Simon Rushworth
The Quireboys are laying waste to North America as they charge across the country from west to east celebrating their 30th anniversary in style.
Join our illustrious guide Paul Guerin for exclusive insights into the tour to end all tours…with news on Faster Pussycat, the lovely Aiden Ashley and Keith‘s keyboard woes below.
My frustration with Viber is at boiling point now. With the time difference between us and England, and wifi access at a premium, my window of opportunity to speak to Trish is very slim. So when it doesn’t work – along with Skype and Facetime it drives you mad! But what can you do? Just got to crack on and keep pointing north…
The Chameleon Rooms is a huge venue. In fact it reminded me very much of my old stamping ground Newcastle Mayfair – just without the balcony.
Ask anyone and they’ll agree The Mayfair was truly the greatest rock club. On any given Friday night it was the place to be. The first show I saw there was UFO in ‘77, I shared a beer with Bon Scott in ‘78 and, in fact, it was the first place I met Joe Elliott when they were opening up for AC/DC.
I played there many times myself, we did Spike’s dad’s memorial show there in ’95. Great memories but it’s a car park now. Beggars belief!
Faster Pussycat had already soundchecked so we were free to get on with business once we hit The Chameleon Rooms. Poor Keith has had a difficult time on this tour with the keyboards he’s been playing on – sometimes you would think it would be easier getting an audience with the Pope than landing decent keyboard! Anyway Oklahoma was a winner – a brand spanking new Roland nx1 arrived for Keefychops to play his heart out on. Only one problem…the stand was a new fangled modern affair that no-one could fathom how to open up. We were scuppered. Ironing board it was.
London’s Dungeon were on before us and main man and new friend Troy kindly lent me his Blackstar rig which sounded fantastic. Griff was using Ace’s (Faster Pussycat) guitarist rig which was a mighty affair and Gazz was plugged into the trusty Ampeg SVT…all good 🙂
Showtime and the set ran smoothly. A good selection of old and new songs hopefully pleased everyone. There was great onstage sound and a great crowd. We were even joined onstage by Ace and Danny for Sex Party. Great fun …job done.
Faster Pussycat were on fine form and Taime had made a miraculous recovery and was leading the charge in true Taime fashion. Talking of fashion and FP had Aiden Ashley – who appears in the new Slash video – selling their merchandise. Canny sales ploy lads!
My two new friends Cindy and Marylou – who we met in Dallas – came to the show and it was great chatting to them afterwards. Back to the hotel at 2am and we were leaving at 4am for the airport! We had a 6am flight to New York in the morning…they’re trying to finish us off!
PG
* The Quireboys’ new album Black Eyed Sons is out now!
* Click here for a full list of tour dates in 2014.