Live at Robin 2, Bilston (UK)

Nice review again, Express and Star. Their support over the years has been absolutely brilliant.

I also came at this tour as a journo too. My big question was whether The Voice of Rock, on his first major UK tour for many years could hold out. Daft question really. Knowing damn well how Glenn prepares himself mentally and physically for each and every show, why shouldn’t he come on stage smiling and ready for action?

Because of work commitments I didn’t manage to get there until 8, so the traditional ligging with Wolfy wasn’t possible as the place was packed out. I did wave but don’t have Glenn’s vocal capacity, so anyway the will was there! It was a bit like standing in the terraces at a Wolves home game.

Tonight the highlights for me were Can’t Stop the Flood and the opener Muscle and Blood which the audience immediately warmed to. Many lips were moving in synch to most songs. Such is the familiarity with the local hero. I also enjoyed Sail Away and I repeat my view from the Manchester show. This is such an underrated song from the whole Burn album. Whoever decided that this should not be in the original Purple live set should have been made to listen to a Grand Funk album at volume 11.

By the way in another forum post someone asked what Purple are doing now. This. Or at least this is what Purple should be doing now. Look here’s the thing. Somehow in the same week as handling the biggest publicity buckaroo since Clearwater Castle, Glenn manages to launch his own tour and perfom with the same enthusiasm as a kid who had just done his debut gig at Wolves Civic Hall. I’d like to pay tribute to Carl Swann for engineering that. A decent guy with Glenn’s welfare always at the forefront of the operation. There’s only one Glenn Hughes and sometimes that’s not easy for people to understand at times.

It was great to meet forum regular, Marie Wilkes on “the swag” (see vid) and also Jerry of Wymer Publishing enjoying the tour experience. Nice to see a bit of glamour behind the scenes and I don’t mean Jerry! Sorry we had to leave, Marie without a proper chat but we needed to rush off to hit the two and half hour road trip.

Talking of glamour, Soren Andersen has quickly established himself as a crowd pleaser. As Glenn himself said, “someone who looks that good can’t be any good.” Happily he was wrong. And together with our Anders on keys and the thunderous Pontus Edberg on drums, none of us felt short changed by any lack of BCC gig to go with the album.

Indeed Medusa was delivered with the finesse it deserves. I played it on my show at Get Ready to Rock Radio last Sunday at 9 GMT along with other epics such as Stairway to Heaven and naturally our man’s stood tall. That’s repeated on Saturday at 5 GMT if anyone wants to have a listen.

Tribute was once again paid to those who have been lost. So a word please for Andy Attwood, Glenn’s first roadie. So far I have only shared this with Glenn. Back in 2002 when I first got involved behind the scenes on the publicity drive, I was pretty nervous sitting there in the dressing room. I mean this was Glenn Hughes FFS 1976 Liverpool Empire, CalJam and all that! No amount of media training could ever be enough to see me through actually handling the PR for my life time idol.

Andy came across, planted himself on the seat next to me and proceeded to tell me stories of Glenn pre Trapeze. I was in stitches. But he did it to put me at my ease. "Who's this smart gentleman I see before me?" Actually when I think about it, Glenn and Carl joined in too. So I was able to get on with my job genuinely feeling part of the team. Andy Attwood and Mel Galley might have gone but definitely not forgotten. You never suddenly stop being part of the Glenn Hughes family. Amen to that.

It was great to meet you too Keith -a lthough I've seen you before but didn't know who you were! Thanks to Jerry the 'Swag man' for putitng me in the picture! Really enjoyed the show last night - it's always packed so crazy with Glenn's fans and friends and local support and great to see him go down so well in his home town! Negative point - people laughing and talking loudly during G's Don't Let Me Bleed vocal section, Positive - everyone who thanked me afterwards for my polite request for them to be quiet whilst he was performing this bit!! I know how passionate G is about what he does in that moment and I know how passionate his fans are to watch, listen and be amazed! Looking forward to tonight in Nottingham - the show is not getting old in the slightest for me, this being my 6th night - everynight has it's differneces, in atmosphere, in performance, in the stage banter - but mostly it's a fantastic performace without fail every night! Nice to see a lot of familiar faces - including Wolfie, Mike D (who has also been at all the shows I must add) Mick The Sween, Adam, The boys from Raven Vandelle (Matt Goom who played for Glenn was drumming with them for a while). And of course all the guys for accepting me as the not so bad penny that keeps turning up!

Well done Marie. I doubt if they mean any harm and they've probably had a few beers. But in way, given Glenn's sobriety, your actions were all the more appropriate.

Yet another fantastic performance....

Great show at The Robin2 - as usual.

Set list is just great. Soren is a great guitarist indeed and his guitar seemed to be all round the venue in the sound mix. I think Pontus is the heaviest rock drummer Glenn has had on a solo tour. Best version of Sail Away i have heard. The whole band were really tight all night.

Nice to see a load of familiar faces from here. Also had a good chat with Jimi from Raven Vandelle who also happens to be good friends with two of my work mates. Bumped into Lee Small and talked about his latest recording with Shy which he's really excited about.

i also got a young rocker (well compared to me as he's in his 20s) from work to come along. He'd never seen or heard Glenn except thru the BCC promo as he's a fan of Joe!

I lent him Fused a couple of weeks back and he was so impressed that rather than burn a copy he ordered it together with BCC.

When i asked him afterwards what he thought - "His voice is AMAZING! His bass playings fantastic. Best show i've been to" Now he wants to know when BCC are playing!

If anyone on here is coming to Exeter then let me know.

Quote from David

"Don't Let Me Bleed" ( hi Marie :p )

PMSL! Hahahahaha!!!!