So many of my favourite bands are reaching their 50th anniversary now. It just shows how old I am. This was a night full of memories for me, taking me back to the early 70s. Andy Powell has continued to fly the Wishbone Ash flag high for all of those 50 years and arrived to a packed Hall 2 of the Sage, Gateshead and delighted the audience with two sets, spanning the entire Wishbone Ash catalogue.
Jackie, my carer, and I were seated close to the front with a prime view of the stage; and marvelled at the twin guitar melodies and the vocal harmonies of a set of classic songs. The first set opened with “Real Guitars Have Wings”, and then we were back to Argos and the early days with “The King Will Come” and “Throw down the Sword”. In an instant I am back halfway up the lighting tower at the Lincoln Festival in 1972, 15 years 
old with my long hair blowing behind me and next to me is my sadly missed old mate Clive. The band may have changed over the years, but my memories remain, and to me the songs sound as glorious as they ever did. A few more great songs and the first set closes with another classic “The Way of the World”.
After a short interval, during which Jackie and I partook in some gorgeous ice cream (they do particularly nice creamy flavours such as butterscotch in the Sage), the band return. And we are back to the very start; Side 1, Track 1 of the first album: “Blind Eye”; simply unbeatable, the closing discordant guitars still ring in my ears now. A couple of more songs lead us into the guitar epic “The Pilgrim” from the second album Pilgrimage. Soon we are rocking away in “Living Proof” and then the closer “Jailbait” which for some reason brings back memories of standing at the back of a packed Sunderland Locarno ballroom (the Mecca) watching the Ash finish their set with the same song. The encore is, what else could it be but “Blowing Free”.
A wonderful night of great songs, great guitars, great harmonies and great memories. 
Jackie came along full of interest and left, a convert and a fan. I am having so much fun converting my carers into fans of classic rock bands! One omission: the epic “Phoenix”, but then you can’t have everything.
Andy Powell closed the evening by announcing that Wishbone Ash would be returning to the Sage in January 2021, with Jan Ackerman, in the larger Sage 1 Hall. The next day I bought tickets. Job done!
Thanks to Jackie for taking the photographs of the band.
Setlist:
Set 1: Real Guitars Have Wings; The King Will Come; Throw Down the Sword; Sometime World; We Stand as One; In Crisis; The Way of the World.
Set 2: Blind Eye; Deep Blues; Enigma; The Pilgrim; Tales of the Wise; Living Proof; Jail Bait.
Encore: Blowin’ Free.
Okay. So they come around a lot, and the songs are always quite similar. But never quite the same. There are always a few small changes, which never cease to delight me. After all they have so many great hits to choose from. Sure, I was just a kid at the time, but that’s exactly the point. 
This is no embarrassing 60s package show; rather it is a two-hour celebration of hits spread across two sets. They start off with “King Midas in Reverse”, the song that so disappointed Graham Nash when it wasn’t a hit, that it was one of the reasons for him eventually leaving the band. Still a great song today. Then off we go into a stream of hits; some sang individually, some mashed together as a medley: “I Can’t Let Go”, “Sorry Suzanne”, “Jennifer Eccles”, “On a Carousel”. This band really were great when at the top of their game in the 60s; and the hits still sound great today. The first set finished with one of my favourites, starting with a classic guitar intro from Tony Hicks: “Look through Any Window”.
So there I was, this time in the lovely surroundings of 
Is the Deepest” and then rolling back again to “Ooh La La”. After a few more songs, Rod took a break while the band and the great vocalists sang “River Deep Mountain High”. Then “Rod The Mod” was back to treat us to “Stay with Me”, his voice as strong as ever. Rod finished with the aforementioned “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” (do you really still have to sing this one Rod?), Followed by the crowdpleasing, singalong and lots of arm waving “Sailing”. Rod left the stage at this point and the band closed the show. Another great Rod experience, with glimpses of “Rod the Mod” still emerging now and then. My search goes on, and will continue to do so, as long as Rod continues to grace our stages.
The 
So I turned up on a cold winter’s night in my taxi, with Jackie my carer, which dropped me off right at the door of Durham Cathedral. I was greeted inside by my friends Norman, his sister Barbara and our old friend Doug. Now Durham Cathedral is a wonderful venue for a concert. “Durham Cathedral is a Norman church in England, designed under the direction of the first Bishop of Durham, William of Calais. It was built to house the remains of St. Cuthbert, but also to show off the might of the new Norman rulers. Construction began in 1093 and lasted 40 years.” (
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