Sunday 10th November 2013 - Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen, UK

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Sunday 10th November 2013 - Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen, UK

GarTH · Lookin' After Number 1

Had an amazing night watching 'The Rats' at FatSams in Dundee (Sat 9th), you will NOT be disappointed Aberdeen

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Wish I could have got myself there. Too late now...

Mark L · Loudmouth

Yep, me too. Hope it's a great gig in the granite city. Will be interesting to see if anything's said at the end.

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

I doubt they would commit themselves either way. They need time to reflect on everything and how they would proceed. Doubt if he'll say it was fun but goodbye forever or it was fun and see you next year I may be surprised.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Scottie wrote:
**** review in the Aberdeen Evening Express, but who reads review anyway?

BlOOdy hell, it ain't even the evening yet, that is express. Woof woof! Farewell tour?

http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/local/boomtown-rats-failed-to-impress-at-aberdeen-gig-1.151840

..just prior to the main act entering the stage, a 1980s advert for Pedigree Chum was broadcast on the big screen behind the drum kit. As it transpired, this turned out to be very apt because the gig could best be described as a dogs dinner.

...they resembled nothing more than a plodding, cabaret rock band plugging away down your local of a Friday night. So, on to the music. Well, it wasnt up to much, punctuated by out-of-place harmonica solos and cheesy interludes as the ageing rockers lurched around the stage, their features straining with the effort of it all.

It was hard to escape the fact that this was a band well past their sell-by date, cashing in for one final swansong of a farewell tour.

-- Edited by ArrGee on Monday 11th of November 2013 12:05:08 PM

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

So who went to this? How was it? Tell us all...

Scottie · Loudmouth

**** review in the Aberdeen Evening Express, but who reads review anyway?

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Something wrong with that reporters ears and eyes.

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Just read the comments, that's more like it. THE TRUTH!

BVD1965 · Banana Republic

Scottie wrote:
**** review in the Aberdeen Evening Express, but who reads review anyway?
Since the eighties everything went up in music land: we've got rock academies in every town, there are online music courses, the musical instruments are better than ever, you can record at home with nearly the same technology as they do in the studio, you can use your tablet in a pedal board to get the best effects out of it, you can make a video clip in half an hour an publish it on YouTube, you can be your own publisher, you can do your own marketing strategy, you can design your own logo, you can pay if you want to be the winner of those stupid Voice Of ...land, etc.
The only f...ing thing that went down are these so called journalists, stupid brainless copy/paste employees without any knowledge of music history, who only want to confirm their prejudices. We don't need you anymore as you're not interested in the truth (do you ever watch facebook, twitter to read the real stories of fans?). 10.000's of Rats fans can't be wrong. And if you're still not convinced, buy the live CD. So are you deaf???
Don't believe what you read...

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

We've gained around 8,000 new fans on the FB BG page since the Rats went Back to Boomtown. Before that it could take as long as a year to get 1,000 new likes if nothing was doing, at least a good number of months. That's got to say something.

Scottie · Loudmouth

All the tweets I have had come in have been 100% positive. Many asking them to come back. The other Evening paper was the same, but got a right rollocking from a fan.

suss · In the Long Grass

Haven't read the reviews yet so without prejudice or bias I'd say it took a little while to really get going but the sheer draw of the songs and performance won the day and crowd were arms aloft and bouncing by the end.

Difficult to judge numbers but would be surprised if into 4 figures. Both the numbers and the initial passive response I'd put down to it being a Sunday night, without the level of alcohol induced excitement that say Dundee benefited from, or maybe that's a subjective review wink .

One girl who did appear to have supped a couple leapt on stage quite early on (may have been Do You In?) and had a good 30 seconds or more clinging to Bob before being ushered away, but on the whole that level of enthusiasm wasn't shared until later in set.

There was a nice touch when Bob thanks entire crew by name during Diamond Smiles, and even had the guys who help on stage round a mic singing na na na. And the reason for the apparently random Pedigree Chum ad before videos rolled was that it featured the driver/merch man Mark, from his days as a 'top breeder' - lol biggrin . Band arranged it without his knowledge, although joke was clearly lost on a bemused clientele.

All in all a pretty rousing finale to tour, if not quite reaching the heights (response wise at least) of some other venues.

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Do you have any favourite/outstanding shows, Suss?

suss · In the Long Grass

Can honestly say there wasn't one bad performance. Ok so there was the odd lyric **** up or loss of guitar sound, or string, but nothing detrimental to the experience. I therefore rank more on the overall, including audience response and feel of venue, which is just as well as I couldn't spot a bum note if it was played an inch from my ear.

On that basis I'd have to single out Cork, Bristol and Dundee as particular favourites for me, with Cork edging it. Of all the 23 performances since regroup, I'd only say the one at festival in Germany was a slightly flat experience, partly because German crowd weren't so familiar and were all there for Die Toten Hosen anyway, and partly because it came so soon after the high that was Cork, so didn't compare favourably. Like others on here, I'm not so hot on festival performances, although Chagstock was an exception.

