11/12/2010 The Quireboys & Zodiac Mindwarp on Saturday night

Subject	The Quireboys & Zodiac Mindwarp on Saturday night
PostedDate	12/15/2010
	My weekend of maximum rock 'n' roll continues, although in a different style tonight. The evening starts with meeting some friends in the Bull & Gate, before heading a few yards up the street to The Forum where the Quireboys are playing. Spike is on fine form and obviously enjoying himself! It's about a year since the band last played at this venue - on that occasion playing all of their classic 'A Bit Of What You Fancy' album. The first part of tonight's set is along much the same lines, but as that great album contains most of their best songs who's complaining! This year's show doesn't feature any special guests - last year we got former members Guy Bailey and Nigel Mogg joining the band on stage, which made it something a bit special. Guy Bailey is actually present tonight and is seen in the crowd during the show. It was apparently planned for him to join the band on stage during the set, but for whatever reason this didn't happen.  He did get a nice namecheck from Spike though, who said "Guy Bailey will always be a Quireboy!" The revolving door for Quireboys bass players continues to spin - another new one this year!  Otherwise the lineup remains unchanged from last year - featuring the band's smartest dressed drummer in years - if not ever! The band do have plenty of other good songs apart from all the ones on the first album, and we get a good selection from across the band's career, as well as going back again to their debut album for the ballad 'I Don't Love You Anymore' - a terrific version and a real highlight of the night! This is a rock 'n' roll show though, so it's light on the slow numbers and heavy on the rockers from 'Bitter & Twisted', 'This is Rock N Roll' and 'Well Oiled'. There was a point a few years ago when I felt the Quireboys were only average at best as a live band, but over the last few years they have just got better and better - they are really at the top of their game these days. The whole show has that typical Quireboys party vibe and everyone goes home happy - well those that are going home after the show anyway... The evening is still young, so it's off to the Intrepid Fox where the current owners are celebrating their 20th Anniversary of running the place. Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction play a fun half hour set of their 'hits' and one or two of their newer songs from their latest album. By the time Zod & Co. have finished I've missed the last train, so there's no point rushing off home. Only one thing for it on a Saturday night in Soho then! Yes, a vist to Decadence to round off the night! It's a quieter night than usual in the club, but worth dropping in. It's a Motörhead night to promote the band's new album, but I'm too late and have missed out on all the promotional giveaways. Still, it's a nice way to round off the night's fun.  It's a bit cold on the way home though - the weather forecast said no frost tonight, but they were wrong and all the cars on the street were covered in ice!  Still, that makes it nicer getting back to a warm flat at 5.30 in the morning and a good sleep...