Paul Raymond Project / Pig Iron - Borderline, London 1/2/2013

 London's legendary Borderline was the place to be for rock fans of a certain age on Friday night.  Dive out of work, drive to Shepherds Bush, jump on the tube , get off at Tottenham Court Road.. that was the plan anyway. Our train driver decided that we will not stop at TCR this time round and drop us off somewhere around St Pauls.. anyway we made it with some time to spare, drooled over a few expensive guitars in Tin Pan Alley, grabbed a beer and even got a seat right at the front (I did say it was rock fans of a certain age.. we sit down when we can these days !)


First up was Pig Iron..  heard of these guys before but never heard them - well that was a bad mistake on my part!  They are a brilliant heavy blues rock band that reminded me of Clutch in some ways.

Their set went by in an instant, great songs, some tasty licks on the mouth organ (no pun intended) and some excellent guitar playing from Dan Edwards. Definitely want to see more of these guys and I think some album purchases are in order too.
The tracks we had were :

• Ruler of Tomorrow 
• Hitch 
• Hellacious Days 
• Bootlace Noose 
• Diggin' In The Well 
• Low Grade Man 
• Lord, Kill the Pain 

After a brief pause we had the Paul Raymond Project.  With their newest and best album so far, just hitting the shops, and with this being touted as a launch party I expected to hear a lot from the new album. Whilst that would have been ok (it is a good album - see our review below) what we got was even better. With Reuben Archer from Stampede on vocals for all but one song, we had a romp through Mr Raymond's back catalogue, with a welcome, but surprising number UFO tracks - all with "Signature Keyboard Intro's". 

 It never ceases to amaze me how fluidly Paul Raymond switches midsong from guitar to keyboard to guitar again, without missing a beat.

Reuben was obviously suffering with throat problems, but as a consumate pro that never stopped him going for the tricky notes whenever he had to.  Rob Wolverson (also from Stampede) was a revelation on lead guitar. He looks every inch the Guitar Hero, from the hair, to the poses to the brilliant guitar work. 

Raymond has an infectious attitude, he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself throughout the gig - he should seriously consider doing one of those "An Evening with..." shows full of chat, acoustic songs, stories etc , as I suspect it would be a great  night out.  Lets be honest, the stories about Pete Way alone would be worth the admission fee.

We had .. 

• Just Another Suicide (UFO cover)
• Born & Raised On Rock 'N' Roll 
• Michael Caine 
• Out In The Street (UFO cover)
• Can't Let Go 
• Man On A Mission 
• Take It or Leave It (UFO cover)
• Hero to Zero (Savoy Brown cover) (Paul Raymond on vocals)
• Still The Same 
• C-List Celebrity 
• Love To Love (UFO cover)
• Burned Again 
• Terms & Conditions 
• Doctor Doctor (UFO cover)

A great night at the Borderline - not even spoiled by the fact that we were met by 3 police cars, and 6 police officers back at Shepherds Bush (that's another story) .. now it's time to dig out some of my old UFO albums and buy some Pig Iron.

NR