Night Ranger Islington Academy 12-03-15

Night Ranger was a huge part of my growing up and the first 3 albums in my opinion really do take some beating.

I was lucky enough to see them support Foreigner way back in 1985 at Wembley Arena and they were every bit as good as I hoped they would be. (oh you have to keep going on about that don't you!  .. Editor NR)

The 2 Islington shows in 2011 and 2012 were both legendary so after a 3 year break from these shores anticipation was high.

Billed as an evening with Night Ranger and after a 2 hour wait in the venue (surely a young UK band would have bitten some ones hand off to have a sold out show to play too!!) the lights went down and we were treated to a 22 song 2 hour 5 minute show that showed once again that the years have not dulled a single jot of this band and that they are one of the finest bands ever to grace a stage.

Here is what they played:

Touch Of Madness
Seven Wishes
Growing Up In California
Sing Me Away
Can't Find Me A Thrill
School's Out Alice Cooper cover
Four In The Morning
Coming Of Age 
St Bartholemew
Sentimental Street
Night Ranger
Crazy Train Ozzy cover
High Road
Don't Live Here Anymore
Eddie's Coming Out Tonight
High Enough
The Boys Of Summer Don Henley cover
Goodbye
When You Close Your Eyes
Don't Tell Me You Love Me
Sister Christian
You Can Still Rock In America

In the 3 years since their last visit Joel Hoekstra has left to join Whitesnake and his replacement Keri Kelli has fitted in just superbly. His onstage presence and his playing alongside Brad Gillis showed the confidence of a man who had been there his whole life and not just a handful of shows.

The setlist covered all aspects of their career right back to Dawn Patrol with the little played Can't Find Me A Thrill and Night Ranger taking top spots. I never thought I would see the band play Night Ranger and it was everything I hoped with a fantastic solo from Brad.

7 Wishes returned to the set in the year of its 30th anniversary and that Wembley show with Kelly Keagy showing he is also a wonderful drummer as well as vocalist.

As well as being musicians of the highest quality what shines through is that after a career of over 30 years the sheer joy of playing and friendship. The band giving knowing looks, share a smile and a laugh and that filters through to the audience.

Having a frontman in Jack Blades who has the enthusiasm of a dog with its first ball and who in another life should have been a game show host also helps!! His between song banter is fantastic. He tells us of a 5 year plan with the band coming back to the UK every year and trying new parts of the country too. Along with band anecdotes including a love of Gavin And Stacey with their soon to be trip to Wales for HRH AOR3. Well if they could find it as he asked which way was Wales?

After some technical keyboard issues that had led Eric Levy to being unheard during Sentimental Street he quoted Ted Nugent in saying fuck the keyboard player and pretending to shoot the keyboard up!! I'm not sure Brad expected that as he exploded into laughter!!

We had Schools Out by Alice Cooper as an introduction to where Keri Kelli had come from and a lengthy anecdote from Brad about his Ozzy days before Crazy Train.

And Jack said as the Damn Yankees won't come out we also got a fantastic Coming Of Age and High Enough with some superb backing vocals from all of the band.Jack again had us in stitches with his pre High Enough story about writing the song with Tommy Shaw in NY while he was doing his laundry!!

New cd High Road had 3 songs played with the title track and the Kelly vocal ballad( what a voice) of Don't Live Here Anymore both shining brightly and fitting in well with the older material.

Eddie's Coming Out showed the already near telepathic communication between Keri and Brad as the song develops into a guitar duel!!

Another surprise outing was from their 24 Strings And A Drummer cd with Don Henley's Boys Of Summer being a showcase for how fast Brad can play an acoustic.Mind blowing.

With the band now in the home stretch the mega ballad Goodbye had Kelly singing his heart out again before Brad strode at top the solo.With the following Don't Close Your Eyes I marvelled at Brad.For the whole show the sound for him had been superb with so many of that trade mark tremelo sound and watching him close up was a joy.For this song he was hitting a note and then letting it go before catching it I was mesmerised!!

Don't Tell Me had the guitarists duelling before the band stayed on rather then leaving as they had been told they were running over time.Sadly due to this Dawn Patrol's Penny was missed off the pre planned setlist which was real shame for us fans from day one.

Kelly led us through Sister Christian before the band showed us they can Still Rock In London!!

The band overran by nearly 10 minutes and with a set of over 2 hours what an evening topped off by me catching one of Kelly's sticks!!

A magical night from a band at the top of their game and who if they keep their promise they should become a regular visitor to these shores and for that we should all be thankful.