Vampires Tour - going?

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by del » Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:00 pm

Glad I went. Thought the gig was great and the band looked relaxed, pretty tight and clearly enjoying themselves.

Crowd was a real mixture with fans of both the Damned and the Darkness as well as those for Perry, Depp and Alice. On top of that there was a fair number of classic rock fans looking to remember the greats. From where I sat towards the front it made for a really good atmosphere but very different from a pure Alice gig.

Attendance - it was absolutely not packed but the use of curtains blocked off the empty areas. The entire rear section was completely curtained off as was @ a third of the second top tier. Crowd was therefore not as big as last November but certainly more than respectable at @6,500 I was told.

I've revised my view of the Vampires. More than a cover band and certainly a fun project for those involved. Would I go again? Yes, can't see it as long term venture but as long as there is entertainment value I'll happily turn up to see Alice.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by Dannorama » Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:42 am

I wanted the Vampires to be "hard rock's answer" to the Traveling Wilburys. So far, more "homage" and less innovation. There are some cool covers and the occasional original. But, here's me. I am looking for a group to get behind. I want Tin Machine, but this time with balls. The 3 big guys, backed with a steady rotation of ace musicians is not very Wilbury. Not IMO. Land on a band and back it. I love ya, Alice.
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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by Si » Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:45 am

Wembley show last night was very good. They're a lot tighter then they were a couple of years ago.

Sound was typical for Wembley, kinda booming and indistinct, and there was the usual lack of any real atmosphere due in large part to the dumb seats. The biggest cheers went to the dead stars appearing on the screens but even that took cool photos of Lemmy or Bowie to get a real reaction. I don't think most people had a clue who most of the legends on the screen actually were beyond those two.

High points: The original material sounds promising, the new arrangement of 'Baba O'Riley' works well (in a live setting, not sure it would work as well on an album), and 'People Who Died' is very cool, not a song I'd ever heard before HV started playing it.
Depp is a good singer when he takes center stage and every time he did the crowd seemed to become more animated. His singing on 'Heroes' has received a bit of press deservedly as he does a very good job.

Unfortunately thanks to the sound Alice's introductions were a little indistinct, and he seems to be trying to play 'Alice' while at the same time do something different ie talking to the audience. All his lines are rehearsed and repeated the same each night, including the "going to find Depp" for the band introductions. Some things work better then others.

Overall a good performance but not earth shattering. I still think that they would have been much better off playing smaller theater's then crapholes like Wembley. The addition of screens definitely helped people see what was going on.
As another poster said above the show wasn't sold out, and from my vantage point there were empty seats, four here, four there, throughout the front two blocks. Did people just not turn up or couldn't Ticketmaster sell all the seats they themselves pulled to sell as platinum tickets for £150 upwards?
I did check TM the day before and on Tuesday morning a few of those £175 tickets in row 8 were back to face value... It's such a scam.

What amazed me though was the number of people who spent the show going back and forward to the bar, and who left before the end!
The row in front of me, made up of three groups, ALL left well before the encore, as did the couples either side of me and a large number behind! It was clear they didn't know ANY of the songs at all, and in fact seemed to have little interest in the show at all.. very strange.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by wind_up_toy » Thu Jun 21, 2018 11:05 am

I thought the Wembley show was excellent.

True, the venue is shocking, half the crowd are mobile phone brandishing morons and security had a constant battle stopping people barging to the front. But put that aside, and we had in front of us a stellar line-up putting on a great show with something for everyone.

I did like The Darkness too, wierd that they seem to be classed as a ‘classic’ band now!
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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by del » Thu Jun 21, 2018 1:06 pm

Just found out that tickets were offered on Groupon for Glasgow! Always a sign of a need to get rid of tickets quickly..

Agree, smaller and standing venues would have been better. Much better.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by dadascot » Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:03 pm

I have to agree smaller standing audience would have been better but I think this is true of nearly every gig! Also the three, sometimes four, guitars was excessive on some songs and drowned the melody but it was still a superb gig! Personally I am really looking forward to the new album!

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by pitkin88 » Fri Jun 22, 2018 4:21 am

No idea why they would want to tackle Baba OReily. That drummer is no Keith Moon. Depp doen't sound convincing on All The People Who Died either. No interest in the covers at all. Hopefully the album will be minus covers and serve up some solid new material.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by del » Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:54 am

Picking up a couple of points already made.

In a way I also wanted the Willbury's but this started in a different place. If it's going to last it needs to evolve a lot. You can't just keep playing the same covers as the novelty value runs out quickly. They could just keep adding in songs from folk who pass each year as they have with Bowie or Lemmy I suppose but you eventually stretch the "friends" concept beyond belief. They could change the covers from each of the existing friends but I can't see that approach working for long. For me it's quality and reception for the new material which will determine whether it has legs.

Si is right, a lot of people didn't recognise a lot of the stars shown on screen, or didn't care. That's actually an issue.. That older generation of Hendrix, Who and Yardbirds fans we're not there in great numbers and I'm not sure if as many could or would go again just for a repeat. I did have a laugh though as the guy next to me was shouting out who the pictures were to impress his mate and decided that Steve Marriott was "that guy from the Alex Harvey Band...! Now, the Faith Healer would have been an excellent cover for me.

What I liked most was hearing the new songs which worked well and sounded very promising for the second album. it was great to see Alice being different on stage and not running through the usual back catalogue with a couple of changes on each tour. I agree he looked a little uncomfortable actually speaking between songs and, as he said, playing "Vampire Alice" but change is good and he even seemed to be getting more comfortable on stage when not doing lead vocals.

