The constantly revolving lineups of travelling supergroup The Dead Daisies, the plaything of rhythm guitarist and businessman David Lowy, seem to have reached some belated stability, fronted by the equally mercurial Glenn Hughes. They were back in London to promote their second album with the voice of rock on board in ‘Radiance’, just 13 months after playing Shepherds Bush Empire. The two shows shared the common thread of a healthy crowd bolstered by some discounted tickets in the run up to the show, and a strong three band bill.

First up was the Graham Bonnet Band. His hair allowed to go silver during the pandemic, the 74 year old scotched previous allegations of enhanced vocals as they were at times a little rough around the edges, though still as powerful as ever. With only 35 minutes to play with, the set was a dream for those of us who cut our musical teeth in the early eighties, beginning with a Rainbow double in the epic ‘Eyes Of The World’, and ‘All Night Long’, though there was unscheduled drama when he lost his footing and fell flat on his face.

‘Night Games’ remains one of the great lost hit singles and there were a couple of MSG classics in ‘Desert Song’ and ‘Assault Attack’, either side of a singalong to ‘Since You Been Gone’, always a bit special to hear sung by the man whose version will always be the definitive one. Guitarist Conrado Pesinato, well complemented by keyboardist Danny Martin, handled both his more natural Blackmore parts and those of Schenker with aplomb, and a rattling ‘Lost In Hollywood’ completed a thoroughly enjoyable, if at times flawed, set.

FM seen to be a constant touring presence and this was the fourth time I’d seen them live this year, albeit in this case a terminated set of little over half an hour. I did wonder how their more polished brand of melodic rock would go down but they seemed to have a lot of fellow fans present. From his trademark ‘who oah’ that opens ‘Synchronised’, accompanied by a keyboard intro the golden tongue of Steve Overland was as usual their trump card although the cravat drummer Pete Jupp was sporting proved an equal talking point.

To their credit the band mixed old favourites – ‘Bad Luck’, ‘Tough It Out’ and ‘I Belong To The Night’ with those irresistible hooks and choruses – with more recent material in ‘Killed By Love’ and set closer ‘Turn This Car Around’, a modern day classic from new album ‘Thirteen’ with prime time Bon Jovi-style dynamics and even a cheeky snatch of ‘Rocking All Over The World’ as the band were visibly having fun, ending another top quality performance in which not a note was wasted.

When the Dead Daisies hit the stage, just a few seconds of a long haired, shade wearing Glenn Hughes wielding his bass, and sporting a paisley velvet suit, was enough for me to turn to one of my gig partners for the night and say ‘that is what a rock star looks like’! More importantly that distinctive voice was still in fine fettle, showing no sign of his 70 years and other than repeatedly telling us how pleased he was to be back in the UK for Christmas he kept the chat to a minimum this time.

Oddly, given that the bulk of the set focused on the last two albums, they opened with an older school Daisies favourite in ‘Long Way To Go’ before the likes of ‘Unspoken’ and the title track of the new album.

The sound was impressively uncompromising with Doug Aldrich whipping up a storm on guitar and Brian Tichy, the one line up change, fairly attacking his drum.kit with a big grin in his face. However, a significant reservation for me was a lack of hooks or interesting things going on in the songs, which were considerably inferior to those we heard from the support acts or indeed Glenn’s own solo career. The looser limbed grooves of ‘Bustle And Flow’ were the nearest to the latter, though ‘Holy Ground’ was a surprise omission from the set.

Throughout their career the Daisies have often been more impressive when turning to cover versions and a souped up version of ‘Fortunate Son’ lifted my spirits, as did Brian’s drum solo, entertaining as far as those things go as he juggled sticks like a circus act. A dip into Glenn’s Purple past in ‘Mistreated’ was outstanding as those screams still hit the mark on a song Doug attacked with aggression, before returning to some increasingly heavy but rather samey Daisies originals culminating in ‘My Fate’ and ‘Shine On’.

The encores though were more convincing, the crowd roaring along to the ‘hey, hey hey hey’ refrain of ‘Midnight Moses’, one of the covers they have made their own then, of course no Glenn Hughes show, solo or otherwise can end with anything other than ‘Burn’. Once again Doug attacked those Blackmore solos with fire and ensured the keys were not missed, and there were now outbreaks of headbanging and air guitaring at the front.

Despite my reservations over the headliners own material, it was an excellent night of classic rock featuring three of the best vocalists over the years, in which Graham Bonnet and FM brought the tunes and the Dead Daisies the intensity.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

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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)