University, Leeds
Set-List Win My Train Fare Home (If I Ever Get Lucky), Four Sticks, Down To The Sea, Morning Dew, Going To California, Girl From The North Country/In The Mood, Darkness Darkness, Celebration Day, Funny In My Mind (I Believe I’m Fixin’ To Die), A House Is Not A Motel, Tall Cool One, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.
Encore: Song To The Siren, Whole Lotta Love.
Review By Gillian Scott
Having been to the Liverpool concert we knew we were in for an excellent show and it didn’t disappoint. We found our guesthouse, rushed off for something to eat then made our way to the venue, it was easy to find, there was a huge queue. When we got inside we found it was well organised, the atmosphere was brilliant, we bought some drinks then went to watch Arthur Brown, who turned out to be very entertaining with a superb voice.
When he finished we edged our way to the middle a bit because I wanted to be nearer, although to see well I really needed to be at the front, being of short stature, I really should have taken a box to stand on, Phil was alright he could manage. I was almost tempted to ask the six footer behind me if I could sit on his shoulders but decided against it in the end from a comfort point of view.
Well, what can we say, Robert was on top form, in fact it was, if anything, better than Liverpool, the sound was clearer, if not the view. He seemed more relaxed, his voice was perfect, the songs from Dreamland sounded exactly the same as the CD. Song to the Siren and Darkness Darkness were beautiful, as was Going to California, the whole show was wonderful with an amazing Whole Lotta Love at the end.
Robert was incredible with the best voice in the business of course, and all the band were brilliant. If we could we’d go to see him every night but some things in life just aren’t possible.
This from Jonathan Wood
Arrived at Leeds University at 7.00pm with my son Jack, to be greeted by a freezing cold night and a very long queue to get into the venue. First strange shock of the night was when a huge grey limo pulled up outside the venue, is this Mr Plant making a grand entrance in front of the fans?, not quite, strange but true but what must have been the Lord Mayor of Leeds and his good lady, well a civic dignitary with toilet chain around neck. The pair were greeted by you student types and taken inside to cries of “get to the back of the queue!”.
The doors open a little late at 7.45. We made outr way to the T Shirt stall and bought the usual gear. Then upto the front few rows.
Second shock of the night. The support came on led by a young guy on acoustic and his mate playing violin. A Plant like rhythmn was then played to welcome the mysterious singer. The guy was dressed in a gold and black cloak with a hooded mask covering his face, he also carried a large wooden staff. He sang a Dylan song and was mighty impressive. He seemed like the Undertaker in American wrestling. The song came to a dramitc close and the great reveal. I swear he looked like my 80 year old dad but with long hair. Of course we were in the crazy world of Arthur Brown, and yes he did Fire!. Great start, great support.
Onto the man himself. This has to be one of the best gigs I’ve seen him play, he was in such fantastic voice. The highlights were:If ever I get lucky, Four sticks, Down to the sea, Babe, Going to California, Song to the Siren, Whole Lotta Love,Celebration Day.
Poor Darius came in for some stick throughout the show. When greeted with “Led Zeppelin” by the obligatory drunk, Robert replied that they were the next act along with Darius. Other barbed comments were reserved for President Blair. The sound overall was very good, although there was a fair bit of distortion was the whole group got rocking. Skin and Justin were just a revelation and the whole band seemed in good spirits.
Hope the Lord Mayor enjoyed himself.
I’ve not really been a Dreamland fan but its certainly been spinning on the CD since this gig.
This from Neil Dodsworth.
I was lucky enough to get to see the Cambs, Birmingham and Leeds gigs. All had their highpoints for the same and differing reasons. Here’s my opinion on the Leeds show:
The doors finally opened 1/2 hr late as the burgeoning queue snaked its way up the road, and for the 1st time on the tour, I managed to get down near the front, centre stage, 2nd row with miraculously, people in front of me who were actually shorter than me for once. The crowd is the usual mix of young and not so young containing the usual crop of ladies dressed up to the nines hoping to catch a certain person’s eye. The hall is one of the smallest I’ve seen him in and he certainly likes these small venues.
At 7.50 Dave Bryant and Nick Pym stroll onto the stage to take up their instruments to kick the proceedings off and then the tall dark figure of Arthur Brown with his black face scarf, long coat and large black hat marched slowly onto the stage to most peoples’ bewilderment. Few people knew what to make of him at first as I had at Cambridge. The band launch into an excellent Hard Rain which is well received. Arthur strips off and starts to engage with the audience with his amusing anecdotes, and powers through a great set showing an amazing vocal range. He did at one point have a little difficulty clambering over the barriers at the front of the stage for his walkabout in the crowd and returned to the stage do one more song after asking for the permission of the stage management. He went down very well and got a rapturous reception, leaving the stage at a little after 8.30.
The crowd begin to move forward and one or two latercomers try unsuccessfully to get nearer the front. 8.55 the lights go down and the Strange Sensations stroll on. Because of the emergency lights the hall isn’t in total darkness and a tall shadow moves slowly up the stairs to the right of the stage and the great man shuffles slowly on to a great a reception and the opening of If I Ever Get Lucky which goes down a treat, followed by Four Sticks which really gets the crowd moving. His voice is in fanatstic form and he sings with so much soul and emotion its unbelieveable. There’s no doubt that the band are getting tighter with each show and the live version of Morning Dew is just fabulous with John Baggot doing his Bruce Hornsby impression in the middle.
The show is interspersed with Plant anecdotes, “I visited my cousin who was at Leeds Uni some years ago. He’s got a bus pass now!” There’s banter about the relative league positions of Leeds Utd and Wolves, and Darius gets
plenty of stick. My personal highlight of the tour has been on the inclusion of Celebration Day, which rocks like nobody’s business with Skin doing a great job on slide guitar, even though the timing of the guitars and the rhythm section slips a bit at one point.
The new songs go down really well and its good to see that so many get an airing. A superior version of Tall Call One with an Elvis tribute followed by a beautiful BIGLY closes the show. The band return and Robert says “Some people can bring out an album and bury their heads in the sand, and others like us can promote it. We’re very proud
of this and this is probably the most beautiful song I’ve ever sung, its called Song to the Siren” which was magnificent. Then Justin Adams, who was probably a little underused, starts the blues intro to the current version
of You Need Love/ WLL and once the song bursts into life the mike stand is kicked over again and Robert struts, pouts and swings and delivers a fantastic vocal performance, which goes down a storm. There’s a bit of a cock up during the closing chords following the final “Woman, You Needed… dah dah”, and he laughs, lets do that bit again, which they do!
That’s it, no 2nd encore and surprisingly no “team bow at the end” which suggested they may be on again, but at 10.30, the show closed. For me its a shame that Red Dress and Skips Song off Dreamland don’t get an airing and that much of his ’88-93 material doesn’t either. Nothing off Nirvana for quite a while now.
A superb gig, the band improve with every show, the audience loved it and clearly so did Robert. He loves these small gigs, interacts so well with the audience, nods, winks and smiles to the folks down the front.Its good to see
him pay homage to all of his musical heroes too (Forever Changes at £5.99 in HMV is a steal).
So does he really want to go back to playing at the Oakland Coliseum in front of 70,000 with the 200 security staff between them and the front row 100 yds away and all that goes with it?? I’m not sure.
At Birmingham some guy on the balcony did shout out “so when’s the Zeppelin tour?” between songs as Robert had his back to the audience walking back towards Charlie. Robert looked over his left shoulder and gave a very broad
grin but said nothing. Take that as you will. What was that he sang about in Liar’s Dance? Lets keep to the small venues please. This was 7th heaven!
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