My friend John was over from the USA. It was great to meet up with him again and to share memories of concerts that we enjoyed together at Newcastle City Hall in the 1970s. This was the second time I have seen Slash As a solo artist. The first time was at Glastonbury some years ago. I also saw him with Guns & Roses many years ago. John is a fan and has seen him several times in the US.
So, we were both looking forward to the concert. Elaine was my carer for the evening and John, Elaine and I all went off together in the taxi to the City Hall.
First up as support act was an American band called Mammoth, who were led by a large mountain/mammoth of a guy. John had also seen Mammoth before in the US and gave very favourable reports of them. And he was not wrong. They delivered a great set of heavy rock which warmed the crowd up well for the main act.
It was standing downstairs, as is often the case in the City Hall these days. As usual, I was perched from a great vantage point on the wheelchair platform. Elaine insisted that John sat next to me on the platform and she also managed to find an empty seat up there also. So, we were all sorted for our hero taking the stage.
Slash is accompanied by a singer, Myles Kennedy and his band the Conspirators, who are renowned artists in their own right. Myles has a powerful voice and is quite a charismatic front man. Slash was wearing his signature top hat and sunglasses. Although Myles was centre stage it was very clearly slash who was leading the band and providing his usual excellent guitar work. The material was not familiar to me (although they did perform a lesser-known Guns & Roses track apparently) but it was all a blur of excellent heavy rock.
The encore was something of a surprise to me. Slash sat down at a pedal steel guitar for a beautiful rendition of Elton John’s “Rocket Man”. Fabulous.
A fabulous evening spent with a good special friend and some stupendous heavy rock. Fantastic. It doesn’t come much better.
Thanks to Elaine for the photographs and Chris for manipulating the site.
Setlist: The River Is Rising; Driving Rain; Halo; Too Far Gone; Back From Cali; Whatever Gets You By; C’est la vie; Actions Speak Louder Than Words; Always on the Run; Bent to Fly; Avalon; Spirit Love; Don’t Damn Me; Starlight; Wicked Stone; April Fool; Fill My World; Doctor Alibi; You’re a Lie; World on Fire.
Encore: Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time); Anastasia
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