It is this Saturday, as a warm up for Brean on Sunday

Have tried (twice! ) to post review with photos from Bromyard and Brean but suspect my snaps are a big large for swift upload (abandoned after an hour). Think Darren Beale 25 years older with a shock of blond hair and that's new Bob.

As Wes already reported, Bromyard was indeed good, and served well as a warm up/intro for Bob, in front of a lock in crowd of approx 70 in the pub. Couple of lyric slips, but no worse than his predecessors who were still doing it after years .

Strong London accent, which actually goes surprising well with a number of songs, notably Joey and Rat Trap. Think Boomtown Rats meet ****ney Rebel and you get the idea. Sang with feeling, and a good bassist too. 

Did a fairly extensive set (same as previous Rats repertoire but all of it) so Bob deserves credit for mastering all those songs in a short period, and is clearly a pro when it comes to rehearsing. For anyone not aware, he's being touring with Hello since early seventies.

Brean on Sunday was poles apart venue wise. Big holiday camp bar, packed with 500 plus weekenders seeming all wearing wigs, flares and platforms who had overdosed on glam rock from Friday night onwards, to the point where I seriously worried Rats would at best clear the hall or at worst get bottled off stage. Shouldn't have worried. Confident set with Bob seeming completely at home, engaging crowd from the off and generally winning everyone over very quickly. Even the compere was effusive in his praise at the end, and you could hear the surprise in his voice, both at success of the set and at how down to earth the band are. He mentioned what a pleasure it was to have musicians with worldwide number ones to their name who had no ego or diva tendencies, or words to that effect.

Said this many times but the Rats don't disappoint whatever line up it seems to be, which is testimony to the other three. If they're playing within a few miles can pretty much guarantee it's worth the trip and you won't be disappointed.

Now just remains for me to get these photos sorted somehow....

Will do

Some photos here:

http://www.boomtownrats.co.uk/the-news/169-rats-in-brean-sands-somerset.html

To be fair they're not all mine. BTR found some more via Facebook I believe.

Did send a couple of Bromyard but they clearly weren't up to the exacting standards of the editor 

I'll email them across to you.

Cheers mate. See you at next one hopefully.

I believe the idea is for Peter Barton to concentrate on their management and his Animals commitments, which have often stopped the Rats getting gigs. Bob in theory will have more free dates to join Rats I guess. so more gigs equals more income for band and Peter.

As for repertoire, Darren mentioned Kicks (quite funny as he obviously has no idea how these songs go until they reveal them to him) but Wes might know of others discussed. Doing it Right was one possibly I think.

Suspect they'll favour earlier rather than later material but time will tell.

suss wrote:

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Agreed, but get the impression it needs to be songs Garry and/or Simon feel are right, as opposed to popular demand. Again Wes knows more than I, but I think for example Garry isn't a big fan of Blind Date.

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Simon has gone on record saying he thinks Tonic is the best album.

Any of Eva Braun, Howard Hughes, Living On An Island and Don't Believe What You Read will do along with the singles.  I can probably accept skipping Can't Stop and Normal People, though ideally I'd have them as well.

And while they are at it, Do The Rat is overdue an airing

Aside from Kicks, I can't think of any other pre-Tonic song that would be essential.

ArrGee,

Maybe (and you might have done this before so apologies if so) a vote or petition for favoured tracks from them could be compiled, along the lines of what song would make you go again given that (maximum) set today is effectively same as it ever was. 

Still think they'll reserve right to play their choices, but might be food for thought for the band? 

I have added some more photos. I was up until 4am last night getting some done so that they could go on as soon as possible. Some were very kindly sent by Suss and others by Bob Bradbury's other-half: 

http://www.boomtownrats.co.uk/the-news/169-rats-in-brean-sands-somerset.html