9 Mar 2012

Simon Townshend at the Eel Pie Club

 
Photo by Nico Gabel
Gig Report by ‘iputthebootin’
 
The Eel Pie Club didnt open until 8.30pm but that didnt stop people queuing outside an hour earlier for a good spot.
 
Simon and his band played a blistering 90min set of new material from his new album, Looking Out/Looking In , old solo material, a few Casbah Club tunes and, of course, a couple of Who classics, which he topped off with a High Numbers tune. (See set list below for details).
 
The audience bounced all night and the atmosphere was electric and the conditions hot and humid as the band worked their way through a steady supply of bottled water and towels.
 
Amongst the crowd were a large Dutch contingent and also a sprinkling of American fans that had made the long trip.
 
Prior to Simon returning to the stage for the encore, the Eel Pie Club organiser took to the Mic to thank everyone for coming and proceeded to give the gathered audience a run down of forthcoming events at the club. Sensing that time was ticking to the curfew and the encore beckoning, Simon jumped on the stage and told the compere to ‘Get off the ****ing stage’ as it was time for more music. This drew laughs and comparisons with his older brother’s Abbie Hoffman incident at Woodstock. It was all good natured, of course, and the compere was made up to be booted off his own stage in huge style.
 
The evening ended with a roar and afterwards everyone agreed they had just been part of something powerful and special.
 
Setlist 1- Electric Friend
2- Something new
3- Im the Face
4- Flyaway
5- Theres a Girl
6- Come back
7- Making Waves
8- She asked me
9- Anyway she moves
10- Make it
11- Bed of Roses
12- Looking Out Looking In
13- Still love
14- Going Mobile
15- Stay
16- Forever and a day
 
Encores
17- The Way it is (Solo Acoustic)
18- Twenty to eleven
19- The Dirty Jobs
20- I’m the answer
 
After the gig, Simon went home, had a couple of hours sleep, then headed off to the airport to fly to Italy to be part of Roger Daltrey’s band for his ‘Tommy, Who Classics and More’ tour as it vists Italy and France.