Deep Purple (plus Europe), Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, 20/11/17

It's been titled the 'Long Goodbye Tour' and, who knows, with band members now in their 70s (as opposed to being 70s rock stars) then I guess it could be the last time, certainly in Wales. That said there was a great turnout at the Motorpoint Arena for this show and the bands didn't disappoint.

Europe

Europe made their millions from 'that' song in 1986, so they can't grumble that that's what most people know them for. But there is so much more to them than that and are a full on, functioning, 21st century rock band. Hard and soft, light and shade, great sound but heavy all the same, they never disappoint and will be back in Cardiff in May 2018 with their own headline show.

Europe, as good as ever

Deep Purple

And so to the main men, it'll be 50 years soon since they first formed in 1968. Of course, Blackmore is long off the scene and Jon Lord is sadly no longer with us, but the spirit of Purple is very much alive with Gillan, Glover, Paice, Airey and Morse.

Supern musicianship, pure craft and delivered at a volume and with power that few still can match.

What a band!

Set list

Time for Bedlam

Fireball

Bloodsucker

All I Got Is You

Uncommon Man

The Surprising

Lazy

Birds of Prey

Knocking at Your Back Door

Keyboard Solo

Perfect Strangers

Space Truckin’

Smoke on the Water

Hush 

Black Night

Purple, likewise

Paicey on the big screen

Ian Gillan, in good voice at 72

Metallica, Manchester Arena, 28/10/17

It's been a long time since I last saw Metallica, 28th September 1988 to be exact, but it didn't seem like 29 years as the biggest and best of the big 4 of thrash metal brought their Worldwired tour to the UK.

 

Unsurprisingly, security was tight in Manchester, as over 20,000 fans filed patiently through the scanners and body searches, as it was barely 4 months since the terrible events at the Arena.

 

A great arena though, huge but with great seats and fabulous sound. What a band!

 

Setlist

1. Hardwired
2. Atlas, Rise!
3. Seek and Destroy
4. Of Wolf and Man
5. The Day That Never Comes
6. Now That We're Dead
7. ManUNkind
8. For Whom the Bell Tolls
9. Halo On Fire
10. Stone Cold Crazy
11. Creeping Death
12. Moth Into Flame
13. Sad But True
14. One
15. Master of Puppets

Encore

1. Spit Out The Bone
2. Nothing Else Matters
3. Enter Sandman

 

Kirk, James and Lars

 

and all 4 members

 



 

Thank you Manchester!

Ebbw Vale v Newport, Premiership East, 16/09/17

Another disappointing home defeat for Ebbw against long time rivals Newport.

The home side are just not at the races yet. Team and scorers here

Ebbw Vale 6 Pontypridd 17 Premiership East, 01/09/17

Ebbw Vale fell to defeat in the opening game in the Premiership on a fine September evening at Eugene Cross Park.

Despite plenty of effort, two simple pass and move efforts from Ponty proved the difference.

Match ball sponsors Eye For Finance.

Glamorgan v Sussex, County Championship Division 2, Colwyn Bay, 28-30/08/17

Always nice to spend some time in North Wales in August, and, despite a great effort, a largely experimental Glamorgan side went down to one wicket defeat against Sussex.

Scorecard and reports here.

Benalmadena, Malaga etc, August 2017

A few pics from summer holiday at the Hotel Riviera, Benalmadena, Malaga, Andalucia.

Benalmadena Pueblo

Hotel Riviera at dusk

Torremolinos (1)

Torremolinos (2)

Railway station

La Feria, Malaga

Malaga harbour

Malaga bullring

Malaga city (1)

Malaga city (2)

Malaga city (3)

Benalmadena Costa at night

Hotel Riviera at night

Parque in Benalmadena

The view from the hotel terrace

Glamorgan v Hampshire, T20, Cardiff, 07/07/17

Glamorgan's T20 Blast campaign starting in a rather feeble fashion as they suffered a 22 run defeat to Hampshire.

Batting first, the South Coast visitors posted an impressive 167/5 off their 20 overs, probably a little above par on a slow pitch. Lewis McManus top scored with an impressive 59 of 35 balls.

In reply, Glamorgan never really got going, and it was only a 28 ball half century from Graeme Wagg that gave the final total respectability.

Scorecard and report.

A nice day, but cool evening

Glamorgan's star batsman Colin Ingram

The much traveled Shahid 'Boom Boom' Afridi took 4 wickets for 20 runs