The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Hammersmith Palais.
Yet another night out in a condemned building - this time the penultimate night being held at the Palais in Hammersmith - famous for being a mixing ground for Punk and Reggae in the 70's and immortalised in the Clash song White Man in Hammersmith Palais. More recently it has been home to the School Disco night but now that has moved to Kings Cross it would appear that the end is due for the old place.
I'm sad to say that this was actually my first visit (and evidently to be my last...) It was a pretty cool venue though by the looks of it, certainly it had its dodgy past but this just adds to the history of the event. Not least because of Paul Simonon on Bass, prowling the stage looking like a gangster with a Tommy gun. He was the front man tonight for a lot of the act with Damon behind the piano for a good proportion of the album - which they played in full and I think in order. Simon Tong was never a particularly charismatic member of the Verve and he looked almost embarrassed to be on the stage, he's a fine guitarist though so he really shouldn't be.Tony Allen seemed to be enjoying himself on the drums as well - and he was busy tonight as his Afrobeat orchestra were the support act as well. Funky drumming at its finest.
John Cooper Clarke was the compere and spent his time on stage telling poems and jokes about Alzheimer's. It was genius at times and awful at others, but perfect for the night I think in all. With former clash contributor and filmmaker Don Letts DJing it was an eclectic bill
Simonon was the star tonight though - and rightly so since his band were influential in the venue gaining the cult status it had - he attacked the stage at the end so he had something to take with him - and who could deny him that.