Lynyrd Skynyrd - Birmingham Review

There are few bands that personify the southern rock genre more than Florida's Lynyrd Skynyrd. While there are many great bands, old and new, that play the country and blues-infused brand of boogie rock 'n' roll - Lynyrd Skynyrd are arguably the band that made the genre what it is today, and have amassed a long discography since their 1973 debut album which is packed full of classic songs. The five years between 1973 and 1977 (inclusive) was the band's heyday, and saw them release an album a year - all five of which are excellent and helped to make Lynyrd Skynyrd one of the best rock bands of the decade. Three days after the release of Street Survivors in 1977 however, the band's touring plane crashed - tragically killing two band members, one of their touring backing vocalists, and some of their crew and management. This horrific story is well-known, so does not need to be retold here, but it is safe to say that the event is one of the saddest occurrences in the history of rock music. Lynyrd Skynyrd went away for ten years, with the surviving members forming other bands, but in 1987 the band reformed for a tribute tour. I imagine the tour was intended to be a one-off, but 32 years later the band are still on the road! Gary Rossington (guitar) is the only original member left in the band now, with nearly all of the various members of the 1973-1977 line-ups now also sadly dead, but the current incarnation of Lynyrd Skynyrd is a powerful and well-oiled machine. The band's current nine-piece configuration has been touring since 2017 with the arrival of Keith Christopher (bass guitar), but many members of the current line-up have been a part of the Lynyrd Skynyrd story for a good number of years now. Frontman Johnny Van Zant, brother of the band's late original singer Ronnie, has been with the band since the 1987 reunion tour, and Rickey Medlocke (vocals/guitar) - a southern rock legend in his own right due to leading the band Blackfoot to lots of success during the 1970s and 1980s - has been handling much of the lead guitar since 1996. Rossington, Van Zant, and Medlocke have been leading Lynyrd Skynyrd for well over twenty years now; and it is their musicianship and charisma that has been a big factor in keeping the band going. It does seem that the band's time is coming to a close however, as the band's current lengthy world tour dubbed, appropriately, Last of the Street Survivors is supposedly their last major world trek. Whether this tour is indeed to be the end of the band or not remains to be seen - but I knew that I had to make the effort to get to a show. A show at the Resorts World Arena, at Birmingham's NEC complex, was the most viable option, so tickets were purchased as soon as they went on sale. While the band did not fill the large arena, as the back portion was curtained off, they still attracted a big crowd - which justified the choice of venue. The venue opened its doors at 5:30pm, and the opening band took to the stage at 7pm on the dot, which meant that a good portion of the large crowd was in situ by the time the music started.

Opening the show were the British rockers Massive Wagons, a band I had heard good things about but had never had the chance to properly check out. Despite only having the half an hour to play with, the Lancashire-based band set about winning the growing crowd around with their spicy brand of fast-paced rock 'n' roll that owed quite a lot of the harder end of Slade's sound. This was both a blessing and a curse; as on one hand the band's in-your-face hard rock style certainly whipped up some energy early on in the evening. The band treated it as their own show, with frontman Baz Mills racing around the stage to belt out the lyrics with glee. The flip side of this however was the fact that  all of the songs started to meld into one towards the end of the set - as there was very little variation to help set them apart. Bands of a similar style often suffer from this for me, and it is something that will probably stop me from fully enjoying Massive Wagons going forward. Their energy was undeniable however, and for a support band at an arena show they managed to elicit a pretty strong reaction from the crowd. Massive Wagons are a band that are starting to make a name for themselves, so I imagine it will not be long before they are headlining decent-sized tours in their own right. They are probably not a band that I will ever truly love, but I am glad that I have finally been able to see what all the fuss is about.

Filling the hour-long special guest slot were the legendary British rockers Status Quo - a band who are arguably bigger than Lynyrd Skynyrd here in the UK. I imagine that the Quo were added to the bill to help shift tickets in the larger venues, but whatever the reason for their inclusion I was not going to complain at another opportunity to see them. Considering that the band were allegedly putting down their electric guitars to focus on acoustic shows after their 2016/2017 tours (where I saw the band in Birmingham in the December of 2016), Status Quo were sounding as vital and bouncing as ever - and with a new album Backbone due out in a few months time, the band do not seem to be slowing down just yet. With only an hour on stage, the band ran through a set that largely consisted of some of their greatest hits - but threw in a couple of the new numbers to keep things interesting. The band's ever-present set-opener Caroline got things underway, before Francis Rossi (vocals/guitar) and John 'Rhino' Edwards (vocals/bass guitar) shared the vocals on the old Richard Supa tune Something 'bout You Baby I Like. In many ways, the band's set was similar to that of the 2016 show that I saw, with a big medley of early hits coming early on - but there was a change following this in the form of Mystery Song, sung passionately by new boy Richie Malone (vocals/guitar) in place of the late Rick Parfitt. I enjoyed the inclusion of the new tracks in the set, and both of them sounded very strong. Cut Me Some Slack in particular sounded like a future Quo classic, with Rossi's London-accented vocals sounding as strong as ever. The band's last couple of albums have been bloated and unmemorable in my opinion, so it is great to hear the latest incarnation of the band sounding something like their best again. I am looking forward to Backbone's release, and on the strength of Cut Me Some Slack and Liberty Lane it will be an enjoyable listen. By this point the set only had five more songs left, but they were all classics that got the crowd out of their seats. Their cover of In the Army Now prompted a bit of a sing-a-long, before four boogie classics saw the set come to a triumphant close. The band's only number 1 single Down Down whipped up a real storm, with Rossi showing off his bluesy guitar skills, before the somewhat more commercial Whatever You Want was led by Andy Bown (vocals/guitar/keyboards/harmonica) - who seemed to relish singing a song that he co-wrote with Parfitt. Bown then sat down at the piano to tinkled out the opening melody to Rockin' All Over the World - which was Quo's last hurrah on stage. It also got everyone in the venue singing along, and the cheer that run out around the Resorts World Arena as the band left the stage was a huge one. The setlist was:

