John Waite - Rogerthorpe Manor Hotel, Pontefract - 26/04/11

[Rockingbear]

John Waite Rough & Tumble Tour 2011

Rogerthorpe Manor Hotel, Pontefract -Tuesday 26th April 2011

The venue was not your archetypal setting for a rock concert being a 15th Century Jacobean Manor. That said it made a very pleasant change to the usual dives we rockers have to frequent to see our idols.

Support for the tour was Jon Amor, a blues singer song-writer from Devizes, Wiltshire. He played an enjoyable solo acoustic set with songs including “In The Devil’s Back Yard” and the wonderfully titled “Stitch In Your Party Dress”.

There was also a surprise, guest support in the form of local Yorkshire man John Parr. John played a brief four song acoustic set that included “The Best A Man Can Get” (from the Gillette advert), a superb cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” highlighting his exceptional guitar technique and his most famous track, the US Number One Hit “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion)”. John was on fine form this evening and really portrayed his powerful voice. He is scheduled to headline at the same venue at the end of September and I hope to be there for that too.

The Frontiers video played prior to the main set, showed a recent interview with John, indicating that he was keen to get back to playing straight-a-head rock ‘n’ roll. The latter meant that there would obviously be very little in the way of his classic AOR, my own personal John Waite material, however, this did not seem to disappoint the approximate 250 (estimate) audience in attendance.

For this “Rough & Tumble” Tour John assembled himself a new band featuring Kyle Cook of Matchbox Twenty fame on guitar, Tim “The Man In Black” Hogan on bass and Rondo on drums. This was the first time that I had seen John Waite live and he his stage persona reminded me of Bill Nighy’s character Ray Simms, frontman of Strange Fruit in the British Comedy “Stir Crazy”. This indeed is a motley crew in terms of looks with bassist Tim looking like an outcast from The Ramones, Kyle looking like James Dean and Rondo wearing a Popeye Doyle hat! They are, however, a consummate bunch of musicians and an incredibly tight band.

They hit the stage and opened with “Change” from John’s 1982 debut album “Ignition” quickly followed by The Babys’ “Back On My Feet Again”. The latter went down very well with the older members of the audience.

Early doors, John seemed very agitated with the sound and did not hide the fact with frequent hand gestures and evil looks to the soundman on the mixing desk, side of the stage. At this stage of the evening my wife appeared to have got the best view in the house having found a seat at the rear of the stage!

I positioned myself front and centre with the majority of the fans and apart from the odd glitch, the sound was generally very good especially the mix.

The first of the new numbers, most co-written with Kyle Cook (I will have to check out his main band if this is the quality of his song-writing) was up next in the form of the sultry “Evil”.

An excellent, gritty reworking of “Mr. Wonderful” from the new album (first recorded on the aforementioned “Ignition”) followed.

“Better Off Gone” is one of the standout tracks from “Rough & Tumble” and has the hallmark John Waite style.

“In Dreams” from the excellent “Temple Bar” album preceded the Bad English classic “The Best Of What I Got”. I personally would have liked a few more Bad English classics in the set.

John then played two tracks from either side of the USA. “Downtown” referring to New York on the East Coast and “Suicide Life” from Los Angeles on the West Coast. Both were sung with great emotion and the latter featured a great solo from Kyle.

John introduced the next track as a Country song, a cover of Vince Gill’s “Whenever You Come Around”.

The next single off the album was played next, the beautiful ballad “If You Ever Get Lonely” which could be a huge hit if it got the radio play that it deserves.

“Love’s Goin’ Out Of Style” is a great blues number and once again showcased Kyle Cook’s talent.

A five minute drum solo from Rondo enabled the other three members to take a breather before returning for rendition of probably his most famous track, and housewives favourite, “Missing You”.

The title track of the latest album “Rough & Tumble” is a great mid-tempo, foot-tapping rocker leading into a rousing version of Tina Turner’s “Sweet Rhode Island Red”.

The band briefly disappeared before returning for a couple of Babys’ classics “Everytime I Think Of You” and “Head First”.

Despite the fact that there were no songs from my favourite John Waite album “Rover’s Return” this was still an excellent gig enjoyed by both the band and the fans. John’s voice was superb throughout and he handled all the material with great aplomb.