First up, Thunder were much better than I'd expected. I'd seen them many moons ago at Castle Donington, but couldn't really remember much about them. Thus, it was a pleasant surprise that I recognised and liked several of their tracks such as 'Dirty Love'; 'Backstreet Symphony'; and 'Love Walked In':
Was really impressed with vocalist Danny Bowes' powerful voice and good warm rapport with the crowd.
Next up, Whitesnake were the real surprise of the night. What do I mean by this? Well, I was blessed with having seen the early bluesy Whitesnake at Castle Donington in 1981 and Manchester Apollo on New Year's Day (or therebabouts) in 1983, but hadn't thought that much of them when seeing David Coverdale and the young American lads on stage at Warsaw Stodoła about 5-6 years ago.
However, last week at Manchester Arena, Coverdale and the rest of the band (including the legendary Tommy Aldridge) were well and truly inspired going through several of the old classics like 'Ready and Willing'; 'Don't Break My Heart Again' (my favourite Whitesnake tune); 'Here I Go Again'; and 'Fool For Your Loving' (when Bernie Marsden was brought on stage for the 35th Whitesnake anniversary festivities). Of course, they also did later stuff like 'Is This Love' and 'Still of the Night'. However, the real standout tune of the night was the far more recent 'Forevermore', as it was simply sublime, I loved it:
Besides the above, David Coverdale was his usual loveable self, mixing up liberal use of the F-word with some wonderful prosaic statements in his best received pronunciation (e.g. 'Is that vampire's blood in your glass?'). Yeah, Coverdale is still a wonderful character.
Last band up, Journey, these were the band I'd mainly come to see, as I'd always liked them over the years, but had somehow never found myself in a position to see them. However, from the outset, it seemed that Arnel Pineda may've been struggling to reach the high pitch needed for faster numbers like 'Separate Ways' which they came on with:
I like Arnel as, for me, he can reach let's say 90% of Steve Perry's high pitch notes, but it's been suggested that too much touring is putting a real strain on his voice, which I think may well be the case judging from the above. Still, if Arnel has been struggling a bit with his voice, full credit to him and the band for going through with the Manchester show and tour, which allowed me to see Journey for the first time (this contrasts well with ZZ Top who've just cancelled playing at the Ursynalia Student Festival in Warsaw, and, as a result, they've well and truly pissed lots of people off in Warsaw, but that's another story).
Despite the above, Arnel sang the classic ballads 'Open Arms' and 'Faithfully' perfectly, and everybody was going to love 'Don't Stop Believin' no matter how it was sung:
What is it about this song? Well, it just seems to strike a profound emotional chord with everybody, encouraging people to go out and live life to the full.
As always, thanks a million to the good people who put their videos on Youtube, allowing all of us to remember and value our great concert experiences.
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