Live in Wroclaw, Poland

What a great setlist!

Agreed - great set! Some of my firm fave's in there - Anyone who went got any pics to share? Pretty please? xxx

Great set list w/ 2 classic "Purple" tracks that I still hope to see one day; "Might Just Take Your Life" and "Sail Away". Hopefully A) our economy will pick up and B) when it does, Glenn will come back and play for us w/ maybe those 2 songs somewhere in the mix
peace,

That was my first Glenn's gig but i hope not the last one!
He said that he will try comeback in next year and I believe him!
Really great band, amazing guitarist - Søren Andersen. You even can't imagine how likeable he is! Really sympathetic, really. The rest of the band was also nice!
And finally Glenn, he's great.
There was not a lot of people, something around 100. Organizer was crappy in this way. There was no ADVERTISEMENT!
But Glenn (I HOPE SO!) wasn't angry about that. He just gave all of his love and energy to us. Like all of the band. They were completely enjoying while there were playing and you could see and feel that.
Amazing night, the place, Firlej club was really nice, intimate atmosphere.
So Glenn, if you read this forum sometimes believe that you have more fans in Poland but we have to be much louder next nime!
And we are really happy with my friend that you saw our flag "Welcome home our Soulmover". That's really true.
Unfortunately for there was much more older songs `cause I love Glenn for his new music made with Chad Smith but i have no reason to complain.
Big, big thanks to you Glenn.

It was great, great evening with Glenn Hughes. He was amazing that night. Especially Sail Away, Gettin' Tighter, Holy Man and Burn.There were 100-120 people but Glen gave us all his energy. New guitarist is really great. I love his playing.

Thank you very much Glenn for your show

It was my 6th concert of Glenn and I hope that next time I won't be waiting for 8 years to see Glenn in Poland again.

Glenn Hughes
"Firley Club", Wroclaw, Poland, Oct. 17, 2009.


It was eight years that many of us had to wait to see Glenn doing a live sidekick again, so emotions were flying high. The club was perfect to create almost family like atmosphere - small hall with a stage making the players almost standing arm in arm. That closeness to themselves and the audience was not a problem though. The axemans had enough space to move around while they belted out magic on their instruments. The attendance wasn't massive but I think the level of enthusiasm made it like there were hundreds of Hughes hungry freaks.

The "Crave" outro poured off the PA about 7.30 pm and the Band took their base. Some minute later The Funkmeister entered the picture and the audie went ape. I had a tear in my eye, I felt so funky glad to see him again after a long time. Plus I had him almost in front of me within the reach of the hand, so I could not hold myself back. Happiness. Glenn was thin, slick, dressed all in black, moving like a voodo dancer. When they started off, it was like a nuke. Great opener, "Crave". I was happy o hear that the "****in' freezin' " weather did not do Glenn's voice any damage. Almost instantly he showed that today he's gonna utilize his pipes with accepting no limits. The sound was bombastic and one had to notice how organicly the guitars and drums worked together.

Every break between the songs was nothing but a roar of applause and enjoyment like a carnival fest, just because He was right there. I think we did a good job singing "Might Just Take Your Life" choruses. Glenn was conducting the orchestra, dancing all over the place with his bass - posing, stretching, steppin' on like a dinosaur, makin' the strings gurgle with the sound. Mk III classic went down very well, to the pure enjoyment of "Burn" album fans.

It's difficult to describe how great it was to see Glenn enjoying the reaction of the audience. He was purely aware that he brought back his most precious gem to the Purple People. Mk III & IV thing has a massive following here in Poland. The Voice explained to us that this time he decided to concentrate on the most beloved likes of his legacy in Purple just to enjoy himself and us. He welcomed all to the spiritual family, hoping that those who didn't see him before would enjoy the show. When "Sail Away" blasted off - it showed. Some guys went completely ape****, as they never have heard this song live. And things were only starting to build up. Vocally the choruses are like climbing the mountain but with the assistance of the crowd Glenn jumped brillantly for every note. Funk rock groove poured all over the place, no one could complain. It was unbelievabely tight. Perfect gelling between the members of the band.

