What better way to spend my birthday that at a live gig and tonight we are at The Quireboys acoustic show in The Live Rooms, Chester. A new venue that is ideally situated across from the train station and has a quite healthy 500 capacity with decent lights and sound rig, this could become a regular venue for us from now on as there are some decent bands booked in the upcoming months.

Onto the music and support tonight is from Mark Curran, who after growing up in New Jersey and learning and developing his music around the East Coast (States) area is currently touring with his 4 piece live band ‘Curran’.  For the acoustic tour Mark (vocals, guitar) is joined by Matt Pearce (Voodoo Six, guitars).

With a set tonight that consisted of tracks of his album ‘Beginnings’ and a selection of rock covers including a great version of Neil Young’s ‘Rocking In The Free World’ and a throwback to his heritage ‘Rosalie’ (Thin Lizzy) he showed us a glimpse of what to look forward to. A great round of applause at the end of the set shows that he was well received, Mark can be seen with his full band ‘Curran’ at HRH AOR in March.

The Quireboys are rock and roll, they have been toting there wares for the past 30 years and seem to be constantly touring. This is definitely not a bad thing as they are awesome live whether it be unplugged as tonight or the full electric set.

Over the years we have seen them on numerous occasions and they never fail to entertain. They stroll onto the stage with drinks in hand to rapturous applause and all seemed relaxed and ready for a night of music.

Kicking off with a great bluesy version of ‘Don’t Bite The Hand’ sees Spike on the harmonica and also wringing the lyrics out in his gravelly voice sounding as good as ever.  The combination of Paul Guerin and Guy Griffin on guitars sits nicely behind the honky tonk keys of Keith Weir.

‘Devil Of A Man’ up next gives the crowd chance to get their singing in and they dutifully do joining in with the chorus. The set tonight pulls from and extensive catalogue from across the last 3 decades and up next ‘There She Goes Again’ from 1990 brings back memories of the time. Spike, who is only a few days after his birthday, is having a few beers as are the rest of the band but the whole atmosphere is seriously chilled and laid back.

Over the set there a number of tracks for the new album ‘Beautiful Curse’ which stand well against the classics proving the guys are still writing good fresh material rather than just relying on the past.

The main set ends with ’7 o’clock’,  great party song and firm favourite with the crowd, I think over the years I’ve only ever heard them do this once when the time actually matched up, when they supported Saxon I think?

Anyway there was no way they were getting out of here without an encore and out they come again with ‘I Love This Dirty Town’ and ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’ a brilliant end to yet another brilliant gig by these boys. Even though it had been a long set and they were still in party mode from Spikes birthday they came out and signed stuff and posed for photos.   Well on yer guys!

Review and photos by Simon Dunkerley

Setlists

Curran:  Free World, Better Days, This Ain’t Love, Rosalie, Old Fashioned Cowboy, Blood On Blood, My Love Won’t Let You Down, Run Back To You.

Quireboys: Don’t Bite The Hand, Devil Of A Man, Beautiful Curse, There She Goes Again, Roses And Rings, Mona Lisa Smiled, Twenty Seven Years, Whippin Boy, Hello, Misled, Pretty Girls, Have A Drink On Me, Chain Smoking, Mother Mary, Sweet Mary Ann, Hate To Please, 7 O’Clock, I Love This Dirty Town, I Don’t Love You Anymore

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Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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