JM

[Blessed Dude]

Went to see It Bites in Glasgow last night. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Johnny Mitchell is he hardest-working musician in the world? Imagine all the complex songs that he has to learn to sing and play for different bands, and he churns them out note-perfect every time. Good on ya, JM.

IB were good, but again suffered from a crappy venue which imposed a 10pm curfew, which stopped them doing an encore - much to the bemusement of the crowd. There was no announcement made that this was the case, I only found out about the curfew later.

As much as I love JM, IB without Frank D are just not the same. Not worse, just different. I saw IB in their heyday supporting Robert Plant. Now Planty was brilliant, but I have to say, IB blew them off the stage!

[gjstockham]

I saw the setlist on the stage, and they had scribbled out "England" and replaced it with "Scotland", so I think they had intended to do a modified version of "This is England" as an encore.  I guess they just ran out of time.  Not a great venue.  Preferred the Arches where Frost played.

Still, that was the first time I'd managed to get to see IB so that outweighed the lack of encore!

[D S]

It certainly was a rather strange gig.  On one hand, what they played, they played wonderfully and the crowd was up for helping 'the Chainsaw of Prog' out with the vocals.  It was actually on course for being one of my favourite It Bites gigs at one point.
 
Then I realised that they'd dropped Turn Me Loose and When I Fall (which they'd been playing elsewhere on the tour).  That combined with the fact they came on at 8.20pm made we wonder if something was up.  But I knew that the encore on the other nights had been part of Once Around The World and This Is England so I was dying to see how the latter went down in Glasgow!

Off they went after Kiss Like Judas and the usual game of people clapping, stamping and whistling went on for a couple of minutes as we waited for the inevitable encore.  Only it never came.  House lights up, 'She Sells Sanctuary' on the PA and a few boos from the crowd.  No explanation, no apology, just game over.  Most odd and very disappointing.  Surely if the venue operated a curfew, this should have been made known to everyone (band and fans alike) well in advance - the Mean Fiddler always makes it clear that there is a curfew, leading to early starts which are highlighted on the tickets.

Still, the support were worthy of mention - a very competent young band called Amid Concrete And Callousness.  Not the snappiest of titles I'll admit but an interesting mix of everything from Funeral For A Friend-style emo to trance / dance electronica!  Their keyboard player Heather is a bit prettier than Jem too.  

PS - sorry, didn't say hi to you guys but I shocked Ecky P by telling him I recognised him from the Glasgow Frost* report!

[ecky p]

everybody is allowed 2 minutes of fame.I hoped mine would be playing keys for a great prog band,not being a piss head on a Frost report.My wife still mentions that its the happiest she's seen me in ages.Oh my god the genius of the drink. Last night I was sober,and still made it down to the front with my son and sang all the songs.Yes..no encore,my son is friendly with the support band who stated that they would kick off at 19:30 It Bites 20:30-22:00.Rules of the venue..what a load of crap..its like being in a club band and the committee ask you to finish at 11 and shut up during the bingo.No wonder venues are shutting down...anyway nice to meet you DS.Until the next time (hopefully not at the ABC). :roll: