GUN – Favourite Pleasures – Live
Arriving before the doors to the upstairs venue opened, there wasn’t room in the bar to swing a cat. Just getting to the bar was no mean feat. However, the doors opened and the crowd dispersed quickly with all vying for the perfect vantage points to see the gig.
Gun – King Tuts
Gun are no strangers to playing this club sized venue having played a “secret” gig as NUG in an earlier incarnation and more recently a series of dates playing “Taking on the World”, “Gallus” and “Swagger”.
Nordoff Robbins
Tonight’s gig served both as a fundraiser for the fantastic Nordoff Robbins charity, in conjunction with the Sunday Mails 7 Nights, and also as a warm up to the bands forthcoming weekend gigs in Ayr and Glasgow Barrowland.
The job of warming up the crowd went to Alan Nimmo of King King fame who played a stirring acoustic set prompting the crowd to sing along and help him out. That wouldn’t be the last we’d see of Alan this evening.
The anticipation for Gun was palpable in the venue and when they joined the party, they didn’t disappoint.
The main event
The band looked and sounded as if they were enjoying themselves as much as the crowd throughout the night. Dante had a huge grin most of the evening and there was much banter between him and Jools.
The 15 song set pulled heavily from latest album “Favourite Pleasures” and the new songs sound even better live than they do on the album.
The opening salvo of single “She Knows” and the stomping glam rock of “Here’s Where I Am” set the pace for the night. Following up with crowd pleaser, “Don’t Say its Over”, before going back to the latest long player for the funk rock of title track “Favourite Pleasures”, “Silent Lovers” and a live airing for heart-warming new single “The Boy Who Fooled the World” evoking memories of recording your favourite songs off the radio.
Accomplished band
This latest settled line up of Gun are an accomplished group of musicians. Jools and Tommy Gentry complement each other on guitar, supported by a more than adept rhythm section of Andy Carr on bass and Paul keeping the beat at the back. Dante is an energetic and impressive frontman and has made the job his own over the years.
Triumphant rocker “Black Heart” followed before one of my personal favourites from the album, “Tragic Heroes”.
I said we hadn’t seen the last of Alan and he joined the band onstage for a rousing version of debut single “Better Days”. The band followed this up with some more bona fide Gun classics – “Inside Out” and “Steal Your Fire”.
Malcolm Young tribute
The date of the gig coincided with the funeral of AC/DC legend Malcolm Young. As a tribute to him and also AC/DC being one of the reasons Jools first picked up the guitar, Dantes place was taken by Jools ex-Blind Allez band-mate from the early 80s, Peter Scallan (also of Samson fame) for a perfect version of “Highway to Hell”. Nice tribute.
A powerful rendition of “Take Me Down” followed and took us into the final songs of the evening. Fan favourite “Shame on You”, complete with a Dante crowd walkabout, and a final fun blast of Beastie Boy’s party anthem “Fight for Your Right (to Party)” and the band were gone all too soon.
The punters heading to Ayr and the Barrowland later that week were in for a major treat!