I've wonderied for years. how much Alice actually feels constrained by his back catalogue and stage character. Unable to mix it up for fear of losing the die hards and ending up playing the smallest of venues. I now wonder whether he needs traditional Alice AND Vampire Alice and If there is a chance of a real Indian summer in his career perhaps this split character will help.

The band - a mention for Glen and Tommy who were their usual excellent selves. I thought they looked as though they were having a ball throughout the gig. Tommy hardly cracked a smile last November but this time he looked far more into it and he got a great reception at the name check at the end. Chris and Buck were solid. I thought Chris did a great Ace of Spades and also got a fair cheer at the name check.

Looking back a little, the good thing for me is that over the last year or so I find myself actually becoming interested a lot more in what's coming next for Alice than I have been for years. All this looking back, 40 years since TLT, another reissue etc is all very well but it's recycle recycle all the time. Paranormal started turning my head and the Vampires have added to my enthusiasm. If only he was 50 I'd be starting to wonder where it could all lead to in 5-10 years time.

Keep iit going Alice, there iare still a good few miles in the tank yet.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by Si » Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:55 am

pitkin88 wrote:No idea why they would want to tackle Baba OReily.
It's one of the high points of the show. They way they've pulled it apart and rearranged it really shouldn`t work, but is does, especially with the light show.
pitkin88 wrote:That drummer is no Keith Moon.
Few if any drummers are. He was a force of nature. But Glen is more then capable of pulling it off.
pitkin88 wrote: Depp dosen't sound convincing on All The People Who Died either.
Again I disagree. Thought he did a good job (and on Heroes). I've never heard the original though so nothing to compare it with. My opinions of him as a live performer have definitely gone up. He plays well seems to be enjoying himself up there.
pitkin88 wrote: No interest in the covers at all. Hopefully the album will be minus covers and serve up some solid new material.
I think the original material is more interesting as well. Assuming the new songs played live will be on the album we already know there will be three originals. Certainly the less covers the better though. Honestly don't think they need to do them on the next album but I'm sure there are some judging from the guest names that have been thrown around.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by pitkin88 » Fri Jun 22, 2018 11:00 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPNqojbyIDk

For Si. It's worth checking out some of his other songs too: Catholic Boy and Wicked Gravity are great.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by patrick » Sat Jun 23, 2018 6:20 am

https://www.proximus.be/music/nl/dossie ... ice-cooper

finally some news about the HV at graspop : seems it will be streamed again .
you really wouldn't understand..

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by patrick » Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:49 am

so finally no streaming of the hv concert : :/
reviews are rather "indifferent",no excitement.
ranging from 2/5 till 3/5
mainly pointing at the way Depp played.
Entertaining, amusing, but nothing special...
Alice definitely ruling the band and SO as a finish was received well.
you really wouldn't understand..

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by del » Tue Jun 26, 2018 7:12 am

"Entertaining", "amusing" "nothing special" - I'd go along with that. I'd probably give it 6 or 7/10 so no real challenge there either. Needs strong new material if it's going to be a real band or a stronger rotating cast of players if it's going to stay as a tribute.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by pitkin88 » Tue Jun 26, 2018 7:51 am

It's like a rent party for millionaires.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by del » Tue Jun 26, 2018 8:23 am

I'm fine with that.

It's a project like any other group. If it works, fine. If it doesn't then we will see what's next. Like others, I'm keen to see Alice doing new stuff and last weeks gig his has only increased my enthusiasm for more. It was surprisingly good.

I'll see them again in Italy in two weeks and I'm looking forward to it now. Couldn't say that a couple of weeks ago.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by rtbuck » Tue Jun 26, 2018 5:23 pm

I always liked Jim Carroll's "People who Died" & I remember coming across a cool cover of it probably in the early 2000's and it was by a band called Boink which I found out a few years ago the band had Glen Sobel & Tommy Henriksen in it. Willie Nile covered it too a few years ago

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by Saint&Sinner » Tue Jun 26, 2018 5:33 pm

i always thought the biggest problem with HV is exactly what alice describes them as (and i may be paraphrasing slightly here but...)"the most expensive covers band in the world"
this is exactly what it is, the prices they charged for this is insane to me. I'm glad people had fun but unless he charges £30 i'm just not interested and even then it would only be if nothing else was happening that night :)
I hope the new album has lots of original songs and that they sound good, maybe this will draw me back to them but so far i'm just perplexed as to why anyone would pay the money they were asking to see a covers band.

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by killer wolf » Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:36 am

i love "people who died", heard it first on the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack. only seen a live YT post of Johnny doing it, but will definitely be picking up the digi track from Amazon; i assume he does it on the album as well?
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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by dadascot » Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:24 am

It's interesting that the ones that never went to the gig are the most critical. I've been looking for a major shakeup live for years. I saw him just seven months ago and loved it but it's great to see him do something COMPLETELY different. It's even the first time I've seen him do 18 without the crutch!!! The band were tight, powerful and obviously enjoying themselves! I think it is great he has this project but I'm also happy that he goes back to Alice duties in Otober. In the last year we have had a really successful album, a major world tour, an ACG 're-union and a second high profile tour that was completely different from the first.and he is 70!! How about a but of credit???

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Re: Vampires Tour - going?

Post by wind_up_toy » Wed Jun 27, 2018 11:32 am

dadascot wrote:I've been looking for a major shakeup live for years. I saw him just seven months ago and loved it but it's great to see him do something COMPLETELY different.
I totally agree, and said something similar a while back.

An all-new show featuring Alice made for a more interesting and engaging night than some previous shows that I've seen.

I'd happily see the HV's again.
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