plant and Sensational Space Shifters at Manchester Apollo last night via Graham Williams excellent YouTube clip… looks great! Very much looking forward to Royal Albert Hall on Thursday…
Manchester Evening News Interview:
Here’s a brief interview via the Manchester Evening News:
Robert Plant just loves a challenge
Sarah Walters chats to Robert Plant
City Life and Robert Plant are ruminating old times. Back when Plant was a bullish teenager determined to follow his grandfather into the music business and was hauling his band up and down the country, he played all over Manchester, including at the legendary Free Trade Hall and the Twisted Wheel, long before he would form Led Zeppelin with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham.
We break the news that it has just been pulled down. “Oh, what a terrible shame,” he laments. “The clubs I used to play in Manchester when I was a kid, like the amazing Twisted Wheel, they were all about black music and black singers.
“I did so many places up there were people told me to f-off and stop playing that weird ****. We were the baby boomers and while our parents were still clinging to the war we carried on going forward.
“Music was constantly being regenerated and modernised and we just latched onto it and did as much as we could to make it our own.”
It was with Led Zeppelin that he succeeded in doing just that. But he has done it many times over since, with Page And Plant (with his Zepp colleague and guitarist Jimmy), The Strange Sensation, his multiple Grammy winning album with Alison Krauss, Band Of Joy with beau Patty Griffin, and his latest outfit Sensational Space Shifters – which he’s headed to Manchester with on Tuesday.
At 65, and certainly a made man, Robert could easily stop. But he remains determined to test himself, and the complex global mix of sounds, styles and superstar band members in Sensational Space Shifters couldn’t be more of a challenge to choreograph. In the band: Massive Attack/Portishead’s John Baggott, Cast’s Liam Tyson, and Justin Adams of Jah Wobble’s Invaders Of The Heart. On the playlist: Appalachian folk songs, blues covers, and many of Robert’s big hits from Led Zepp onwards.
“I made it into Led Zeppelin goes psychedelic and West Africa,” he laughs.
“It’s wild and really great fun.”
See link at:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music/robert-plant-just-loves-challenge-6246407
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Cerys Matthews Interview BBC 6 Music Sunday October 27th:
Here are some quotes from the interview Robert conducted with cerys Mathews on her BBC ^ Music show on Sunday morning: Some lovely comments about John Bonham
Robert Plant thought he’d end up as a used car salesman.
The legendary Led Zeppelin singer first toured the US with guitarist Jimmy Page, drummer John Bonham – who was nicknamed Bonzo – and bass player John Paul Jones in the late 60s, and while it was a great experience, he never thought it would last.
He told radio station BBC6 music: ”Bonzo and I had been playing together. He and I had exaggerated personalities, and we could clear a room telling everybody how great we were, from an early age. But there was no money in it, so Bonzo joined Tim Rose.
”The Yardbirds and Jimmy were playing in America. When Keith Ralph left, Jimmy wanted to carry on and was looking for a singer. I was kind of flittering around in the broom cupboard, really … so they came to see me. They were looking for somebody who might kick ass. And I was a frontman who didn’t play guitar, which was handy … it was just like, anything goes, I’m not going to be thinking of this after [these shows in the US] as I’ll probably be selling cars in Wolverhampton next month.”
Robert, 65, admitted he and Bonham, whom he recruited for the band, were ”still pretty wet behind the ears” when they first started touring, but the drummer was so good he managed to win over entire blues bands with his skills.
He explained: ”He was the blackest white drummer. I remember going to The Burning Spear in south side Chicago when no white were allowed – we were British so we kind of got a pass to get into these black clubs. And he sat in with Bobby Bland’s band, and he was just amazing. What he did when he played on records and what he did live … it was such a great thing to see and the whole band are just turning to him, Bobby Bland is turning to him and smiling, it was incredible.”
Led Zeppelin helped define the heavy rock sound of the 70s before disbanding in 1980 when Bonham died.
See link:http://www.contactmusic.com/story/robert-plant-thought-he-d-end-up-selling-cars_3926293
Here’s the link to listen to the interview:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03fpzxw
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Bluesfest Royal Albert Hall London TBL pre gig meet Thursday October 31st 2013:
Having seen the Manchester reports, I am eagerly looking forward to the Thursday show at the Bluesfest London’s Royal Albert Hall – even though it’s going to be a late journey home. The TBL posting of the gig may be a little delayed as we will not be back until the early hours of Friday and we may need some sleep in the day!
The TBL crew will be pitching up though we are reduced in numbers – unfortunately Gary Foy has not been too well recently and is having to miss out – get well soon mate.
