Steely Dan - Hammersmith - drinks before hand?

Hi Diccus,

Me and "Mrs Shaw" (who is secretly dreading it I suspect as she's never shown any interest in them before) are going to a friend's locally for a pre-Dan curry so won't be able to join in, though I would like to meet with you lot if only to put a few faces to names.

Diccus, Ewemon, Jet,

I should be able to spot you at the Brook Green Hotel and have a bite or a nice pint of Youngs.

Gary,

Look forward to meeting you and perhaps my sister can ease any aprehension "Mrs Shaw" may have.

Looking forward to meeting you all.

Denis

Gary

Poor "Mrs. Shaw", you are a cruel man dragging her to see ageing rockers Say hello if you see me.

DenisA

See you in the BSH.

Diccus

Hi Diccus, Ewemon, Jet, Gary,

I spoke too soon about my sister coming along, she's cancelled . I now have a spare ticket, so if any of you know a Dan Fan who would like to go please mail me (see my profile).

Denis

Sorry mate, no idea -Ebay?

You comin MUNCH?

Diccus

Hi Munch,

Hope my mails reached you ok, my Internet is messing about. I'll aim to be at the Brook Green Hotel for 5.30 PM

See you all then

Denis

Unfortunately Munch cannot make the Concert (lets try at another gig). If there are any other Dan fans who would like my spare ticket, please mail me via my profile. I will be meeting Diccus and friends at the Brook Green Hotel, 5.30 PM Sat 7th July.

Denis

quote:

Originally posted by Diccus62:
Ewemon, Jet Johnson and my reasonable self are meeting up before the gig for a bite to eat and/or acouple of shandies before the gig.

It was suggested by David Sutton that the Brook Green Hotel is a good place and they have a decent reasonably priced menu............. Brook Green Hotel

Suggest that anyone who fancies it will meet between 5 and 6pm there................ I'll be wearing my blue Bob Dylan t shirt for easy identification - i'm also 6ft 5 in with (slightly!)greying hair and a look of the bemused waiting for admission to 'the home' on my face. I also wear glasses.

Post if you fancy it. Ewemon if you are posting is this ok for you?

Diccus Dan

..What Diccus has neglected to mention is I'll (Jet Johnson) be the good looking "large" guy in the Steely Dan ETMG 2000 T shirt
.....and one more thing ..Diccus had a few probs getting a hotel booked and wondered what was going on in the smoke this coming week-end

......and him a big Tour De France guy!

OH heck, i thought that was later in the month

And me.

Howard,

Internet still playing up, but mail me if you want the ticket. I'm out tonight till late but can confirm with you when i get in or tomorrow morning. We are meeting as stated above.

Denis

Denis,

You have my seat number, yes? Do drop by (and anyone else BTW) - with or without your Ship Of Fools :-)

Gary,

If you happen to be in the downstairs Bar area, I'll be with Diccus, who at 6'5" & blue Bob Dylan t shirtshould be easy to spot. If not I'll shout out Ship of Fools as I pass row 'V' and look for a homicdal popcorn thrower

Still no takers on my spare ticket (sitting in row 'N'). This is a great opportunity to see a great band AND buy a 'Steely Dan' T-Shirt.

Denis

I have a previous commitment other wise Denis' may have found a home SWMBO permitting. C'est La Vie. as the say in Germany.

Have a great time lads (and any lasses).

Howard

No reports then?

Howard,

I need to collect my thoughts on a bizzare and thouroughly enjoyabale evening. Diccus & Jet are on their way back to Durham, Ewemon should get home next weekend and Gary is probably polishing his Aston Villa Trophies to start his day . The only disappointment really was that the gig wasn't 4 hours long. I can't remember the set list but extended workouts from Aja & Gaucho were excellent. Both Aja and Home at Last really showed what a terrific drummer Keith Carlock is. There were times from my seat that the Vocals from Donald were a bit weak. Although I didn't see them Mr Gilmour and McCartney were in the building (with prime seats probably).

More to follow...

Denis

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
No reports then?

Oh alright then

Firstly, I managed to get my wife into the concert OK - she'd made a couple of attempts to flog her ticket to touts outside before I managed to bundle her inside.

Secondly, the support band - a hammond, drums, trumpet, sax quartet - were appalling. We legged it to the stairs when they started to masssacre Norwegian Wood.

We lurked there for a while, eyes peeled for a tall bloke in a blue Dylan T-Shirt, and when such an apparition appeared I screwed up my courage and asked him if he were Diccus (not something I'd do to a perfect stranger normally). Thankfully he was, so he led us to the rest of the crew and I met Jet, Ewemon and, at last, DenisA. Though we didn't have long before SD came on we had a decent chat - certainly enough to confirm that there needs to be some further Porcupine Tree indoctrination done, those of course Denis is thoroughly infected

Thirdly, the concert. It was very good. The band were, as you'd expect, extremely tight and the drummer in particular was excellent. It's perhaps an overused term, but he really really grooved.

