Slade and Sweet – at The Music Hall – Aberdeen, UK

As a seasoned gig-goer I go to lots of events over the space of a year but, this last 2 years, I can honestly say that the glam rock extravaganza that is Sweet and Slade has definitely been my favorite gig of the year.

We may all be folk of a 'certain age' but we still know how to enjoy ourselves and we were all in agreement that last night's near capacity gig in the Music Hall was absolutely fabulous. Sweet came on first of all and started the evening off with New York Groove. It's hard to believe the band have been around since the late 60's, although Andy Scott is the only remaining original member and Bruce, has now been with the band for around 20 years.

 

From the first few bars of New York Groove, the guys threw themselves into the show and it was clear they were enjoying themselves as much as the eager audience. A highlight for us down at the front, was the way Andy interacted with a little old woman, who was probably in her 80's and she put the rest of us to shame by dancing all the way through the set. I'm sure it made her night when Andy actually spoke to her. All the old favourites were played including “Blockbuster”, “Wig Wam Bam”, “Teenage Rampage” and “Hellraiser” to mention just a few.

There was a poignant moment when Andy spoke of Brian Connolly, and dedicated Love is like oxygen, to his memory. At the start of the evening Andy had said how they always play totally live and, as if to prove the point, when one of his guitar strings broke he quickly grabbed another guitar and hardly missed a beat. Telling us all again that, yes, we do play live!

After a short interval and just enough time for us all to get our breath back, it was time for Slade to come on. They arrived on stage to the theme of Thunderbirds, which they've been doing for a few years now  and went straight into playing Gudbye to Jane. As in previous years, Dave Hill stole the show with his cheeky smile and antics on stage. John Berry did an outstanding job of taking on a lot of the lead vocals. A stand out moment for me was when they performed Coz I love you.

“My oh my”, “Far far away”, “Cum on Feel the Noise” and “Everyday” also featured in the set, which came to a rousing close with the forever favorite “Merry Xmas Everybody”, for which the band all donned Xmas hats, just to get us more in the festive mood.  

The only down side to the evening was that it was over all too quickly and I'll definitely have it on my Santa list for them to make a return visit to the Granite City next December.

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Rock Chick-
Big Wheel Overseas Correspondent 

 

 

 

 

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