No, not the Jethro Tull album (1976). Ironically, Ian Anderson is still touring
today. So much for that.
My topic comes up due to Judas Priest replacing Glenn Tipton with Andy Sneap on its current Firepower
tour of the US.
Glenn Tipton has Parkinson’s Disease and has had to stop
touring (though he did play the most recent JP show…). There’s some dispute as to whether he’s in
the band or not. My understanding is
he’s become like Brian Wilson in the Pet Sounds and later era Beach Boys), contributing in the studio
but with a live replacement for the tour.
For the upcoming tour, he’s been replaced by Andy Sneap,
much to the annoyance of K.K. Downing (second from left above), who quit
several years earlier (2011) and resented not being asked to fill Tipton’s
shoes. This has opened a whole can of
worms. As I understand it, Tipton
actually wrote and played on this album, along with Downing’s replacement (and
youthful lookalike) Ritchie Faulkner. As
noted, Downing QUIT the band several years earlier, and my impression is that
it was under bad terms but everyone concerned kept their mouths shut out of
mutual respect and tactfulness. It was
NOT because Downing was too old to tour and had to retire for health reasons,
the usual excuse these days. But when
the Tipton/Sneap deal emerged, Downing felt no longer compelled to hold his
tongue. As I said, a can of worms. One thing is certain: Sneap, not Downing, has replaced Tipton on
the current tour. We’ll see how well he
does and IF Downing can repair any damage.
Judas
Priest (Black Star Riders, Saxon), at Anthem, DC. This is a brand new music venue in Washington
DC, on a newly developed pier/wharf district just southeast of 395 and the 14 Street Bridge. It opened last fall with
the Foo Fighters being the first act to play here. In terms of format it’s a bit like a larger
version of the 9:30 Club: big
floor/standing room with seats up on the edges. The original 9:30 Club at 930 F Street
(1980-1996) had a capacity of 200 standing, probably a minority of that
standing room actually anywhere near the stage. We saw Faith No More (The
Real Thing tour), Hawkwind, Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, and Type O Negative
(headlining) (RIP Peter Steele) at this venue.
The new version, at 815 V Street, is much larger: 500-1200, most being
floor standing room (except Steven Wilson’s show, which was floor seated), with
some upper level sitting areas. This new
venue is much larger: 2500-6000.
The Black Star
Riders went on first, and I immediately recognized Scott Gorham, former
Thin Lizzy guitarist, at stage right playing – you guessed it – a Les Paul
through Marshalls. Only one TL track:
“Jailbreak”. Although Gary Moore is
deceased, classic Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson is still alive and playing
music. If anyone knows why he hasn’t
played with Gorham in decades please let me know.
They were followed by Saxon,
who still have Biff singing and Paul Quinn on guitar, plus Nigel Glockler on
drums. “Heavy Metal Thunder” closed the
set. Thank you. We’d first seen Saxon back in Paris in the
80s on the Innocence is No Excuse tour.
Along with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, Saxon are one of the few
surviving bands from the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal which emerged
in England around ’79-81, after the punk movement finally lost steam. Whereas Def Leppard morphed into a pop band
with Hysteria, and Iron Maiden developed their sound without straying
too far from their NWOBHM roots, Saxon has been by far the most faithful of the
three in trying to remain true to their roots of 1980. Fortunately we’ve seen them a few times in
the past, mostly as headliners in smaller clubs, and they were always honest
and high energy. My brother even got his
picture taken wiff Bith.
And then… The Priest came on, and it was sad seeing two
relative unknowns on guitar: Ritchie
Faulkner replacing K.K. Downing, even down to the long blond hair and Flying V;
and as noted above, now Andy Sneap on a Gibson Explorer (or clone) (similar to
mine before I swapped in EMG81s and a mirror pickguard). Faulkner joined the band in 2011 and is on Redeemer
of Souls (second newest album), Firepower (newest, freshly
released album), and the live video Epitaph, which I have on DVD. Our last JP show was in 2009 at Merriweather,
the tour when they played British Steel in its entirety, so this was our
first time seeing them live with Faulkner.
Sneap did a fair job of replacing Tipton. Ian Hill (bass) and Scott Travis (drums) were
as solid as ever. “Painkiller” made it
into the set, apparently the band’s most popular late-model song, but I never
cared for it. “Saints In Hell”, a song I
much prefer, also made it, for the first time ever since its original release
on Stained Class all those years ago (1978); “Beyond the Realms of
Death” is my favorite from that album, and fortunately we’ve seen them play it
on prior tours, just not this one. For
me the top song of this set was “The Ripper”, but my prayers to have Sad
Wings of Destiny played in its entirety instead of British Steel
have fallen on deaf ears. On Epitaph
they did play “Never Satisfied”, from Rocka Rolla. Fingers crossed for “Run of the Mill”.
