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Friday 11th September
Last night I went back to the Beaverwood Club, just down the road in Chislehurst, to sink some beers and enjoy one of my favourite bands. I’ve seen Stray many, many times down the years – the first would, I think, have been opening for Saga at the Lyceum in 1983 - and they can always be relied upon to put on a good show. When I say ‘they’, of course I mean guitarist/vocalist Del Bromham, the band’s mainstay and driving force (which is not intended to demean the significant contributions of bassist Stuart Uren and drummer Karl Randall). Earlier this year Stray released an excellent Chris Tsangarides (Gary Moore/Y&T/Thin Lizzy, etc)-produced album called ‘Valhalla’. I was pleased that they included several of its selections during the show, notably the superb ‘1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’ and ‘Move A Mountain’, which closes with a bit of a ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’-style thrashalong when performed live.
Bromham is a great old school entertainer, full of comic one-liners and self-mocking wit. When his guitar drops out of the mix he announces in a music hall-esque style manner: “Ooooh, a slight technical problem there – me knob fell out, isn’t it shocking when that happens?” The band doesn’t use a set-list, relying on Bromham to shout out the tunes, which I’m happy to say included ‘Jericho’ (from 1971’s ‘Suicide’ album) and even ‘Come On Over’ (which first appeared on ‘Mudanzas’ in 1973 but will be known to some for the fact that Steve Harris’ daughter, Lauren, recorded it on her own album ‘Calm Before The Storm’). Someday I’d really like to see them do ‘Son Of The Father’, the opening track from ‘Suicide’, but last night’s performance nevertheless offered a very decent mixture of old and new. Here’s the set-list: ‘Houdini’, ‘Time Machine’, ‘Jericho’, ‘Move A Mountain’, ‘Skin’, ‘After The Storm’, ‘1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’, ‘Free At Last’, ‘Harry Farr’, ‘I Believe It’, ‘Come On Over’, ‘Buying Time’, ‘Suicide’ and ‘All In Your Mind’.
8:19 AM
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