myfretless wrote:Seems like everything is in place for an XYZ reunion!
I may be mistaken here, but I thought Wakeman and Emerson are quite friendly and have often spoken about playing together. It looks like this might be the perfect chance.
I would like to see Howe or Fripp involved just from a musician's standpoint.
Me too!!
myfretless wrote:Fripp has nothing to do with Ahmet Ertegun though.
?????? Oh yes he does! Bobby Fripp is another Atlantic Records (owned by Ertegun and his brother) alumnus, just like Chris Squire. Atlantic released the early King Crimson records, such as their 1969 debut In the Court of the Crimson King, Lark's Tongue In Aspic, etc., through to their first breakup in 1974 after a hard tour. Bobby Fripp was the guitarist for King Crimson and, like Chris with YES, was the only constant member of the band King Crimson throughout its various reformings.
With only 5 days left till I get to see Led Zep and of course Chris Squire and his mates. Does anyone know what the line up for the whole day is? I've mooched about on the net but as yet cant find a site that can tell me.
Funnily enough, I was just gonna drag this thread back up to ask if you're getting ready to hop the pond, and how your nerves were doing.
As far as I know so far, it's Paolo Nutini (I've not heard of him until now, but apparently he was Ahmet's last official signing), Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, Paul Rogers, Foreigner (wonder if Jason Bonham will be behind the kit for them, as that's what he's been doing up until now), Squire and crew (although not listed on the program, AFAIK), and Zep.
So...getting excited yet?
edit - given the sheer numbers that tried to get into this show, I'm actually amazed at the amount of internet folks I know (I use that term loosely, of course) that are going. There's Bob here, and between two other Zep forums/lists, there's gotta be 20-30 others as well. Pretty darn impressive really.
relayer wrote:Funnily enough, I was just gonna drag this thread back up to ask if you're getting ready to hop the pond, and how your nerves were doing.
As far as I know so far, it's Paolo Nutini (I've not heard of him until now, but apparently he was Ahmet's last official signing), Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, Paul Rogers, Foreigner (wonder if Jason Bonham will be behind the kit for them, as that's what he's been doing up until now), Squire and crew (although not listed on the program, AFAIK), and Zep.
So...getting excited yet?
edit - given the sheer numbers that tried to get into this show, I'm actually amazed at the amount of internet folks I know (I use that term loosely, of course) that are going. There's Bob here, and between two other Zep forums/lists, there's gotta be 20-30 others as well. Pretty darn impressive really.
Chris, I live in UK so it's just a 5 hr drive. Excited? YOU BET!!!
Today I had a planning 'meeting' with my friend Charles that I'm going with. His wife is making us a picnic hamper!
Often when I go to a gig I fantasize what would happen if the bass player had eaten a dodgy curry or something and need someone in the house to fill in (sad I know), well in this case I don't think I could bluff my way through a Chris Squire set, so it will have to be Jonesy then...!
Fantastic Bob! No need to say have a great time, as I'm quite sure you will. And I'm sure there will be tons of online activity within hours of the shows end, whether it's reviews, photos, audio torrents ( ) and the like. That's gonna be tough for me, as I leave for work Monday afternoon at 5:30PM my time - wish I had a sick day left.
As a bit of an aside - you didn't happen to check out the previously unheard (well, except for one broadcast back in '69) Paris '69 show that streamed online from a French radio station yesterday afternoon, did ya? Quite the performance!
While we're all breathlessly awaiting Bob's review of the night's festivities, here's a bunch of pics from the gig. Chris is in the first handful (give or take).
Just got home. I'm off to bed as we had a bit of a post gig drinks session last night!
I will report all very soon. As far as Zeppelin goes, that was in my top three gigs of any band ever. I am 50 years old and have seen many, many gigs. As for the other acts in the first half, that was a mixed bag.
Let me have my beauty sleep and I will share it with you.
I'm sure you deserve a bit of rest, Bob. Will be looking forward to your thoughts, especially about the other acts, as I actually haven't seen anything about any of them so far!
On this occasion it might be appropriate that I should Ramble On, so here goes.
We got to the venue with about four hours till show time and along with many thousands of others started queuing to collect our tickets and wrist bands. Quite a camaraderie and near Dunkirk spirit developed, and though I would normally hate queuing for this amount of time it actually added to the anticipation and excitement.
It seemed that the whole world press were there and I did my bit by talking to camera for the New Zealand news crew. We made friendships with those near to us and at a guess I would have said that the majority of fans did not live in the UK. Eventually we gained access to the arena.
The 02 for those that have not been there, including myself, it large but not huge. I think it holds about 18,000, and I was really pleased that it had quite an intimate atmosphere. With the background music playing I realised that the sound crew were going to have their work cut out, big time. It was not a good acoustic, not so much that very live aircraft hanger acoustic that large halls can through at you, but more of a confused sound. At a guess I think this could be due to the domed, parabolic roof focusing sound it certain areas but not others.