Only my humble and subjective opinions though. Others might judge the sound quality more, or even the vocals. Thought Bob did well to survive Manchester in particular as he was very hoarse and croaky after Leeds.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

ArrGee wrote:
suss wrote:
On that basis I'd have to single out Cork, Bristol and Dundee as particular favourites for me, with Cork edging it.
I only saw four, but Cork was the best. It was a proper event and the crowd really got into it. The others were good, but there were too many spectators and not enough participants. If they do decide to play again, they should definitely do Cork next summer. In fact, just do it every year.

Just because people are not jumping around like teenagers does not mean they are not enjoying it. Maybe they appreciate it on an internal level, and are too old to make a spectacle of themselves by 'dancing' or even moving about a bit.

I know this can give the impression of a crowd not being swept up by the occasion but it's a deceptive picture. I was standing beside one guy in London who looked decidedly underwhelmed and unimpressed by Geldof, but stayed for the whole gig. Maybe I just misread him?

My favourites were Chagstock, Cork, Dublin Sunday night 2, and Birmingham. London was a big occasion but the crowd seemed a bit flat, though the band was good. Warm up gig at Ifield, Crawley was good too.

-- Edited by noelindublin on Wednesday 13th of November 2013 02:42:33 PM

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Yours is the only opinion we can draw on, other than the band or crew. There probably wasn't anyone else there at all of the gigs.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

suss wrote:
On that basis I'd have to single out Cork, Bristol and Dundee as particular favourites for me, with Cork edging it.

I only saw four, but Cork was the best. It was a proper event and the crowd really got into it. The others were good, but there were too many spectators and not enough participants. If they do decide to play again, they should definitely do Cork next summer. In fact, just do it every year.

Scottie · Loudmouth

At last, a really brilliant Aberdeen review http://louderthanwar.com/the-boomtown-rats-aberdeen-10th-nov-2013-live-review/

manatthetop · In the Long Grass

Nice one mate.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

noelindublin wrote:
ArrGee wrote:
suss wrote:
On that basis I'd have to single out Cork, Bristol and Dundee as particular favourites for me, with Cork edging it.
I only saw four, but Cork was the best. It was a proper event and the crowd really got into it. The others were good, but there were too many spectators and not enough participants. If they do decide to play again, they should definitely do Cork next summer. In fact, just do it every year.
Just because people are not jumping around like teenagers does not mean they are not enjoying it.

Where did I write that? The audience can participate by singing along, dancing or if they are in the seats just rattling their jewellery. At Hurtwood and London, a lot of people were at the bar chatting and not really that bothered. I can't say exactly what happened at Cambridge, but it didn't feel too involved behind me. The best gig I saw this year was Elvis Costello at the Albert Hall. He had the audience rapt for nearly three hours. Similarly with Stone Roses and Wilko Johnson, it was as if everyone wanted to be involved. At Cork, there was a sense of that, but less so at the other gigs.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Out of interest, did Patrik Fitzgerald make it to Aberdeen?

suss · In the Long Grass

Patrik finished at Birmingham as he was part of the livenation promoted gigs (which is why some of the posters you see suggest last gig was there). The 3 extra gigs had diff support - a few (3 or 4) in Donny but confess I only caught the last of these (will dig out the band names from a flyer I grabbed), and then a different mob appeared at both Dundee and Aberdeen, who predominantly covered Beatles, Who and a bit of Thin Lizzy. No bad thing though - great songs from a capable band.

Funnily enough as I was sitting being nobby no mates in a nice little Italian opposite Newcastle O2, Patrik walked in with his wife for a quick bite pre-show. Really nice guy; even fished out his CD for me, and only grudgingly took some cash for it when I insisted. After about 7 gigs I got to like some of his material, especially a song called Serving Classes, of this latest CD. Shame he was poles apart from what we all expected as Rats support, but still interesting with a bit of exposure and patience.

suss · In the Long Grass

Scottie wrote:
At last, a really brilliant Aberdeen review http://louderthanwar.com/the-boomtown-rats-aberdeen-10th-nov-2013-live-review/

See the drunk stage invader got captured on film. What a great memento to have!

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

suss wrote:
Shame he was poles apart from what we all expected as Rats support, but still interesting with a bit of exposure and patience.

Never really heard him much either time as I was only coming in as he finished, but I must admit I felt for him at the end of both sets.

suss · In the Long Grass

My sympathy and admiration increased when I learned he was travelling gig to gig entirely by train. Doesn't drive and not in with Rats on their bus. Impressive!

suss · In the Long Grass

And finally! Venue - for the scrapbook

And from slightly 'inland'. Rock and Roll!

Thanks to all, for a memorable tour....Here's to the next one!