Overall set:
Firepower (new); Running Wild; Grinder; Sinner (!); The Ripper (!!!);
Lightning Strike (new); Bloodstone; Saints In Hell; Turbo Lover; Angel; Evil
Never Dies (new); Some Heads Are Gonna Roll; Breaking The What?; Hell Bent For
Leather; Painkiller (zzz); Encore: Hellion/Eclectic Eye; Metal Gods; You’ve Got
Another Item On Its Way; Living After Midnight.
Nothing at all from Rocka Rolla, Point of Entry or Ram
It Down.
Ironically, with Halford replacing original singer Alan
Atkins (far right in the picture above) ages ago (before the first album was
even released) this makes bassist Ian Hill (far left) the only remaining
original member left, similar to Deep
Purple, Ian Paice being the only member to serve in all lineups from 1968
(Mark I, Shades of Deep Purple) to the present.
To go a step further, the current touring lineup of Foreigner has NO original members left,
though guitarist Mick Jones (getting too old to tour) has played with the
lineup in the past and has apparently given his blessing to this one. I don’t know where singer Lou Gramm is these
days. The Eagles are down to Don Henley, although Don Felder is alive and
active (touring separately as he doesn’t get along with Don Henley), and Joe
Walsh still tours with them. Blackfoot is touring without Ricky
Medlocke, himself in Lynyrd Skynyrd
which only has Gary Rossington left. Wishbone Ash only has Andy Powell, but
that’s because he won’t let Martin Turner into the band. Ted Turner and Steve Upton are retired. I don’t know if their absence is because
Powell insists on keeping the profits to himself and touring with paid
musicians, or whether Ted and Steve would rejoin even if Andy asked nicely and
agreed to share $ with them on acceptable terms. [Mind you, Rick Wright was demoted to paid
musician on The Wall tour, but since that tour lost money, he was the
only member of Pink Floyd to
actually make money on that tour.]
All these bands are getting old and losing their original
members, leading some fans to accuse the current lineups of being little more
than officially sanctioned tribute bands.
This is nothing new, though: the Marshall Tucker Band lost Toy Caldwell
ages ago (1993), and the Sensational
Alex Harvey Band (SAHB) actually toured without Alex Harvey after his
death.
The fans seem to be split on this. One segment refuses to see a band under these
circumstances, no matter how well the band actually plays on stage; the other
segment is willing to see the band IF the replacement members do a respectable
job and know their places. I took a
chance and saw Wishbone Ash back in 2002 despite Andy Powell (as noted above)
being the only original member, and I’m glad I did. The rest of the band is competent and they
play all the classic songs well. Holding
out for the return of both Turners and Upton means missing some good
shows.
Van
Halen recently got David Lee Roth back, but bassist Michael
Anthony was not invited back even though he was ready & willing to do
so. I suspect Eddie was paying his son
Wolfgang nowhere close to the cut Anthony would be justified in asking for, so
it’s money above all. Having said that,
we saw the show with Roth and he was fine.
Then again, we had never seen them play earlier with him (1984
and earlier tours) so the only comparison we had were the OU812 and F.U.C.K.
tours with Sammy Hagar.
Hell, there were people bitching that Tommy Clufetos was
touring with Black Sabbath instead
of Bill Ward on this final farewell tour.
But Ward has NEVER been consistent since 1978, dropping off tours as
early as Mob Rules and Born Again, and only showing up again
briefly in 1999. Expecting him to tour
now is downright idiotic, as is a boycott of a tour with Clufetos on
drums.
Finally, the big NO NO here was the infamous Deep Purple tour of 1980. Rod Evans was the only original member
left. The Mark IV lineup had broken up
back in 1976 and the other members were scattered through other bands like
Rainbow and Whitesnake; fellow Mark I veteran, bassist Nick Simper, wisely
refused to join this fiasco. Yet they
claimed to be Deep Purple and played Mark II and III material as it was their
own. Surely a distinction can be made between
this blatant ripoff and an older band trying to bring music to the fans with as
many original members as can reasonably get up on stage and play.
One more thing I’d like to point out. Not only musicians, but us fans as well are
getting older and dying, whereas some fans are younger and had no opportunity
to see the band play decades ago with its classic lineup intact. For the latter group, the current lineup is
the only option. If you’ve seen the
band play back in the day and don’t want to waste your money on what you
consider a glorified tribute band, save your money and stay home. As for me, intent on seeing the band in as
many different lineups as possible, regardless of how many past shows I’ve
seen, I’ll spend the money and see the show and won’t bitch that so & so is
too old to tour, is dead, doesn’t get along with the rest of the band, or for
whatever reason, good or bad, isn’t on the tour. And I’ll enjoy sitting in the seat you might
have taken if you weren’t staying home.
We all win.
No comments:
Post a Comment