Bad Company
MEN Arena
Friday 02 April 2010

Talk about going through the motions - this was money for old rope in all honesty.

It's a total nonsense to talk about this being a "re-union" and the "first time they had played together in decades" etc - all shameful hype - no half awake fan should have fallen for this – it wasn’t a reunion anyway as bass player Boz Burrell died recently - and how can a "reunion" include two members that were never part of the group to start with - I am a fan of Howard Leese, the founder member and lead guitarist of Heart, but worthy as he is (I saw him touring with Paul Rodgers a while back), it cannot be said that he is "re-uniting" with Bad Company. The same goes for the bass player (whoever that may be) needless to say. Talk of a reunion also implies that it is something that the whole nation has been waiting for with baited breath: the problem is that Bad Company might have been big in 1975 but they were never approaching the likes of Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd even in their heyday, and today I think you would struggle to find anyone outside the “classic rock” fraternity who has even heard of them.

I was surprised they had the audacity to book the MEN Arena, after all, when Paul Rodgers has toured before, The Apollo (or even The Lowry Theatre) has been more than sufficient, whether for his solo act or for his previous (better) incarnation of Bad Company. Maybe they thought the bogus talk of a reunion would sell more tickets.
 

The only real thing in favour of this farrago was the support act, the Joe Perry Project. This is effectively Aerosmith without Steven Tyler, and although I wouldn’t pay money out to go and see Aerosmith, this had more fun, gumption and attitude in its little finger than tired old Bad Company could muster all evening and it probably just edged the night for them.

Something very strange happened – the volume was way too quiet - strange, because when I saw Paul Rodgers and Bad Company for the first time it still ranks as one of my loudest ever.  Perhaps they thought the audience was as olds and past it as them, and couldn't take it too loud?

Another huge disappointment was that it was very strictly Bad Company tracks only, meaning that one of the all time iconic rock tracks – Paul Rodgers’s "Alright Now" was not played. I gasped with disbelief at the end – I’ve said before that I’m fed up of hearing it, that he must be fed up of singing it, and that it is generally one of the most over played songs of all time – but hey, it is an absolute classic and it surely wouldn’t have hurt to have had a quick run through? There was one new tack (at least I didn’t recognise it), but in general, a concert full of purely Bad Company songs was never going to satisfy because they just simply haven’t got nearly enough good material – in one form or another, some of the Free classics just HAD to be played. What reason could there have been for this other than to satisfy the vanity of Mick Ralphs?

Mick Ralphs was the big disappointment of the evening – his guitar sound was sharp and clearly defined – there were some bitingly good solos but mostly they were a complete mess or just didn't happen or faded away - he was never a Rock God in the mould of Richie Blackmore or Jimmy Page to start with, he has been away too long, he is out of practice and many others have now reached and surpassed this standard. The "unknown" guitarist on the previous concert was better.

There was no drum solo for Simon Kirke - he wasn't allowed to shine, as he had done on the previous concert – to be fair I’m not a fan of extended drum solos, but if this really was a "reunion", he should have been given his own five minutes of glory, but to be honest, the drumming could have been by any competent drummer.

The star of the show, if there was one, was Paul Rodgers - surprise, surprise. He is one of rock’s greatest ever singers and tonight he was on top form with fantastic vocals and stage act. He works very hard, but sadly on his own he cannot hope to carry the show or make up for the other problems.

 
My favourite Bad Company track is “Shooting Star” – it was played, but they murdered it – it was too laid back, drawn out and lazy and seemed to carry on for eternity - like most of the other tracks played it lacked the edge/ aggression that made them great – there was a nice touch though as the big screen showed a montage of photos of deceased rock stars - but why no John Lennon as far as I could see?

A riot was nearly caused when they left the stage at 9.50 after barely an hour - they came back and did a couple of encores which eventually made up the expected time allocation, but the damage had been done, and it was made to seem like we should feel grateful for their kind indulgence.

Bad Company have an obvious place in rock history as the founding fathers of AOR – to an extent they still show the strengths of the genre (strong melodic tracks, great playing on record if not always live) but this concert clearly shows the big drawbacks – lazy, bloated complacency, self indulgence and an undue sense of entitlement. This is one of my least favourite concerts, and it is true to say that Bad Company turned the famous religious public holiday into “Bad Friday”.