|
Tonight was the first night of Gilbert's 2008 Japanese Tour. The tour covers five nights in three cities; Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka with Gilbert playing two shows per night. Tonight's venue in Fukuoka used to be the Blue Note club but has recently celebrated it's first anniversary as the Billboard Live club. The club is small in size with a capacity of maybe 150. Although the club is small in size, the sound system is excellent, the staff are very friendly and most efficient with special mention to Hiroko, Ken and Keyoko. The patrons are seated at tables, some of which are within touching distance of the stage and they can enjoy dinner and drinks before the show.
Most of Gilbert's tour party travelled from London to Japan on Sunday arriving on Monday afternoon to be greeted by a torrential down pouring of rain accompanied by thunder and lightning, aptly enough, as we drove from the airport to the hotel.
Both Bill and Nick followed on having played a late night gig with Mary Black in France on Sunday night. Their journey to Japan started on Monday and they arrived literally an hour before the sound check having had little or no sleep for two days. Their tiredness didn't show as they played two great shows.
In the absence of the regular backing singers, the task of backing vocals fell to the band. Because of the early start of the first show [6.30pm] there was limited time available to rehearse the songs. That was no problem to these guys who are all experienced musicians and they handled the task admirably.
It was my great pleasure to meet two guys I feel I know so well through emails: Isao Hirami and Yasuhiko Okada. Both are dedicated Gilbert fans. In fact Isao hopes to write a book about Gilbert at some stage and Yasuhiko has a fansite dedicated to both Gilbert and his other favourite singer Billy Joel. I'll be seeing a lot more of these guys as they are going to all ten Japanese show.
YASUHINKO & ISAO
Because the shows are about 65 minutes long, Gilbert didn't spend as much time talking as he normally would. Instead he crammed in as many songs as he could.
For the purpose of this report the musicians on stage were: Gilbert: Keyboard [Roland RD 1000] Band: Martin Ditcham [drums + percussion], Bill Shanley [guitars] and Nick Scott [bass]. Julian Webster Greaves: Saxophone, Flute & Harmonica Mick Parker: Keyboards [Yahama DX7 & Roland JX-8P] & Accordion
6.30pm SHOW STICK IN THE MUD - [From the album "FROBISHER DRIVE / IN THE KEY OF G"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill & Mick]
CAN'T GET YOU TO LOVE ME - [From the album "A STRANGER IN MY OWN BACK YARD"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Mick]
MAKE MY DAY - [From the album "PIANO FOREPLAY"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Mick] Gilbert greeted the audience in Japanese. A fan shouted "Welcome to Fukuoka". Gilbert replied "It's good to be back" and commenting on the weather added " It's hot, weather for shorts and a t-shirt".
NOTHING RHYMED - [From the album "HIMSELF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Julian [Flute]
A PROPER FOOL - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard] + Backing Vocals: Bill & Julian This song is normally played with a string quartet but in their absence, Mick filled in.
MY PLACE OR YOURS - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard]
NO MATTER HOW I TRY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] This song had the usual live long intro and afterwards while taking a drinking from a glass of water, Gilbert jokingly assured the audience that it wasn't saki.
WHY, OH WHY, OH WHY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Backing Vocals [Bill & Julian]
A FRIEND OF MINE - [From the album "I'M A WRITER, NOT A FIGHTER"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Tambourine] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Mick]
CLAIR - [From the album "BACK TO FRONT"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Harmonica] + Band
HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU GOT - [From the album "BY LARRY / THE LITTLE ALBUM"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard & Accordion] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Nick] During the recent tours there were two solos in this song with Mick playing the first one on the accordion and the string quartet playing the second one. In their absence Bill played a country style solo on guitar.
OOH-WAKKA-DOO-WAKKA-DAY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute]
HAPPINESS IS ME AND YOU - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Vocal] + Bill [Spanish Acoustic Guitar] + Julian [Flute] + Martin [Percussion]
GOODBYE - [From the album "IRLISH"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Mick]
ENCORE ALONE AGAIN (NATURALLY) - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + [Keyboard]
GET DOWN - [From the album "I'M A WRITER NOT A FIGHTER"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard]+ Julian [Tambourine] + Backing Vocals [All]
9.30pm SHOW STICK IN THE MUD - [From the album "FROBISHER DRIVE / IN THE KEY OF G"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill & Mick]
CAN'T GET YOU TO LOVE ME - [From the album "A STRANGER IN MY OWN BACK YARD"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Mick]
MAKE MY DAY - [From the album "PIANO FOREPLAY"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band+ Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Mick]
NOTHING RHYMED - [From the album "HIMSELF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Julian [Flute]
A PROPER FOOL - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard] + Backing Vocals: Bill & Julian In a change from the first show play list, Gilbert mentioned the torrential rain which greeted our arrival in Japan and added that he had a song about the weather, which led into Thunder and Lightning.
THUNDER AND LIGHTNING - [From the album "HIMSELF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian, Nick & Mick]
NO MATTER HOW I TRY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard]
WHY, OH WHY, OH WHY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Nick & Julian]
A FRIEND OF MINE - [From the album "I'M A WRITER, NOT A FIGHTER"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Tambourine] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian, Nick & Mick]
CLAIR - [From the album "BACK TO FRONT"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Harmonica] + Band
JULIAN & BILL
FOREVER WONDERING - [From the album "FROBISHER DRIVE / IN THE KEY OF G"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + String Quartet + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Saxophone] + Backing Vocals [Bill & Julian] Gilbert decided to play this song completely out of the blue. It wasn't on the original set list and hadn't been rehearsed. Considering this, the backing vocals were very good.
I'M IN LOVE WITH LOVE AGAIN - [From the album "A SCRUFF AT HEART"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard]
HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU GOT - [From the album "BY LARRY / THE LITTLE ALBUM"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard & Accordion] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Nick] Two great solos in this song and afterwards Gilbert spotlighted both Bill and Mick.
OOH-WAKKA-DOO-WAKKA-DAY - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute] + Backing Vocals [Bill, Julian & Nick] In the earlier show tonight there were no backing vocals required on this song. Therefore Julian, Bill and Nick took a step back and relaxed thinking they weren't needed. But when it came to the title line of the song, Gilbert turned to both Julian and Bill looking for them to respond. They hurriedly stepped forward to sing much to the crowd's amusement.
SAY GOODBYE - [From the album "IRLISH"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard] + Julian [Flute] + Backing Vocals [All] The band clapped their hands and encouraged the crowd to join in. Martin played an extended drum intro into the song.
ENCORE ALONE AGAIN (NATURALLY) - [From the album "THE BERRY VEST OF"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + [Keyboard]
GET DOWN - [From the album "I'M A WRITER NOT A FIGHTER"] Gilbert [Keyboard] + Band + Mick [Keyboard]+ Julian [Tambourine] + Backing Vocals [All] The crowd clapped for a long time after Gilbert had left the stage hoping that he would reappear once again but it wasn't to be.
STATS Gilbert played and sang 33 [16/17] songs tonight representing material from 10 different albums. The breakdown was as follows:
|
