In no way is this any disrespect to the venue of The Prince Bandroom, but driving home post gig, I couldn’t help but shake my head and wonder to myself, did I just catch The Quireboys and Palace Of The King at THAT venue? I mean seriously, that’s why I love living here in Melbourne and Australia, here we had two absolutely world class quality rock bands, playing to a smallish but hardcore group of fans, in an intimate room. Whilst we’ve had a few larger tours recently capitulate before and during their time in Australia, hats off to the promoter of this tour for making no doubt a lot of people’s rock n’ roll dreams come true this evening by bringing The Quireboys to Australia.
Melbourne’s Palace Of The King put on a set of sheer musical quality and riffs! Hitting us with some of their older songs such as the blistering Take Your Medicine, the rollocking good times of One Of These Days, whilst No Chance In Hell was cleverly morphed into a good dose of Ted Nugent’s Stranglehold. We were also treated to some tasty sounding new tracks. Being a band that are no strangers to hitting stages Australia (+ worldwide) and with new music on the way, really hope they’ve’ gained some more members of the Palace on this tour as we need bands such as Palace Of The King to keep up the good fight for rock n’ roll in this country!
A wry smile filled my “face” as English legends The Quireboys took to the stage with the Faces Stay With Me blasting as the intro music. Growing up in a household that loved Rod Stewart, on many a family road-trip I managed to sneak The Quireboys into the cassette deck with a selling point of “Mum, you’ll love them, they sound just like Rod Stewart”.
Picking up on my earlier point, this was a bucket list gig for me, a band I never thought I’d get to see playing in my hometown. In a career spanning the best part of 40 years, here’s a band that has played Monsters of Rock at Donnington in 1990 to a crowd of 70,000 people, supported The Rolling Stones, toured Europe with Guns N Roses on their Use Your Illusion Tour, over 10 brilliant studio albums, live albums and essentially a lifetime commitment to rock n’ roll with their touring work ethic.
Tonight was a set that pretty much delivered everything from “a bit of what you fancy”, through to some “white trash blues” and a whole lot of good times. I Love This Dirty Town opened the set and with less than 24 hours in Melbourne, I see they’ve picked up on the St Kilda vibes! Being the road warriors that they are, the band were on point from the get go – a stage presence that would have commanded a much larger room, but for tonight, the crowd gave back as much as they got.
Spike being the ringleader of raucous good times, the A Bit Of What You Fancy album was well represented tonight and good lord, is that man’s voice one of the best rock n’ roll voices you’ll hear? As for the band, well they are no slouches either, including Guy Griffin, Paul Guerin & Keith Weir who also double up as the Down N Outz with Joe Elliot from Def Leppard.
Mona Lisa Smiled was a brilliant inclusion, one of my personal favourite songs and returning for an encore kicking off with a stunning version of I Don’t Love You Anymore and ending with Sex Party, it was as though the band were just kicking in.
This is a gig that will stick out as one of the best in 2020, no doubt – a stellar night of good times, great songs, delivered by some of the finest rock n’ roll musicians in the business!
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Scott Smith: Rock Lives Here