With no holding back Glenn turned the spotlight on his newest treasure dug out at the start of the 2009. Lights concentrated on the person of the guitarist - Soran Anderson. Well, what can I say. From this moment on it was impossible not to share the concentration between him and The Leader. I can easily understand Glenn's excitement about his new axeman. We all have our visions and expectations on what we expect to see from a guitarist playing our classic and beloved material. Soran blew my mind out completely. He blends comprehensively his liking and respect to the style of his guitar favourites (who surely include Blackmore and Bolin) with a clear, gritty, aural tone of his old veteran Stratocaster. So many times you see the guitarists playing classic stuff with no vision or idea of how to keep the balance between respect to the classic line and adding their own dimension and identity to it. I can only say that I can't see anybody else fitting this particular place better, than Soran does now. He's got me totally under his spell and that's why I say that he's my new Guitar Hero. Every second of watching and listening to him was a pure enjoyment to me. The way he approached "Mistreated" just kicked ass and carried the whole band to rave through the one of the biggest favourites of this era. Hardly possible to describe this, but the impact was clearly visible: Glenn has just flown away in his improvisation in the final section. Backed by Anders Olinder's eletric piano chords he showed vocal capabilities I cannot find comparisons to. The hall stuck in awe, hanging on to every amazing note that left Glenn's lips. A mystical moment. The applause after the mayhemic closing chord section was huge - it was clear - there can be only One Voice that can do something like that.

It feels strange to notice that things were that hot only quarter way through the show. In 2009 I don't think that many artists stay dedicated to following the way they feel on stage. Therefore they do not improvise too much. Well, apart from Mr. Hughes. "Gettin' Tighter" was massive. Preceeded by the built up introduction about Tommy Bolin being chosen in favour to Dave Clempson it broke into a lenghty jam with bits of the legendary "You Gotta Dance To The Rock And Roll" tune. The axis of the track now belonged to Matthew Groom, who displayed more than pleasing skills on his drumset. I think there is nothing wrong in the fact that he showed Ian Paice being one of his infulences, at least for this night. Also Glenn had his sort of bass solo spot, playing and moving in a way that - again I must say it - finds no comparison anywhere. Twelve minutes that just seemed to be taken right away from the 70's with Glenn, Soran, Matthew and Anders just jamming their balls out.

The moment of taking things down a little bit took place: Glenn has exchanged the guitars with Soran, and dedicated the next song to the bunch of Polish fans: Krystyna, Joanna, Janusz and their friend Pawel, who died in the car crash in 2006 while travelling to Voice's concert in Prague leaving the remaining three alone. Lights have dimmed and the quartett segued into a beatiful reendition of "Coast To Coast". It looked like Glenn felt truly comfortable with playing Stratocaster, he even fancied a bit more than chording only in the solo section which was a real treat to see. Needless to say, he sung beatifully with astoniashing passion.

The question was if it's ok if he cries a tear or two within the next song, but he knew it was ok. He introduced the next song from the more recent catalogue as a very personal and moving track. I was unaware of how strong potential "Don't Let Me Bleed" has, so I loved the overall efect. I was always a huge fan of contrast within the rock arrangements - so counterparting of the quiet passages with Glenn fervishly breathing with loud rousing riff modules was kicking the heads off the corpses. Soran was all over the place, moving and playing like a man posessed. I could not contain myself - I knew I'm becoming crazy about this guy, just like I did about Blackmore, Hendrix, Beck or Townshend. Essence of what I like in guitar playing, combined with a great tone, dynamic and stage presence. Simply fabulous. The Voice went along and kept the unreachable level with his improvised vocal pasages - a class to himself all the way, every verse. Another long, impetous monster in the set.

The mood was settled, it was clear from then on that Glenn feels very comfortable among the enthusuastic Polish followers, so he relaxed a bit and quipped about his previous visit, Warsaw in 2001. I shouted that I was there, so he replied that it looks impossible for him cause I it looked for him like I could be his son and he could be my father. 'I wouldn't mind if you were' - was my answer. Anyway, it did seem a long time ago... Seeng the audience being really hot now, Glenn asked for requests. Couple of Trapeze titles flown around with myself throwing 'Medusa' in as the biggest (besides 'Jury' maybe) favourite of mine. Options were so varied that the Boss decided to strike ace out of his sleeve to satisfy just everybody. 'Stormbringer' was just what it's title says, mean badass crawler with all four firing on all cylinders, Soran in particular letting it rip. Totally mercilles, so enjoyable.

