“Closed my eyes, heard a Marshall stack / Swear to God, I had a heart attack”
– C’mon by the Quireboys

So, they finally sold out. Well, as near as damn it. There might be a few tickets left, but the Garage can’t be far off a capacity crowd for these two shows. Who’d have thought it, eh?

The last time I saw the Quireboys, at the old Bottom Line in Shepherd’s Bush in 1995, there was hardly anyone there, leaving me with the impression that everyone, bar a few of the faithful, had forgotten all about Spike and the boys. It was a bit of a saddener ‘cos they’d only been away for 18 months or so at this point. But now, having seen this… well, I can only assume that it was down to lack of publicity – something that definitely hasn’t been in short supply for these Garage shows. And, of course, there’s also the rise in popularity of the Internet over the last few years. Oh, and this from Spike…

“We’re not gonna give up this time. Not that we gave up last time. We were just too pissed.”

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Well, that was a nice surprise.

Last night (13 June 2001) was the final night of Cheap Trick’s three-gig London Garage residency. I was waiting for the support band to come on, wondering who it would be (Monday night we had the singer from Urge Overkill – very good; Tuesday was some dirgey English band I never caught the name of – not so good), when out wandered Spike and Griff.

“‘Allo, remember us?”

Yeah I do, as it happens. Nice to see ya, fellas.

Spike explained that they were in town doing some promo and had been invited to open for CT. They were joined by an unnamed keyboard player and did a half-hour acoustic set, playing Whippin’ Boy, Roses And Rings, I Don’t Love You Anymore, a couple of songs from the new album, and a medley of Just My Imagination (the old Temptations song, as covered by the Stones on Some Girls) and You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

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