Sheffield, England - Media Reviews

Down ‘n’ Outz/Vega - Corporation, Sheffield, Thursday, December 11th, 2014 By Glenn Milligan

Well here’s a show with a difference. Some would say it’s a glorified tribute band and others would say it’s a salute to some Ian Hunter and bands that he was part of that never really got the recognition they deserved.

Apart from the well known front-man going by the name of Joe Elliot from a rather famous steel city band whose name is made up of humourous miss-spelling & the name of a ferocious big spotty cat, the unit is made up of current and former members of the Quireboys (Keyboardist, Keith Weir, Guitarists, Paul Guerin & Guy Griffin plus Drummer, Phil Martini) and Share Ross of 80’s female Heart throbs, Vixen on Bass.

Tonight was being shot for a forthcoming DVD, no doubt because this is Joe’s birthplace so quite fitting really. It’s also makes it a momentous thing to happen for the venue itself. The lights are perfect for the job too and it was like shooting at the arena while down in the pit – talk about getting great shots as can be seen from the photographs throughout.

While the Down ‘N’ Outs are musically spot on, poor old Joe is suffering very bad from a chest and throat infection and you can totally tell from the dry, hoarse, worn harshness of his voice that he is struggling badly and lucky to have any sound at all coming from those legendary iconic larynx of his. He even had to blow his nose on-stage and I dread to think what sort of pain he was in when he was hitting some of those high notes since some of these numbers aren’t the easiest to tackle at the best of times.

I was really impressed with the fact that the set opened with two of my favourite Elton John classics ‘Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding’ that Inever would have expected from the band – not to mention Joe Elliot sat at the piano since I had no idea he could play one. It was a real turn up for the books. From hereon it was a collection of Ian Hunter material, a lot of which was rather obscure for those who aren’t hardcore fans to be honest with you.

Highlights of the set included the kick-ass ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Queen’; the rocking ‘One Of The Boys’& ‘Sea Diver’ which Mr. E informed us is actually only available on download via i-tunes. The dialogue was great in-between especially finding out that videos of the band had been shot in this very room or the information about the guy who runs the hotel in Dronfield that the band used to stop at who even had the likes of Frank Sinatra stopping there – telling us the guy had written a book entitled ‘From Cold Dust To Stardust’ – must get that one day!

It wasn’t the best show in the world by far and personally I would have preferred it that the show would have been postponed until Joe was fit and healthy with his voice bang on form which was the general opinion of many people who I talked to on the night.

Sadly disappointing.

By Metalville 2014.

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