Glasgow, Scotland - Fan Reviews

Fan Review - By Ellie

We arrived at the SECC about 6.15 or so as the doors time had been moved forward. This was a good thing, as we had three bands to get through and a three hour journey back home afterwards. I was equipped with 'musician's earplugs' as I suspected (and I was right) that it would be a loud one and I want to keep my hearing. By the time the first act came on the hall was full but not too crowded. There were screens to either side of the stage for those at the back, which was a good idea.

Black Stone Cherry were the support, and I enjoyed their set much more than I was expecting. They all had a lot of hair and a fair few guitars, not to mention a fair bit of rawk cliches, windmilling arms and power chords. The drummer was absolutely amazing and one of the most entertaining drummers I have ever seen. They even ended up playing a Jimi Hendrix song with guitars behind their heads and there was a moment when a guitar was played with the teeth. Oh dear. Very enjoyable though.

Whitesnake - I was very impressed by the quick changeover from Black Stone Cherry's set-up to Whitesnake's - it can't have taken much more than 15-20 mins from when the first band went off to the arrival of Mr Coverdale. I very much liked the red velvet curtain lights, although the big screen was a bit underutilised, just showing the album covers.

I was pretty impressed with Whitesnake at first: they played a song from their most recent album that I quite liked. Coverdale was very charismatic despite the fact that he's approaching 60. The band were all quite good as well. Although there was a Korg Triton on stage it was sadly under-used; a bit of a shame. I was a bit less thrilled by the end of their set as I didn't know most of the old material (I'm not a huge fan of theirs) and to be honest wouldn't listen to it on CD but I quite enjoyed their live show.

Up until about half way though the crowd had been quite good. There was enough room to breathe and applaud. Unfortunately about half way through the Whitesnake set, the first of several really rude people managed to shove their way in front of me. I think I have a big sign on my head saying 'I am a mug. Please feel free to knock me out of the way, elbow me in the ribs, stamp on my toes and stand directly in my view'.

Def Leppard - It took a bit longer for Whitesnake to turn into Def Leppard. I was eager to see Rick Allen play drums: I've never seen a one-armed drummer before. If nothing else, Def Leppard deserve a huge amount of credit for the way they dealt with Allen's accident. Just before Leppard came on, the stereo was blasting out 'For Those About to Rock' by AC/DC (surely a choice from the band there?) and then the cover was removed from the drums, the lights went on, and the stage was suddenly full of a bunch of blokes with guitars. Rocket, yeah. They also had a great video backdrop to the gig which included footage from the gig filmed by scurrying camera-men, stock video footage and animations. There was even an Ian Hunter involved which can never be bad.

As soon as they came on, the crowd was suddenly even more dense. Obviously Leppard were the star attraction of the evening. There was barely enough room to move, let alone applaud after the songs! It was also getting really, really hot and I was desperate for a drink. In the interval the nice SECC staff had handed out paper cups of water which was brilliant and I managed to grab one and their was air-con but both unfortunately too little of each. However, I did really enjoy the set despite the drawbacks. They played 3 tracks from the new album (which is the only one I like) although they happened to be my three least favourite tracks.

I really enjoyed the acoustic part of their set. They did 'Bringin' on the Heartbreak' which is one of the few early tracks I enjoy, which half way through went full band. Excellent. There was an extended bass intro to one song as well which involved Rick Savage running all over the place and being lighted up and playing a bit, then running somewhere else and doing the same. Overall, the gig was good but definitely took long. I think 3 bands (at least for standing!) is too many for one night. I have never been so glad to sit down and drink water.

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Fan Review - By Jonathan Dinnes

I have to admit my excitement had waned in the weeks leading up to yet another Def Leppard gig. This was due to a number of factors: I'm not such a big fan of Whitesnake, so the repeated plugs of Elliott and co. of a 'great value package' didn't really ring true for me. Secondly, having seen the setlists on the other dates left me little to get excited about having seen the band and the old hits many times over. but the main problem was that I had seen them six weeks earlier with only a handful of others at the Islington album launch show - and nothing on this tour was going to match that for me.