Some odd choices in repertoire and singing - Becker sang Haitian Divorce in a style that could only be described as approximate (he was doubled by one of the girl singers) and the two girls sang Dirty Work in a Maria Carey style (which worked pretty well).

I thought the concert sagged a little in the middle, partly because most of the songs came from those middle Dan albums which were often much the same tempo, and partly because songs such as Green Earrings and Peg are amongst my least favourite Dan songs.

I would have liked a couple more from Everything Must Go (all we got was a brilliant Godwhacker) to be honest. Only Two Against Nature came from that album.

However, they picked it up well towards the end, though the first encore choice of FM was interesting to say the least. Nevertheless they ended on a transcendent My Old School that brought the house down (though they'd been getting and excellent reception throughout and as mentioned in the Brum concert the band seemed genuinely chuffed).

All in all a very good evening (even Anne admitted she enjoyed it!) and really good to meet the guys - shame we didn't have more time.

Twas good to put faces to names on the Forum and what a nice bunch - except Jet who i've known since before Paul McCartney could smile ( and he's canny too ) .

We had a near disaster in that The Brook Green Hotel Bar was closed for refurb, thankfully we all managed to catch up in the Hammersmith Ram, which I would recommend if your down there for a gig (gorgeous Lamb chops, sorry I got the last denis ) We then wandered down for the gig. The Dinosaurs had a good natter about Pre Rafaelite music (Man, Vinegar Joe, Derek & the Chess Pieces) and other bands i've never heard of being such a wipper snapper Once they got on to Tone arms and Dansettes I was lost.

It was very brave of Gary to tackle me even tho i'm a veritable pussycat and a shame we didn't all have more time to catch up on the craic. The history lesson was fascinating Gary I got the feeling that you and Denis quite like the 'Hedgehog Bush' band or something like that.

I wasn't very impressed with the decor at HA. There were holes in the walls, flock wallpaper peeling off, I think a refurb is about due.

The gig, well I wasn't as impressed as my esteemed pals. I thought the Intro and Outro were fabulous. I enjoyed Aja and My Old School, It did really heat up towards the end. The sound was frankly awful. With so much talent on show at times it all melted into one muggy mush.

The drummer, as Becker noted is probably the best of his generation, certainly sparkling. The backing singers. One of them was excellent, danced well, sang passionately and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself. The other one 'Andrea Corr' danced like Marti Pelow and had only two dance moves, one which was akin to flattening the sheets on the bed and the other was testing to see if it was raining. Their vocals were faily lost in the rest of the mix. The guitarist who was clearly very good was reminiscent of 'Brains' and I kept checking for wires. His skill with a guitar was let down by the sound.
Becker 'sang' Haitian Divorce and murdered it. It is akin to 'the Edge' saying to Bono, "Go on Bono, let me sing just one song, pretty please". Donald Just Say No. Fagen is just a star sat behind his organ and clearly the boss of the outfit with some dry wit as you would expect. Horn section was class.

All in all it was better than Wembley 12 odd years ago, nowhere near as good as in Glasgow about 8 years ago (wonderful acoustics) but very pleasurable non the less.

Nice to meet you guys. You comin' to see Britney next time?

Johnson will kill me for this.

Lots of Love

Diccus

Glad you enjoyed it Diccus. Almost makes me wish I had gone

Absolutely crackin' mate

Well I must say it was great to put Faces to Naims and see who was behind their chosen nom de plume. After the Brook Green Hotel Bar disaster, my natural homing instinct allowed me to stumle across the Up North contingent at the Hammey Ram. As luck would have it Diccus, Jet & Ewemon were bloody nice chaps. I would happily travel to the Durham area for a gig, although I would draw the Line at Glasgow as the northern tip of the venture. It would have to be Blue Nile or Paul Buchanon though Ewemon. Our reminising at the Appolo about Metrosound Amps and the Connoisseur BD1 TT went above Diccus's head (quite a feat as he was standing on the steps as well). I think URL=http://www.killiefc.com/Do%20You%20Remember/GaryShaw.htm]Gary[/URL] has had a lifestyle change since his footballing heyday. I wish I had got slimmer rather than boosting the profits of Real Ale establishments . Gary's subterfuge is right out of Ian Dury's there ain't half been some clever b's book . I take my hat off to your ingenuity and value your opinions even if you you might question Nick Heyword's place in Pop's greats. I'll comment on the music in Jet's thread later, assuming my daughter will let me the PC early enough.

BTW Dicuss, the guy who bought my ticket was bigger than you and I wasn't going to ask him how much he paid for it. He enjoyed himself, but I thought Keith Carlock was the better drummer!

Denis

OOPS ... Gary

quote:

Originally posted by DenisA:
OOPS ... Gary

A sensational talent cut short by a glass knee. Shame. Done for drink-driving in Brum recently.

Interesting conundrum - if I were to be reborn a footballer, would I opt to come back as Gary Shaw and have two sublime seasons only to end up as a salesman for a brewery, or some journeyman with a long undistinguished (but financially lucrative) career?

My heart says the former, my head (and wife) say...