Caroline
Something 'bout You Baby I Like [Richard Supa cover]
Rain
What You're Proposing/Down the Dustpipe/Wild Side of Life [Hank Thompson cover]/Railroad/Again and Again
Mystery Song
The Oriental
Cut Me Some Slack
Liberty Lane
In the Army Now [Bolland & Bolland cover]
Roll Over Lay Down
Down Down
Whatever You Want
Rockin' All Over the World [John Fogerty cover]

Some bands would have had trouble following such a high-energy set from Status Quo, but Lynyrd Skynyrd were clearly up for the challenge at hit the stage at just after 9:15pm with the tough main riff of Workin' for MCA - which certainly set the tone for the rest of the evening. For a band of Lynyrd Skynyrd's set-up - three guitars and a set of keyboards - the mix needs to be right and thankfully everything sounded great from the off. Peter 'Keys' Pisarczyk's piano had just the right amount of presence, with Rossington, Medlocke, and Mark 'Sparky' Matejka's (guitar/vocals) guitars all shining when they needed to. Medlocke's riff drove the opening number, but it was Matejka who took the first guitar solo of the night - and perfectly followed a barrage of barroom piano from Pisarczyk. All three guitarists had plenty of opportunity to solo throughout the night, as the band stormed through a 15 song set that was - largely - made up off classic 1970s tracks. The only newer number, Skynyrd Nation, came second and was sung as a duet between Van Zant and Medlocke. It was a shame that no more of the band's excellent recent releases were showcased live in Birmingham, but with the majority of fans probably only wanting to hear the classics I can understand why the setlist was somewhat conservative. With hits like What's Your Name and That Smell coming early on however, their choices were more than justified, and the country-boogie of I Know a Little saw quite a lot of movement from the crowd and lots of excellent guitar playing from Matejka. It was a bit of a shame however that the band seemed to have to try really hard to elicit a strong reaction from the crowd. Those down near the front were clearly really into the show, but the majority of those further back just seemed content to soak the evening up. Lynyrd Skynyrd's music requires participation and movement, so to see so many people wilfully not joining in was quite a sad thing. This is somewhat epidemic of arena shows however, but it clearly got to Van Zant occasionally - but he soldiered on professionally and continued to push the crowd for more.

The set's heavier moments did see stronger reactions however, with the shuffle rhythm of Saturday Night Special seeing a few heads banging, before The Ballad of Curtis Loew slowed everything down somewhat to give everyone a breather. Another big ballad in the form of Tuesday's Gone, with some excellent organ from Pisarczyk and lead guitar from Rossington, followed and was sung with real passion by Van Zant. I'm not sure that Van Zant has ever truly be given the respect he deserves, as he is understandably always in the shadow of his late brother, but this performance showed why he is a southern rock legend in his own right - and I hope he continues to produce new music after Lynyrd Skynyrd come to an end. The last portion of the show was largely bona fide classics, but an inclusion of the tough Don't Ask Me No Questions saw the band reach a little deeper into their catalogue. It was appreciated by the die-hards in the crowd, before the gentle Simple Man and a double-salvo of Gimme Three Steps and Call Me the Breeze received the sort of reactions that the band had been deserving since the off. A rousing Sweet Home Alabama brought the main set to a close, with the crowd taking over from Van Zant at one point to sing the legendary song. The band left the stage after it was over, and stayed backstage for a good few minutes while smoke filled the stage - before Pisarczyk took to the stage again to start playing the intro to Free Bird. It was the only song in the encore, but at around 15 minutes in length the song really blew the roof off the venue. From Rossington's iconic slide melody, through Van Zant's soulful vocals, to Medlocke and Matejka's lengthy and explosive outro solos - the song was a true triumph. The second verse saw Van Zant leave the stage as video footage of the late Ronnie was shown on the screen and audio of him singing the verse was played over the PA. The tribute worked well, and the aforementioned lengthy guitar solo that followed was one of the moments of the whole night. The band took their bows to large cheers after the song's conclusion and, despite often behaving in a rather reserved fashion, it was clear that the crowd had enjoyed their 90 minutes with Lynyrd Skynyrd. The setlist was:

Workin' for MCA
Skynyrd Nation
What's Your Name
That Smell
I Know a Little
The Needle and the Spoon
Saturday Night Special
The Ballad of Curtis Loew
Tuesday's Gone
Don't Ask Me No Questions
Simple Man
Gimme Three Steps
Call Me the Breeze [J.J. Cale cover]
Sweet Home Alabama
-
Free Bird

If this show is indeed to be Lynyrd Skynyrd's last in the UK, as the Birmingham show brought the European leg of this tour to an end, then it will be a great way for the band to go out. They sounded excellent throughout the evening, and the setlist showcased many of their best-known songs. The show could have been a little longer - many of the shows throughout this tour were - but what we got was excellent. I had seen the band once previously in 2012, so to see them again was excellent - and I hope that there is still a little left in the band (one more album maybe?) before their retirement!