God willing, for me this will be the 52nd occasion I have seen Robert Plant sing into that Shure microphone at a London gig through Zep and all the solo years – and the 111th occasion overall.
The prospect of this London appearance , just as it was back in 1971 on that first experience at the Empire Pool Wembley some 42 years ago… is awesome.
As ever there are fans converging from all parts of the globe for this one -I know of a fair few coming in from European locations and it will be great to say hi.
The venue for the TBL pre gig meet is as follows: we aim to be there around 7.30pm
The Queens Arms
30 Queens Gate Mews,
Kensington,
SW7 5QL
Directions
From The Albert Hall: Walk past the Albert Hall towards Kensington, turn right into Queens Gate, and take the next right onto Queens Gate Terrace the first right into Queens Gate Mews. The pub is in front of you.
From Gloucester Road Tube Station: Turn left, cross over Cromwell Road then take the 4th turning on the right (Queens Gate Terrace) approximately 150 yards on the left is Queens Gate Mews. The pub is in front of you.
Here’s more info:
http://www.thequeensarmskensington.co.uk/
Looking forward to seeing all that can make it…
DL
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Lou Reed 1942 – 2013:
All at TBL were like so many when the news broke on Sunday, shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Lou Reed age 71. By way of a tribute here is a version of The Velvet Underground’s Waiting For The Man as performed by Robert Plant with Priory Of Brion at a gig at Fiddlers Club Bristol in February 2000. RIP Lou…
Until next time…Keep listening, keep reading…
Dave Lewis/Gary Foy – October 30th, 2013.
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Manchester was wonderful!! When you think Robert couldnt possibly get any better – he does!! Joss sticks lit and I was in heaven, tears of emotion already! Beautiful start to the show with a great intro to Babe. Fab show, great band, sublime voice of Mr Robert Plant.
Thanks for the reviews, photos and clips…♥
If Robert did indeed become a used car salesman, I suppose I’d be driving whatever he sold me because he had me at “hello”.
Manchester was another solid performance. At the Wolverhampton gig, I had felt that Robert’s many years’ ambition of cross-fertilizing the delta/Chicago blues and the Mid Eastern/northwest African music has come to an ultimate fruition in the form of the Sensational Space Shifters, his current band. The Manchester show only strengthened the impression further. To quote the song title of Family, another of my favorite band from the Sixties/Seventies, they are a “strange band” indeed! I was even amused to find a quirky resemblance of the latest, amplified rendition of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp to Holding The Compass performed at the Family reunion show back in February.
It all hasn’t gone down without reservation, though. As much as I enjoyed the newly-added Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, nine Zep tunes out of fifteen song-setlist are way over the top. With two blues covers excluded, the selection from the solo years is now down to only four songs, unless you count the ending bit of The Enchanter that was attached to If I Ever Get Lucky. Robert should choose more from his solo material instead of adding yet more Zep tunes, if he does justice to his constant remark of dismissing Led Zeppelin as the past.
That being said, the Manchester show was nothing short of brilliance. And it was all the more convincing, at least for me, that Led Zeppelin were over…a bitter but healthy recognition if you respect the present and the future.
I greatly admire and miss Lou Reed. I saw him live eight times between 1986 and 2003, and his on-stage presence was always edgy, the show always sensational. For me, he was the “Bob Dylan in the backstreet”.
R.I.P. Mr Reed…
Great gig last night(MANCHESTER)
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
My god!…. Last nights gig at Manchester was truly brilliant. It showed Robert in a good mood, looking good and sounding sensational. He is now looking like a man who knows that he has the world at his feet. Well done!
fantastic gig last night in Manchester, loads of Zeppelin songs . Robert said he was going back into the cocoon after the Thursday gig, but would love this line up to continue,, unless of course………
This man is truly a legend as we all know. I had the wonderful experience of seeing Robert many times in my life. Several times in Houston, Texas in the 70’s with Led Zeppelin, 2010 in Dallas with Band of Joy and most recently this past June in Dallas with The Sensational Space Shifters, which was Robert’s first stop for his USA Tour. He blew us away and I felt like I was back in the 70’s again at another Led Zeppelin Concert! Sure am glad Robert didn’t become a used car salesman!
Sounds an amazing night Graham!
Truly sensational gig. The whole band were at the top of their game. Never been disappointed by an Uncle Bob concert but this was right up there as one of the best. Can’t pick out a highlight, the whole show was one big highlight. From the opening notes of Babe right through to the final chords of Rock n Roll it was a pleasure. Robert and the band brought together many different musical elements seamlessly in a fusion of joy. And we were played out by a Welsh male voice choir! What more could you all for.
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