Foreigner - 13th November Guild Hall Portsmouth

3 days after Heaven & Hell it's gig 200. 25 years and 6 months after seeing Budgie in Oxford and a s**t load of money but I wouldn't change it at all!!!!

Francis Dunnery ex frontman of It Bites was the support, playing acoustic. It was a long 40 mins I can tell you. One song talked about having a cat that died so he bought a puppy from kennels. I laughed and was glared at by the old bird in front of me. In fact later she told Shaz off for talking as she was listening. A strange venue the Guildhall in Portsmouth.Very wide flat floor with some upstairs and to the side and hanging drapes down the side.

The crowd was very old - I felt very young. The man in front who was older than me had brought his dad and as he sat down in row 5 he said to him at least you will be able to see!!!!!!Foreigner came on to Double Vision which was the only change to last year's set.The crowd sat down.Kelly Hansen(vox)tried to get them to stand up to no avail, so went out into the first few rows. Still no success. So he ran right to the back of the venue. After about 30/40 mins Shaz had had enough so with Barbara (a lady we met at Journey) they went to the front and a few stood up. It took an hour to get most of them up. The crowd included Mick Jones's(geetar) 2 aunts in their 80's and John Bonham's mum watching Jason (drums). She was introduced and could barely get up!!!!! I have to say the band took it in their strides and Jeff Pilson(bass) kept smiling as he went through his rock star motions to no avail!!

The band were brilliant and Kelly Hansen has grown into the job and has breathed new life into the band and has made all the songs his own. Their accapella version of Say You Will is a show stopper.Jason now has the Led Zep rings on his kit obviously in preparation for his little gig in 3 weeks time. So putting Whole Lotta Love into Juke Box Hero was no shock.

As it is Mick's home town he and Kelly came on for the encores in home and away Pompey shirts!! The crowd at last responded. So a great gig with a pretty shockingly poor audience but having a shit support act was no warm up!!

The band deserve a 10 the crowd a 2. Shepherd's Bush would have been a better venue like last time. As we left one of the steward's asked us to go as she wanted a cup of tea.She must have been in her late 70's. So one more gig for the year.

Next Tuesday the 27th which so happens to be Shaz's 40th birthday - Thunder and Lauren Harris at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. Yes I went to New York - Shaz goes to Wolves!!!! We do have after show meet and greets though!!!!
ME

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