Bad Company Newcastle City Hall 1979 and 2002
The next time I saw Bad Company was on the Desolation Angels on 1979. By this time, the band had morphed into a AOR band, playing much more straight rock. Few traces of the bluesy looseness of Free existed by this stage in the band’s evolution. I think the band played two or three nights at the city hall on the 1979 outing, and I remember thinking the tickets were pretty expensive. I also remember thinking they were dressed much more like your typical stadium rock stars!. It was still a great gig, and several of the old classics were played. 
The set list will have been something like this: Bad Company; Good Lovin’ Gone Bad; Gone, Gone, Gone; Burnin’ Sky; Shooting Star; Rhythm Machine; Ready For Love; Simple Man; Oh, Atlanta; She Brings Me Love; Run With The Pack; Evil Wind; Honey Child; Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy; Movin’ On; Live for the Music; Encore: Feel Like Makin’ Love; Can’t Get Enough. I lost touch with the band from then on. They went through a series of changes, which started with Paul Rodgers leaving Bad Company in 1982. There were then a couple of line ups of the band without Paul which played largely in the States during the 80s and 90s. 
I next saw Bad Company in 2002, when they returned to the City Hall. In the interim, I’d seen Paul Rodgers as a solo act a few times, and he was singing as well as ever, his concerts featuring songs from Free, Bad Company and his solo career. The 2002 line up featured Rodgers, Kirke, Dave “Bucket” Colwell on guitar and Jaz Lochrie on bass. Marie and I went to this gig, and we had great seats in the front row. We are amazed how good the band still were. The set was a mix of Bad Co classics, with a few Free songs thrown in, which were big crowd pleasers. I missed the last reunion tour, which I regret. Hope I get the chance to see them again some day.
28 Apr
Bad Company Newcastle City Hall 1979 and 2002
Posted April 28, 2012 by vintagerock in Bad Company. Tagged: blues, concert, concerts, folk, gigs, heavy metal, music, pop, prog rock, R&B, rock, rock n roll. 5 Comments
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Posted by David Craggs on September 14, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Out of idle curiosity do you remember the support act for Bad Company’s March 1979 show? Regards, David
Posted by vintagerock on September 14, 2012 at 12:53 pm
sadly not, but I’m going to try and find out…..peter
Posted by vintagerock on September 15, 2012 at 8:13 pm
Hi I’ve searched the internet and can’t find any record of a support act for the 1979 tour. Perhaps there was no support act. Does anyone remember? Peter
Posted by Mitch on September 24, 2013 at 4:33 pm
I thoroughly enjoy reading these daily blogs – of which many include concerts that I attended. I only found the website earlier this year hence the late response on this.
I was at both the 1979 and 2002 Newcastle City Hall shows and can add some missing information.
There was definitely no support for the ’79 concert. Set list was –
Bad Company, Good Lovin’ Gone Bad, Burnin’ Sky, Gone Gone Gone, Feel Like Making Love, Rhythm Machine, Ready For Love, Simple Man, Run With The Pack, She Brings Me Love, Evil Wind, Honey Child, Shooting Star, Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy, Movin’ On, Live For The Music.
Encores: Can’t Get Enough, Rock Steady.
In 2002 the support act was The Boa Band.
A fourteen track CD was released prior to the UK leg of the tour called ‘Merchants Of Cool’ – this included twelve live songs recorded earlier in the year in the US plus a couple of new studio tracks – Joe Fabulous and Saving Grace (the latter a re-recording of a song intially on Rodgers’ 1997 ‘Now’ album).
I remember feeling ‘short changed’ at this concert as although the band were very good their main set only lasted an hour plus another ten minutes for a couple of encores!
Set was – Joe Fabulous, Can’t Get Enough, Rock Steady, Feel Like Making Love, Movin’ On, Fire And Water, Young Blood, Wishing Well, Ready For Love, Shooting Star, Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy (including Ticket To Ride and I Feel Fine), All Right Now.
Encores: Run With The Pack, Bad Company.
Posted by vintagerock on September 24, 2013 at 4:39 pm
Thanks for the update Mitch Very useful
Pleased that you are enjoying my ramblings