The tour with Robin Trower kicks off tonight. I hope to see lots of reviews and hopefully pics if any can be taken over the coming dates. My own visit will be in Newcastle next Thursday - unfortunately I’m unable to follow them to Glasgow as I would normally do. Safe travels and wild crowds guys!!
Just Got back from the Brighton Gig , a great venue I might add , never been there before.
Aynsley & Co were just fantastic.Half hour set , and the set was spot on.The crowd loved them, so lets hope the guys will pick up a few new fans.
I have to say that I caught the guy’s a good few times this/last year and I would have to say that this performance was the best Ive heard/seen.Ive always thought previous Gigs have been excellent , but tonight was just great.Also Aynsley took longer ‘lead’ breaks of which I thought made them sound better.
The sound was also spot on , although ‘A’ did request on a couple occasions for his Mic to be turned up through the monitors
So to summarise , a great night with the Band sounded better than ever....
Hmm, half hour set - I was hoping for closer too twice that long. I guess good things sometimes come in small packages.
I’ll be at the Glasgow gig. Hoping to get a word with the band at the end if possible!
Exeter Phoenix Friday 9 May 2008. Brilliant. One of the best slots I’ve seen. Just clean clear lyrics, wonderful guitar sounds and excellent bass and drum levels. Almost in the audience with drums right in line and the whole band are involved and in your face. Frankly when Robin Trower came up it was so apparent that Trower has not moved on from the 70s and 80s sounds and lyrics - he does what he does well but its predictable and too clinical and cold. But if ALB are doing it in 30 years time then good luck and may it be to 300 or so faithful.
Great to see things have got off to a good start I was hoping for maybe 40 minutes from our gang but didn’t think they’d get much more than that as a support band. I know the name of Robin Trower and one or two things from his past of course but I’m looking forward to seeing him. When I bought my ticket the girl on the desk said about half had been sold - so there should be a good thousand souls in on Thursday, can’t wait.
ALB set was brilliant! The sound was perfect, vocals clear etc. but 40 minutes was not enough!!!
I didn’t think much of Robin Trower. Rich had said that they were loud but I wasn’t expecting it to be THAT much louder than them! The sound was awful. Couldn’t hear anything clearly. It was verging on painfully too loud which made it very distorted. Only listened to the first couple of songs then went outside. It sounded a lot better out there!!
A lot of compliments were being thrown in the way of the ALB including “tell Aynsley he was the better band” and “you’re only the support?!” but the funniest of the night (shouted from a car window) “Aynsley, you’re the bollocks!!” It was highly amusing (one of those ‘had to be there’ moments!)
All in all it was a good night but I’m looking forward to being able to see a full ALB set very soon!!
I arrived early for the show, having come straight from work, and was taken aback to discover a big black curtain cutting the main room of the venue in half. When I bought my ticket I enquired as to sales and was told about half had already been taken - which would mean around 1,000. I would have thought there were quite a few less than that there on the night as even that half-room wasn’t packed - but still a good few hundred which is more than I’ve seen the gang perform to before, so that was good.
Our heroes hit the stage at 8pm prompt (almost!!)and the set was short, but oh so sweet and went like this:
Fallin’ Down
With Me Tonight
Sometimes It Gets To Me
Soul
In The Morning
Balls Of Steel
and as a bonus due to crowd response! - Hero
The sound was very nearly perfect, with a huge bass kick in the chest and great clarity on the drums and cymbals tho Ayns’ guitar was maybe just ever so slightly on the quiet side, and after all those warnings about volume it was a little quiet overall, in my opinion. Performances were all absolutely spot on as one would expect and it was great to see Mr Lister flexing his improvisational muscles in the solos, which didn’t go on nearly long enough for me. The atmosphere was strange, because although there were a lot of people there they were fairly well spaced out and there was a fair amount of reverb from the venue, and it was a little ‘dead’ even tho folks were yelling and ‘yeehaa-ing’ plentifully. I guess that must just have been down to the size of the place muting the effect of the crowd. Anyroad up, the ALB hit the spot and got a great response (from my perspective, not sure how it carried over the footlights) and a jolly good time was had by all. So good in fact that they snuck in ‘Hero’ at the end which took them just a smidgen over their 45 minutes alloted time!!