Glenn grabbing handfully of his jolly mood decided to tell a story of how for years people begged him to play a "every fan I've ever met favourite" off the "Stormbringer". Delicate notes followed and tha magic poured around - 'Holy Man' was just charming, much to the delightment of the audience. It made the mouth of everybody that wanted but could not attend the Wroclaw gig simply drool and regret that they missed this. Justified feelings indeed! The Voice owned the song which - I guess - does not surprise anybody... And he wondered a bit on why it took him so much time to come to the country, although he loves to play here. "I want to bring you all the favourites since I know you love them adnd I love playing them to you. But I also have to educate you to my new music, so here's another newer track". To my ears "Steppin' Out" was the funkiest point of the evening and although I'm not that much fan of the song - it was great. The jamming section before the close was just what I love most in the rock music, with the axemans again running around and playing their asses off.

Two sounds, four notes, one bar. One of the most notable songs in the Purple catalogue ever and the faithful closer of Glenn stage set followed. "You Keep On Moving" is very special to me, I always felt it has a kind of resemblence of how you feel when you listen to Queen's last ever track "The Show Must Go On". Just accenting the end of something special, always very, very moving. You want to sing out your heart and lungs in it. And that's what I hope we did - getting another long and beatiful Glenn's vocal passage in return at the end. This song can never ever fail to floor you down, you've heard it for thousands of times and still it does it to you again - with the gritty, raw, almost hostile ending chord. It wasn't fair for them to bow and go yet. 'Stay with us! Stay with us!' was shouted from the hall. And they did.

Glenn was by then truly turned on to talk, chat and entertain, drowned himself in the enjoment and apopreciation of the crowd. He thanked for being able to share his most precious talents with us, blessed everybody and entitled his spiritual family, accenting that he won't let it off that easy. "We're gonna f--k you up with that next song and you're gonna love it!!!"

And he did what he said. What you can say about the "Soul Mover" is that the song became a pure Hughes classic. Everybody sang the chorus with Glenn and Soran and it sounded like it was on everybody's playlists right from the Purple days. An essential Voice Of Rock track, combining all his unique skills and feels about the music including yet another jaw-dropping vocal journey right before the end. You could think that the bag of it he has in himself has no bottom line. The stream of voice and melody flows and traps you in amusement.

I don't think that there is another musican on the planet who is able to belt out 'Burn' after hour and a half of playing his heart out with the power stream the Hughes 2009 Band did. And it emphasised exactly what they are - not a four musicans playing together, but a tight, uniquely blended band of friends on many levels. It was storming, bearing all the purple glory that this track had for 35 years. Soran again found a bit of Blackers in himself and the shredding through these last seven minutes of the show was nothing short but phenomenal. True hard rock wizardry. It was only a first show in a row of two for me and actually I thought it would be very rude to expect that more is going to happen next night. All I knew was: if you miss seeing Glenn Hughes in 2009, you miss exactly what he said "one of the best gigs you've ever seen in the whole year"...

I wished Glenn and The Boys a good rest and went home worn out but happier than hell inside. The rest of the story is to come.

Let me just add: Glenn, Soran, Anders, Matthew - thanks guys, you were more than awesome. Another time of my life thanks to you.

The set: Crave / Might Just Take Your Life / Sail Away / Mistreated / Getting Tighter / Coast To Coast / Don't Let Me Bleed / Stormbringer / Holy Man / Steppin' Out / You Keep On Movin'
Encores: Soul Mover / Burn

Line up: Glenn Hughes - b, voc; Soren Andersen - g, bk voc; Matthew Goom - dr; Anders Olinder - k

Time: 90 - 95 min

(C) (P) Sunby

Is there any chance to upload some videos from that concert?

thank you so much.. amazing !