G M T Official Forum

Anybody else coming along this Saturday the 29th to Bedford? Apart from me, Ace and Brainiac?
The more the merrier! Bring your friends and relatives it is bound to be a great gig!
Two local suport bands are up first then our band, see you there down the front.
Don't forget to buy t-shirts and help the crew in with their gear and buy them Guiness!

Another ROCKING night this time in Bedford at Esquires, the set list was:
Wild West, Star, Ball & Chain, Cannonball, Down to Here, Can't Beat Rock n Roll, Rocky Road, Longer than Tomorrow, Bitter & Twisted, No Justice, Summerland, New Orleans, Smoke on The Water and Fire as the encore.
Good to see everyone there Rob, Lisa, Jerry, Jerry, Alan, Matt and the usual crowd.

Nice!

Great to see you redial and ace at the bedford gig, I'm looking forward to the next one. A great night was had by all.

We had a blast, look forward to seeing your pictures and welcome to the forum.

Expect a review later today.....best I have seen them, even if I was at the back this time!!(All will become clearer later)

September 29th......and a cracking little venue called Esquires that was once a Methodist Church. Tour manager Rob roped me into busting a gut by carrying the equipment up to the stage and between us, we worked out where to put McCoys huge bass cabs with the help of a couple of housebricks!!
Rob is the epitome of a Road Manager, always helpful and courteous and its always good to see him again.
With the new GMT backdrop comes a new (to me anyway) intro tape consisting of Big Bens chimes and the BBC pips on the world service.......band hits the stage and a quick warm up while the in-house light technician fiddles with the lighting and we're off to the unforgettable opener of Wild West. Unfortunately, the low ceiling behind Robin means he is limited in twirling his drumsticks as outrageously as normal. Bernies guitar hero poses go down well with the camera phone users in the crowd especially the intro to the next song, Star which showcase his tapping technique which is a perfect foil to McCoys and Guys thundering bass and drums.
Ball and Chain is next up with the Bernie duck walk along the all-too-small stage before GMT's first offering from the album, Cannonball which gives McCoy and Guy a free license to do their own thing as opposed to copying someone elses work in the previous songs in the set. Robin cranks the drumming a few notches louder and John nodding furiously which always makes me wonder how his sunglasses stay on!!
Calm before the storm for stratocaster purists when Bernie starts with an extended intro to Down To Here which climaxes into a wall of sound of strat screaming that only Bernie Torme can do so effortlessly.....certainly left me breathless!!
You Can't Beat Rock n Roll from the album gets the usual works from the lads as the lighting technician is earning his wages for the night trying to keep up. We get a clap-along intro to Rocky Road From Dublin with the unforgetable Pogues sound which has newer fans tapping their feet.
The awesome Longer Than Tomorrow is next up which builds into pure thunder from the rhythm section of Big John and Robin........an excellent offering!
Bitter and Twisted is showcased but without the usual 'He's Bitter and I'm Twisted.....and he's the drummer' line, but we do get Bernie playing the guitar behind his head.....you have to be a bit good to pull that off, Bernie takes it in his stride so casually.
A bit of crowd banter and Jerry getting No Justice dedicated to him which I'm sure he appreciated. John McCoy gets to do a spot now and we get a thoughtful and provoking bass solo which starts us into Summerland.....thankfully no dreaded disposable cigerette lighters are held aloft!! Bernie launches into another lesson of stratocaster mastery before he needs to get his breath back while Robin Guy shows us a thing or three about powerhouse drumming and we get a slice of the Gillan favourite, New Orleans and McCoy reveals the mammoth bass guitar. Whilst the song is well recieved, I personally wish it was dropped for another cover or a Gillan song like No Easy Way, but thats only my opinion.
Bernie has a chat to the crowd and the Sid Worth Memorial Trust gets his thumbs up which I'm sure many of Sids friends and acquaintances appreciated. We then get a taste of Bernie magic with a blinding solo which included windmill slashing strumming and power chords Pete Townsend would be envious of and we even get Bernie playing with his teeth....and I KNOW that hurts!! Brilliant!!
Some idiot shouts 'Are you taking the piss?' before Bernie cuts him dead with the Smoke On The Water intro which always goes down a storm wherever its played...although after all the times he's played it, Bernie forgot the last verse!! TRUE....luckily, we all know it as well and helped the fella out on vocals!
A short break and for an encore McCoy sported the legendary dulux jacket from his Gillan days and said he 'was wearing it for Ace' which made me feel ten feet tall........its a bit of banter I've had for a while regarding the jacket. Certainly made my day! the band then launched into the Hendrix classic, Fire.
The show was excellent, they get better everytime I see them.
Helped the lads pack up and lug the equipment downstairs before the long drive back to Nuneaton.
Support band HekXs were okay but 2nd support, Fifth Quarter were excellent, the young guitarist, Ben Poole, was brilliant, its not often I sit up and take notice of a 19 year old lad playing guitar, but Ben certainly made me look twice. Watch out for him, I think he is very promising.
Great to see the usual crowd of Redial, Lisa and Matt and some new faces, and a special thanks to Caroline on the soundboard for her help and guidance

Excellent write up, cheers for that Ace. Certainly took me back in time to last Saturday. You should send that in to Classic Rock, seriously!
See you at the next one?

Great review Ace, thank you.

Please do post whatever I have written here on your site as well.....met some great people there on the day, you did Sid proud