Ricky Warwick, Acoustic TV & Mark Curran
The Cluny, Newcastle 20th July 2013
On a hot North East night, we made our way to The Cluny in Newcastle to catch Ricky Warwick’s Acoustic tour. It’s always a special night for us to catch the former Almighty, Thin Lizzy and now Black Star Rider’s frontman, you are always guaranteed a great night when the Irishman is in town he never disappoints. Anyway more of that later, first up we had Washington (USA) native Mark Curran, now he’s not someone we had come across before, but following his appearance at the Cluny we will keep our eyes peeled for this dynamic rocker.
Opening with the classic Neil Young classic 'Rocking In The Free World' he had the small crowd singing along in no time and by his second song the excellent and very apt 'Sell A Lot Of Beer', quite a crowd had gathered with aforementioned beers in hand enjoying his set. Mark Curran has a really great stage presence and soon had everyone watching and singing along, my personal favourites were 'Old Fashioned Cowboy', 'Don’t Let Me Down' and, a cover of Bon Jovi’s 'Blood on Blood', which was excellent. Curran had the crowd eating out of his hand with this cover, which to my mind knocked spots off the original acoustic version Mark Curran now resides in London and has his own Rock band called Curran, they are a band to look out for. Check out Curran on Facebook, I am sure you won’t be disappointed.
Now Terrovision have had some great songs and I do own a few of their albums, I was never a massive fan, but you know what?, the acoustic version on show tonight was very enjoyable and the Terrovision fans in the crowd lapped up the songs as Tony Wright and Milton Evans entertained and thrilled the crowd with their extensive back catalogue, including 'Alice What’s The Matter', 'My House', 'Tequila' and many other favourites.
Tony Wright had the room buzzing with his wit and charm. Being close to the stage I could see the TV setlist and it got to the stage where I was counting down the tracks, as myself and the other Warwick fans were starting to get a bit impatient!
Then the time arrived for Belfast’s favourite son to hit the stage and he entertained the crowd with 19 songs. Opening with Eddie Cochran’s 'Summertime Blues', the now near to capacity Cluny was in great voice as Ricky unleashed Thin Lizzy's 'Jailbreak' on the Toon crowd. Then from his amazing solo work we got 'Whiskey Song', The Almighty’s amazing 'Wild and Wonderful', a song I have to pinch myself every time I see Ricky perform, as I remember being in my teens and watching The All “Fucking” Mighty performing this at Castle Donnington.
From Ricky Warwick’s new band The Black Star Riders we had 'Bound For Glory' and near the end of the set 'Hey Judas', both were wildly received and soon we will be able to see the whole band performing as they set out on tour. Personally I can’t wait!! Back to the gig, we got 'Tomorrow', then Iron Maidens 'Running Free'. One of my personal favourite songs ever was up next as 'Jesus Loves You' from The Almighty’s 'Powertrippin' album was sung note for note by myself and the crowd. It is a song that is special and always gives me goose bumps ... this time I was stone cold sober so didn’t scream the lyrics out, like I have done in the past (cough)!
Then we were transported back to the Emerald Isle as 'Belfast Confetti' had everyone jigging and singing. Loved the story about Northern Ireland worrying about hooligans when the G8 had been in town recently. Classic stuff! Talking of classic, now we have seen Ricky Warwick a number of times and no matter how many times he tells the story of his time supporting Lemmy and meeting him, it’s still as funny as ever. Then of course we get 'The Ace of Spades'.
Then erm Britney Spears cover 'Ooops', at this point I sneaked to the bar for refills and found the two young lasses behind the bar dancing away with abandon, you see when Ricky and his acoustic guitar comes to town everyone has a damn great time!!
Then we were transported to the first solo album with 'Johnny or Elvis', a cracking tune from the 'Love Many, Trust Few' album, which should be in every rockers music collection. Some of the crowd may have been there just for the man’s recent work and I am sure they lapped up 'Hey Judas' and Warwick’s earlier work too.
The Almighty’s 'Free and Easy' had the Almighty fans move down the front and punching the air and singing in unison.
'3 Sides To Every Story' from a later solo album 'Tattoos and Alibis' and his last solo album 'Belfast Confetti' were aired and in between we got Thin Lizzy's 'The Boys Are Back In Town' ... Then a short space and the crowd demanded MORE and we got Bruce Springsteen’s 'Born To Run' ... So ended a superb night by one of the most gifted singers, songwriters and musicians in the industry, it’s always an honour to be in this man’s presence and tonight as ever he didn’t disappoint!
Review by: Seb Di Gatto