Thunder continue to be crap at 'splitting up'. They are one of the most shit at 'retiring' bands ever! Since I saw them play their 'last ever' show at the Sonisphere festival about five years ago I have seen them at the excellent
High Voltage Festival and they have played several other festivals along with Christmas shows. Now they continuing to be rubbish at retiring by playing a show of their own in London featuring new songs, and next year they are going to release a brand new album and do a tour!
I'd never heard of this venue before, but apparently it opened earlier this year and it's main purpose is as an American style bowling alley rather than a music venue. However, I was quite impressed with the
Brooklyn Bowl as a venue for live music. It's situated in the massive O2 Arena complex in Greenwich next to where the now closed
British Music Experience was. I didn't bother checking out the bar as I was sure the prices would be ridiculous and I doubted they stocked anything I would have wanted to drink anyway, but apart from that it seemed a decent place to visit. It's a standing only venue with a low but adequate stage giving reasonable viewing. The room size looked a bit smaller than the Astoria or Islington Academy with the room being quite wide. I reminded me a bit of the Roundhouse, almost as if it had been divided into a smaller venue.
I forgot to take my camera as I left home in a rush, and then when I tried to take pictures with my phone I found the battery was too low. You know how people look right twats when they hold up a Tablet at gigs to take pictures? Well I'm afraid that was
me on this occasion...
There were no tickets on sale for this show and there was no support act - the plan being to record it for a live album to be released with
Classic Rock magazine in February.
Thunder played a great set of old favourites, and also some new songs along with the classic 'crowd pleasers'. They also threw in a few covers - which I wasn't expecting as they have so many great songs of their own. Danny shouted out "Does anyone like Thin Lizzy?" (stupid question) before the band launched into a good version of that band's 'The Rocker'. We also got covers of the Frankie Miller standard 'Be Good To Yourself' and CCR's 'Up Around The Bend'. Of course we got the expected Thunder classics like 'When Love Walked In', 'Dirty Love' and 'Low Life in High Places' as well as some not so well known ones like 'Robert Johnson's Tombstone', and 'The Devil Made Me Do It'. Charismatic and lively singer Danny Bowes was on good form, and Luke Morley cranked out the riffs and lead lines on his Flying V (the only electric guitar he used all night) in fine style - loud and clear. The band's other guitarist Ben Matthews is having to take some time out from the band due to illness and his place was ably filled by ex-Winterville frontman Pete Shoulder - who also plays in Luke Morley's side project
The Union. Luke isn't the only member of Thunder who has been busy outside of the band while 'retired' as drummer Harry James has also been playing in
Magnum and
Snakecharmer.
The invited crowd of round 800 mainly competition winners were well into it, and the sound quality was excellent - which was a surprise as this isn't a dedicated music venue. It was full but not
too crowded, and the toilets were much better than the often terrible ones at many other music venues. Security staff were unobtrusive and the atmosphere was good. This is a venue I would be happy to return to - which is more than can be said for many of London's better known music venues which I only visit grudgingly to see my favourite bands.
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