Robin Trower took the stage a little after 9 and proceeded to very thoroughly exceed my expectations. Having endured a rather wince-enducing evening when Aynsley supported the legendary Mick Taylor at the Sage a while ago I was a little apprehensive about what to expect from another mighty name from my early youth - but I needn’t have worried. Robin was self-effacing on the stage and I just loved the tone of his guitar. I’m not a particular guitar junkie but was amazed to find that I just didn’t want his extended solos to stop. Possibly due once again to the size of the venue, the volume was spot on, in fact maybe even only just loud enough for me because I could still hear the half-shouted conversations going on around me. I had paid my ticket fee to see Aynsley, but I came away feeling like I’d had the best value-for-money night out in many a long year and definitely the gig of the year so far for me.
Shame I couldn’t take pics, I’ll have to do some fishing around and find out who the pro was that was taking them from in front of the barrier.
I was at the Newcastle gig with my husband and have to say it was a fantastic performance! The sound at the Academy can be a bit iffy, especially for the support band, but there were no problems for Ayns and co.
My hubby last saw Ayns at Blaydon Blues Club a few years back and was well impressed to see him doing some more rockier stuff now. First time for me and I will be back when you’re next up here!
BTW, that was a large crowd for the support band to get at the Academy! You were originally supposed to be on stage 2 but moved to stage 1 when tickets went over the max for upstairs.
Fantastic response from the crowd and very, very much deserved!
Keep it up!
Hi Jules, Blaydon’s a regular haunt of mine - maybe I’ll see you there for Ian Siegal on the 31st? Haven’t seen Ian S for a while, looking forward to it. Make sure you go to the Cluny gig in November, mind!!
I was at the gig In Glasgow and Aynsley and co were great. The doors opening later than planned, but we could hear the band doing a soundcheck from outside the venue. The set list was the same as Newcastle with the exception of Balls of Steel which was not played. I took some photos and a video during the gig. Like the posts above i think the solos were stretched out, which was good and sound was great. They seemed to go down pretty well, although the venue did get busier (it was a sell-out) when Trower was playing so some people would have sadly missed him.
After the band had finished we asked the guy at the merchandise stand if the band were coming out. He said he was not sure and they had not come out in Newcastle the previous night.
However by chance we saw Ayns and the band loading their gear after the gig and managed to get a chat and photo with them. Poor Ayns had hurt his shoulder the previous night (which may explain why Balls of Steel was not played). Was great to meet them and hopefully we encouraged them to play more gigs north of the border in the future - if not before, see you in Carlisle guys (and Jo)!
Duncan
Hi Jules, Blaydon’s a regular haunt of mine - maybe I’ll see you there for Ian Siegal on the 31st? Haven’t seen Ian S for a while, looking forward to it. Make sure you go to the Cluny gig in November, mind!!
I absolutely agree with funkyrockchick and idoldavid. I went to Bilston and thought Robin Trower was very disappointing. We left after 15 mins. Aynsley on the other hand was superb and the contrast was frankly embarrassing! Having been to about 10 ALB gigs now this one was his best so far (but too short!)
I have to say I did not get too excited by Trower either - we had also gone to see ALB. To be honest we had left for a local bar and it was as we returned half an hour later that we met Ayns and the band. Stroke of luck!
Incidently one of the contributors on the Joe Bonamassa forum (Tripsy) posted her collection of photos from Bilston. They are excellent and I hope she would not mind me sharing them with you. Enjoy:
I saw Anysley and band on the 9th in Exeter...thought he was brilliant!....only let down was he only did half an hour...not his fault...they should’ve made Trower do the half hour instead....same old trower really...not very inspirational....the singer wasn’t very Rock n Roll either...kept thinking he was gonna burst into ‘Ahh Will Survaaave!’.....in contrast, Aynsley was very impressive..finishing with that great slide delta blues number on the electro acoustic....great!..looking forward to seeing him again on his own!....
I was lucky enough to see Aynsley and his band last night in Pontardawe. Fantastic sound, great set considering he only had about 40 minutes. The electro-acoustic In The Morning was jaw dropping, definitely the highlight. Shame he couldn’t have done more, hopefully he will be back in south Wales soon for a full show.
Robin Trower was ok, brilliant guitarist let down by the material, very much stuck back in the late sixties, possibly a bit too loud in the mix to be able to hear the mini Jack Duckworth singing as well.
Talking to several people after the gig they were blown away by Aynsley, definitely increased his fan base here, come back soon.
I was hoping for maybe 40 minutes from our gang but didn’t think they’d get much more than that as a support band. I know the name of Robin Trower and one or two things from his past of course but I’m looking forward to seeing him. When I bought my ticket the girl on the desk said about half had been sold - so there should be a good thousand souls in on Thursday, can’t wait. 
