Can you believe it’s been 30 odd years since the Red Rocker performed some headline dates in the UK? At 78 this is probably going to be his last tour over here as well, so we were excited to see what he would bring to this show, which was being billed as a career spanning show.
Unfortunately we missed local lads Jayler who continue on their upward spiral with this latest guest slot. Hopefully we’ll catch them soon to see how they’ve progressed.
Hagar has recruited some big hitters to bring this tour to the UK, on bass is his long time collaborator Michael Anthony (Van Halen, Chickenfoot), drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Fogarty, John Mellancamp), keyboard player Nathan Mercado and the guitar maestro Joe Satriani.
Following the bands residency in Las Vegas, a live album “Sammy Hagar & The Best Of All Worlds Band - The Residency” was released, 18 tracks from Hagar's 50 year career. It was going to be interesting to see what we got tonight as he did say he would be mixing the sets up throughout the short run of dates.
Unfortunately there was no pit access for the photographers tonight so Tony headed off to try and get a vantage point from the crowd and it was pretty much bang on 9pm when the band came out and straight off the bat he hit us with his anthem There’s Only One Way To Rock and we knew instantly we were in for a great night.
Unfortunately there was no pit access for the photographers tonight so Tony headed off to try and get a vantage point from the crowd and it was pretty much bang on 9pm when the band came out and straight off the bat he hit us with his anthem There’s Only One Way To Rock and we knew instantly we were in for a great night.
Hagar sounded bang on form, the band were tight, which given the talent on show, was to be expected. This was quickly followed by Top Of The World then the first really big sing-a-long Runaround. By now, the room was packed, everyone was singing the band were having fun. Satriani literally glowed like some heavenly being with his full on bling Ibanez, you can see why he wears those shades! But seriously the guy is a guitar god.
On the other wing, Anthony was just as equally having a great time, often the “forgotten” member of VH, he is revelling in the spotlight tonight, his bass tone was pure and clean and drove the pace along. And what a pace it was. Hagar showed no signs of his nearly 8 decades as he covered every inch of the stage, never missing a beat or a note.
A few songs in and we get Bad Motor Scooter shockingly the only Montrose song tonight. It was heavy, fast and loud. Chickenfoot was also only represented by one track, Big Foot. So yeah, the bulk of the set was VH, no surprise really, they even snuck in an David Lee Roth era track with Anthony singing on Somebody Get Me A Doctor.
Big surprise was Joe Satriani performing his masterpiece Surfing With The Alien a particular favourite of mine and we’ll forgive them not playing Space Station No 5!
A nice touch was on during the song Mas Tequila, Hagar handed out tequila shots to fans at the front, I hope he checked their ID!
We wondered if there would be any ref to EVH tonight, and last but one track, the big video screen showed an old clip of him walking away with his signature guitar and the band played Hagar’s latest song Encore- Thank You, Goodnight
Which he said he wrote after EVH came to him in a dream.
Well, how do you follow that show up? You invite a local lad up to play drums on a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll, that local lad being Jason Bonham! Hagar also invited young James Bartholomew of Jayler up onto stage to share vocal duties, a wow moment for the young lad no doubt.
An amazing night and one we were glad we got to see. Will he be back again? Who knows, he looked fit and the voice was strong, so fingers crossed, and maybe next time he’ll slip in Space Station No 5! 10/10
Well, how do you follow that show up? You invite a local lad up to play drums on a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll, that local lad being Jason Bonham! Hagar also invited young James Bartholomew of Jayler up onto stage to share vocal duties, a wow moment for the young lad no doubt.
An amazing night and one we were glad we got to see. Will he be back again? Who knows, he looked fit and the voice was strong, so fingers crossed, and maybe next time he’ll slip in Space Station No 5! 10/10
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