Weymouth, Oct. 29 Show Review

We arrived at the venue nice and early, to get a few drinks in...and from the bar we heard some of the sound check going on in the hall next to the bar. They were rehearsing "The Gnome", "Fanfare", and a few others.

7.00pm - doors open. We took our seats, right at the front, centre.

Songs are not in set order just how I remember them...

The set opened, crashing into "In the Court of the Crimson King." The whole band sounded as though had been playing this song for years...it was THAT good. Greg's voice on this was just amazing, he has lost none of the power or subtlety at all!

"Paper Blood" opened up and WOW, this was far, far better than ELP's version on the 1992 Black Moon Tour, more guitar based and Greg sang this with much aggression and power. Florian's guitar work on this was amazing, the keyboards too were pretty damn impressive. Can't wait to see if this is on any officially released live CD or DVD.

"Take a Pebble," as Greg explained is more guitar based, but it didn't matter, it still was played faultlessly, again Florian's guitar work was intricate and sensitive in this number, especially the middle section which the whole audience loved. A pleasant surprise this one!

"Footprints in the Snow" showed just how good Greg's voice is...this one was incredibly good, better than the recorded version easily.

"Farewell To Arms," BRILLIANT, I didn't think I would like this one much at all, but I was wrong, Greg's vocals on this were very, very powerful, at one point the whole front row jumped as he sang one line so powerfully, we didn't expect it.

"Touch and Go," well what can you say, keyboards were good on this song as was all of it. Again like "Paper Blood," more guitar driven, and it sounded better for it. Drums on this were also very good...

"Lucky Man" - Again excellent, vocally brilliant, the guitar solo by Florian was note perfect and the Moog solo was as the recorded version, but more powerful.

"21st Century Schizoid Man"...well what can I say, shivers down the spine stuff here, all played so brilliantly, never have I heard live a piece of music that is so complex played so well. The highlight of the show (for me anyway!) Greg's vocals were again aggressive and didn't falter at all.

"Fanfare" was also good. I missed Keith's keyboards, but it was still a good stab at it.

"Pictures at an Exhibition" was a good end. "Promenade" was almost, very nearly, perfect ELP; "The Gnome" was played very well. Greg then went into "The Sage," and was again amazing, better than the [In the Hot Seat album] version, although the "Pictures at an Exhibition" played at Weymouth WAS that version. GREAT!

Encore was "Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression, Pt. 2." Just amazing. A great ender and had the crowd really going.

The venue itself wasn't massive it would only have held about 300 people and it was FULL, yes FULL; well I couldn't see any empty seats behind us, just a lot of heads.

Go and see the Shooooooooooooooooooooow

Mark Farrell and Sue Salter