The first band on was Chris Squire, Keith Emerson, Alan White and Simon Kirke (sp?) playing Fanfare For The Common Man. The actually fanfare was appropriately played by a clutch of brass players, this IMO was better than Keith Emerson playing it on a synth.
I felt really sorry for these guys as the sound was not too good. There was a hitch with Emerson’s Leslie on the Hammond not being miked up correctly; this meant that one could really hear the keys till about a third the way through the number. Chris Squire was not playing a Rickenbacker, but sounded very Chris Squire never the less. In fact the last time I saw Yes Chris played a bevy of basses and they are sounded quite similar, not sure if that is good or bad, but you certainly knew who the bassist was!
Fanfare was played with room for Keith and Chris to solo a bit. I was thrilled during Chris’s solo that he threw it a few bars of the main Roundabout riff, a smile came over his face as he went into this passage, nice one Chris! Emerson played well and did a bit of playing keys from behind stuff, quite reminisant of Nice.
Fanfare ended all too quickly and the band left the stage to very warm, generous applause.
Of course we were all there to see Led Zep but anyone of a certain age will also have been into or influenced by prog. If one can imagine Venn diagrams of musical genre over the past four decades I would have said that Led Zep, firmly in rock had a healthy overlap into prog. This is why the crowd enjoyed and applauded this performance. It would have been good to have seen this band play a second number but the schedule was very tight.
Things were turned around on stage at lightening speed and with military precision and seemingly in the blink of an eye Bill Wyman with his Rhythm Kings were on stage. This is the first time that I have ever seen this band and I’m afraid that my friends who have seen them before were not totally impressed by the band. I still had an oped mind though. Now I’m a big Stones fan, they were the band that I first started playing covers of in my school band and have always enjoyed the bass lines. I’ve got to say, regrettably that for me the band just didn’t come up with the goods. Bill Wyman was playing thumb style. Now occasionally in my band when we take a number right down I will switch from finger to thumb style. This gives the bass a very fat smooth sound with little cutting through the mix, but laying down a soft warm acoustic blanket for the rest of the band. With the poor acoustics in the venue the very last thing that a bassist need would be to play thumb style in a very, and I may live to regret saying this, sloppy fashion. We got plenty of close ups of his playing and there was no precision or attack to his right hand at all. This sadly made for very ill-defined bass lines, shame. The rest of the band was rather like those special finales at charity gigs when everyone gets on stage and starts jamming a Beatles number, it always sounds a mess. This I’m afraid is how the rest of the band came over, dare I say rather under rehearsed and not that tight. Hmmmm….
This band became the house/backing band to guest artists to sing with. These included Paolo Nutini, very good but not really my bag. Beverley Skeete, totally stunning, Maggie Bell, lost some of her power, but good to ser her strutting her stuff and Paul Rogers who ignited the show sing All Right Now. He really hasn’t lost any of the quality in his voice and for a guy who must be 60 ish belted it out and really worked the crowd, a true pro. During All right Now Wyman handed his bass duties to another guy, this is an example of where quite sloppy thumb style just wont cut it.
Again in the blink of the other eye Foreigner were on stage playing that I Want To Know What Love Is thing. I have a bit of a pet hate of big slushy sounding soft rock stadium bands playing anthemic schmaltz, and this track hits that button squarely in the middle. The final straw for me was mid number about 20 school kids trouping onto the stage and sing along with the chorus, it was all I could do to keep my recently eaten cheeseburger down. Thankfully this was the only number that the band played.
Going back to my Venn diagram idea of genre overlap, Prog and Rock share quite a lot of similar ground, but bands like Foreigner, Toto, Meatloaf in my book don’t. This could explain why the singer in the band tired to get the audience to sing along with the chorus, except precious few of knew the words!
After about a half hour interval Led Zep hit the stage. It took about three numbers for the band to get into their stride and for the sound team to dramatically improve the PA sound. It was a shame that two of these three numbers were Good Times, Bad Times and Ramble On, two of my favourite numbers. The band just got better and better and I’m sure you will all get to see clips of the show or get the inevitable DVD when it comes out. They played for about 2 1/4 hrs and of course left us wanting more. I would not be surprised after this show if they don’t do some sort of tour. They have a fire within them still that blew me along with the rest of the audience totally away. As far as rock gigs go that has to be up amongst the very best ever.
To Mr Chris Squire, I hope that you are reading this. THANKYOU. You lit the touch paper for the rest of the show in your inimitable way, and thank God you played pick style and not thumb!
And I'm sure there will be tons of online activity within hours of the shows end, whether it's reviews, photos, audio torrents ( 
) and the like. That's gonna be tough for me, as I leave for work Monday afternoon at 5:30PM my time - wish I had a sick day left. 
