It is not often that Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers find their way to our shores but in 2012, we are in luck.
On a European tour which takes in various festivals including this weekend’s bash on the Isle of Wight, tonight at the Royal Albert Hall in
Tickets as you can imagine were like gold dust. Most were sold through fan club sales. I managed to get some tickets in the Gods of the Choir, right up in the crows nest which, actually turned out to be a very good vantage point.
We were really able to get the feel of what it is like to be on stage; see the pedals, the auto-cue, see Steve Ferrone (drummer) in action from overhead and get a view of all the back stage activity. It really was a different dynamic and one I would recommend you experience sometime at this venue.
The band was excited to be playing The Royal Albert Hall. They were well aware that people were all around them, involving every section of the crowd throughout the show and creating an intimate atmosphere.
A two-hour set was thirty minutes in before the band played a ‘non hit’, the blues work-out, ‘Good Enough’ from Mojo followed by a maracas shaking Tom on (Peter Green era) Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’. The band also delved into the vaults for ‘Something Big from Hard Promises. Before all that we had ‘Listen to Her Heart’, ‘You Wreck Me’, ‘I Won't Back Down’, a superb, ‘Here Comes My Girl’ and the Willbury’s ‘Handle with Care’.
The back catalogue is so vast that well known songs were never far away, ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’,’ Free Fallin’ then, an extended ‘It’s Good To Be King’ from Wallflowers which really showed the band at their technical best.
An acoustic guitar segment included a crowd sing-a-long on ‘Learning to Fly’. The final twenty five minutes passed by in flash and then the night was done. Many happy faces drifted out into the dark; let’s hope we can get the guys over a few more time in the next twenty years!
Jonathan Wilson & band commendably supported with a nice West Coast set earlier in the evening. They play The Lexington on 18th July and are well worth checking out.
Set List
You Wreck Me
I Won't Back Down
Here Comes My Girl
Handle with Care (Travelling Wilburys)
Good Enough
Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac)
Something Big
Don't Come Around Here No More
Free Fallin'
It's Good To Be King
Something Good Coming
Learning to Fly
Yer So Bad
I Should Have Known It
Refugee
Runnin' Down a Dream Play
Encore:
Mary Jane's Last Dance
American Girl