Artists: Michael Monroe / CJ Wildheart
Venue: London: Electric Ballroom
Date: 27 November 2024
"It’s wonderful when a gig lifts you up, especially when so much is going on in the UK, and the world is less than thrilling to say the least."
CJ Wildheart opened with his own band, following the split of the classic line up of The Wildhearts. It’s Punky, trashy Rock ‘n’ Roll made up of his solo material, and a handful of Wildhearts and Honeycrack songs. He is an engaging frontman, telling jokes e.g. about being a rent boy in the eighties in London and about his hot sauce making one attractive to animals. He interacts with the crowd, admiring someone’s Stetson saying he liked it, but “Us Indians don’t wear Stetsons, we’re not cowboys”. He pays tribute to Michael Monroe for being so lively; “I’ve been in bands with people the same age as Mike and they are literally fucked”, then constantly demonstrated how fit he is by jumping head height at the end of a number of the songs. Before a recent single ‘The Baddest Girl In The World’ he shouts “Did someone say me? Oh there are four of you, so all four of my ex-wives are here tonight.” And some male wag shouted “And ME!” CJ invited fans to view his “only fans page” in response. When he was checking out lyrics and a member of his band jumped in to address the crowd, he joked “I get him to cover when I check out the lyrics. Shirley Bassey taught me that one.” He invites fans to the merch desk; “I’m the friendly one from The Wildhearts”, and he really goes there and stands there chatting to fans.
It’s exciting for fans to hear so many Hanoi Rocks tracks and, having been promised the whole of the ‘Two Steps From The Move’ album, there is anticipation in the air and the event is sold out. Michael Monroe always delivers, and the first part of the gig is exactly that, all the tracks from that album in order, starting with the single, the Creedence Clearwater Revival cover ‘Up Around The Bend’. Its joyful “Do Do Do Ah!’ chorus lines are ideal for the audience to join in on and instantly raised the mood! It was amazing to hear songs that Monroe never plays in the shape of the deep cuts on this record. I enjoyed realising during high speed Punky numbers ‘High School’ and ‘I Can’t Get It’ that I listened to this album so much as a kid that all the lyrics including the verses are all still burned in my brain. Three tracks in and he has already finished a song with the splits!
‘Underwater World’ is more smoochy and an opportunity for Monroe in a white naval cap to crack out the saxophone for rich solos of bubbling notes, adding a touch of class to proceedings. Back to the more commonly played and well loved classic ‘Don’t You Ever Leave Me’, Monroe dons a diamanté enhanced New York Policemen’s cap and plays the harmonica for the emphatic melody between the words. Rich Jones stands in for Razzle (R.I.P.) and his English spoken words. They finish the first side of the album with ‘Million Miles Away’, another chance for a couple of sax solos, and Monroe and guitarist Steve Conte both end up on their knees at the end. Monroe stops to say “I guess we are on Side B now.. Flippin out and flippin over”.
We go into the high energy ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’. Monroe gets on the barrier, while Sami Yaffa on bass starting high kicking away. Monroe starts hopping forward on one leg in a gesture reminding us all of the absent Andy McCoy. ‘Me Boiler And Me’ is a very cockney song, reflecting the fact that the band spent a lot of time in London in the eighties before they went to New York. The very much lesser known ‘Futurama’ and ‘Cutting Corners’ finish off the record. Monroe finishes with the splits again. He jumps up to inform the crowd that there will be an interval of about fifteen minutes.
When the band come back on it’s to go right up to date with recent single ‘I Live Too Fast To Die Young’. Monroe got back on the barrier to ramp the energy back up again. He points the mike stand like a rifle at individual members of the crowds to rivet their attention. ‘Murder The Summer Of Love’, about an incident at a Rolling Stones concert in the USA, is reflected by the red and white Rolling Stones trainers worn tonight by Monroe instead of his usual Chelsea boots. When Michael gets tangled up in his mike lead he gets free to meet the crowd with eye contact and arms up gesture to end, never missing a beat. ‘Old Kent Road’ and ‘Young Drunks And Old Alcoholics’ continue the raucous Punky vibe with Yaffa shaking his fist and turning his bass verticle. Monroe is swirling round his mike like a lassoo. Conte provides the Rock ‘n’ Roll guitar.
“Good times!”, Monroe exclaims as they run into another recent single, ‘Last Train To Tokyo’. The band have always had a close relationship with Japan. Tonight they had an oriental looking tiger and roses tattoo on the amps and Monroe was throwing out all red and all white fans stamped with Japanese symbols and signed with his trademark star signature. The crowd snapped them up as soon as they land. It’s a little slower paced and Monroe sat down on the edge of the stage to better see and address the crowd. He jumped up again for the high energy ‘78’, during which he climbed on the scaffolding at the side of the stage up to where the banners for the venue are displayed. At the end he had to wipe his hands, explaining that the bars were filthy. “Clean this F’n place man! I’m glad I don’t live here!”. The security guards just watched him go, looking on. They looked a little surprised at the lyrics of ‘Ballad Of The Lower East Side’ (which is not a ballad of course) when they heard “There were junkies, pimps and whores” and the whole crowd sang “Halleluyah!”.
‘Motorvatin’ is the sign that we were moving into the final phase and we got a deep bass intro from Yaffa, before the first of a couple more Hanoi Rocks tracks and Demolition 23 tracks interlaced. He did the Can Can with a series of high kicks with Monroe who finished by jumping off the monitor. ‘Hammersmith Palais’ (including a short “England’s Dreaming” reference to the Sex Pistols) is the cue for a jump from the drum riser and more splits. The party track ‘Malibu Beach’ rounded out the main set where the whole band kicked high with the grace of a ballet dancer. It’s a chance for rhythmic clapping from the audience and another trademark sax solo. Monroe beat his mike stand on the ground repeatedly before jumping on the drum riser and balancing high on one leg.
After a noisy encore demand from the crowd the band come back for ‘Nothing’s Alright’ and its crowd bonding “Hey” lines punctuating the whole song. The final song is the most famous solo song, ‘Dead, Jail, Or Rock ‘n’ Roll’. Monroe put out his mike stand for the crowd to sing and got on the barrier to get the mike even closer to them, doing a corking harmonica solo. More splits and an explosion of silver stars and red hearts ensued. They promise that they will see the audience again soon, before everyone filed out to an acoustic recording of ‘Hammersmith Palais’.
The merch queue is massive. The crowd are pumped and enthusiastic to buy after a really great gig. There’s special merch to commemorate that this is the 40th anniversary of ‘Two Steps From The Move’ and it tells you a lot about Monroe’s audience that all the smalls are sold out! The merch is beautifully designed in-house by Rich Jones, but style has always mattered to the most stylish of front men and it’s great to see this attention to detail filter down to the last detail. It’s wonderful when a gig lifts you up, especially when so much is going on in the UK, and the world is less than thrilling to say the least. Yes, see you soon, my dears, we’ll all be there no matter what.
Review & Photos: Dawn Osborne
Gallery: All photos © Dawn Osborne (used with kind permission)
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