Nonetheless, I got down to the venue about half an hour before doors opened and was quite surprised how many people were queuing. I cunningly managed to slip into the queue at the front and got a nice spot on the front corner of the barrier on the right. First thing i noticed was what little use of the stage the other two bands actually had - no surprise for BSC but considering this is meant to be a co-headline tour, well, lets say you'd have expected more stage and use of the screens for Coverdale and co. Black Stone Cherry were fairly entertaining and had a few good songs. Must say, i found the drummer mildly irritating and their set closing cover of Voodoo Child was pretty poor. Good band all in all though.

Whitesnake were next up with the Cov straight out onto the mini stage gyrating with his mic-stand. Their set was actually better than i expected and the new stuff sounded quite heavy and good. I saw whitesnake in 2003 and not much has changed since then though. Its very much the David Coverdale show with a few (enjoyable) cameos from the ever-excellent Doug Aldridge. When they stuck to playing, the show was good, as was the crowd reaction, but too often the flow got broken up by cheesy guitar solos and a dull and not very impressive drum solo. Add to this Coverdales grandad shuffle (he's looking every bit his age) and constant pantomime style frontman stuff and I was left pretty bored after half of their set. A shame really, cos they have the potential to put on a really good show. On the plus side, Her I Go Again, Fool For Your Loving and Still Of The Night were all excellent.

So, to the main event. One good thing about seeing Def Leppard - they've been pretty much my favourite band since i was ten, so there's always an element of excitement when i see them walk onstage - and this time was no different, especially since they opened with an awesome performance of one of my favourite songs - Rocket. The visuals worked well and Joe in particular seemed to be in top form, his voice sounding louder in the mix and better than it has in years. C'Mon C'Mon was well placed and received a fairly good reception but then my heart sank when they played Make Love Like A Man - this song is very tired and has no place in the set in my opinion......still, a good chance for some photos! Apart from that the show settled into a high-quality, high-production Lep show with Nine Lives actually sounding the best of the new material this time, I thought that was a really good performance and you could hear how much better they're playing it now from Islington. Rock On was also excellent although I'm not so sure how well it went down with the crowd as a whole but i thoroughly enjoyed it as well as Ricks Solo - extended from how it was played in Hammersmith 06 i think. The crowd were, on the whole giving Leppard a rousing reception for most of the show though lacking in energy up to this point, certainly in comparison to the theatre venues on the X tour.

The Acoustic section was next up with Two Steps Behind being the other song I could do without tonight. I thought that playing that meant there would be no Bringin On The Heartbreak...... how wrong i was! Joe, Phil and Vivian stayed upfront and played an absolutely awesome version of the song as on the hysteria/adrenalize tours. The singalong was great, and when it went electric was particularly impressive - Vivian played the solo brilliantly. This for me was such a pleasant surprise on a night I didn't expect any and without doubt the highlight of the evening. The gig stepped up a notch at this point and stayed there, bringing us to the final section of the show with Animal/Photograph/Sugar/Rock of Ages all bringing things to a stunning climax. It was definitely a different show in the second half with Sugar in particular sounding refreshed with the very cool new intro. The band came out with Bad Actress and Lets Get Rocked in quick succession obviously with time constraints in mind. Bad Actress was great but im not sure if it went down so well as first encore song. Although I don't Love the song, Let's Get Rocked always sounds good live, and I think sent the majority of the crowd home happy. With that, the band said their goodbyes, and that was it - the ninety minutes really did feel more like forty five.

One thing that shone through with this show was the bands professionalism and showmanship. I've seen a lot of bands and no one is more consistent than Leppard. Joe works the stage so well, and Phil and Viv always look like theyre having a good laugh with lots of smiles for the audience. This show wasn't a classic - not like here in Glasgow or Brixton on the X tour or Islington in May - but they always give it their all and never look like they want to be anywhere else. Which is probably why despite spending £40 quid on a ticket for a very short show with an unimaginative setlist, I still went home with a very big, very satisfied smile on my face, then got up on Wednesday and bought tickets for Nottingham. They must be doing something right.

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