Live Review: Paul Di'Anno - Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool
22nd August 2024
Support: Gypsy's Kiss
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Martin Hingley
The redemption of Paul Di’Anno continues apace with this warm-up show for his set at the Newark Showgrounds with The Quireboys and Scarlet Rebels, the curtain-raiser to Saturday’s Stonedead Festival. For tonight’s low-key set, Paul has recruit old – and I mean long-term – chums, Gypsy’s Kiss, a band with close ties to the whole genesis of Iron Maiden, dating back fifty-years.
Mick Wall’s revised version of Run to the Hills: The Authorised Biography of Iron Maiden (London, Sanctuary Publishing, 2000) makes a point to emphasise the importance of this East London band in the overall development of the early Maiden sound. In fact, the band’s very own website refers to themselves at being at the “very top of the Iron Maiden family tree”.
Main man, David Smith had been asked to reform the band many times since Gypsy’s Kiss’s dissolution in 1975, and finally capitulated, getting the band back together in 2018, to let Maiden fans hear the origins. Such was the positive nature of the support they received, that GK decided to reform and, since then, have toured extensively and released two studio albums.
Gypsy’s Kiss are very much of their mid-Seventies time: big, epic tunes, ironically timeless in a Classic Rock sense; listen carefully and you can pick up the occasional gallop, the influences of The Who and Thin Lizzy, and some down and dirty Rock & Roll.
Even the newer songs of the set, We Come to Play being the most recent, have the old school feel; the more established ones bathe themselves in swelling Hammond organ. Robin Gatcum is introduced as the man to replace Steve Harris in the band, with David referring to him as “significantly less wealthy” than his predecessor. To his credit, Robin switches his bass sound, going from a Town Called Malice line in a tune early in the set, to some of Steve’s mood in the ambient sections of Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
I can’t help but smile at Jack for All Times, as it’s subject matter is Jack the Ripper – so called due to a flatulence problem – and I’m reminded of Spinal Tap’s Saucy Jack; and the closing tune of My Own Holy Grail, a crunchy guitar supplemented by delicate keys, giving a solid Classic Rock sound to give the gathered something to think about as they amble their way to the merchandising area.
Sadly, still wheelchair bound, but on the mend, Paul Di’Anno was rather hoping to be back on his feet, on crutches at least for this run of shows. Alas, it was not to be, but that doesn’t stop The Beast from ripping the Waterloo a new one with a Baker’s Dozen of the highest quality moments from Iron Maiden’s formative years.
A long intro gives way to Sanctuary, with its grinding guitar and wind-swept feel. The plethora of Maiden shirts in tonight raise the roof as the chorus arrives; tales of that lady of the night, Charlotte the Harlot follows, built on punk rhythms and a faster tempo, it’s a world away from the stadium-filling metal behemoth of the mother band.
Paul even responds to this later in the show: complaints that his versions are faster, and rawer; he offers the explanation that he’s a punk at heart and grew up loving The Exploited, so what do folk expect?
Wrathchild is still a Maiden staple, but there aren’t many more directly punk influenced songs in their repertoire, and Prowler, though recorded back in 1988 as a b-side for The Evil that Men Do, still feels more at home in a rough and ready version.
It’s Paul’s second time at this venue in the last twelve months and he’s been touring more extensively in that time than in recent memory. His showing on the K.K.’s Priest tour last autumn garnered much positivity, though he readily admits the Iron Maiden sets are starting to make him feel like a cabaret act.
Murders in the Rue Morgue is fast and frenzied, in contrast to the measured Remember Tomorrow. The instrumental Genghis Khan finds Paul stating it is a track that showcases his voice perfectly, while Killers is greeted like an old friend.
As the show draws to a close, Mr Di’Anno offers an addendum to his cabaret comment, and promises to return next year with a set of Battlezone, Nomad and Killers numbers, with maybe a few Maiden songs in there too.
That guitar intro to Phantom of the Opera still makes me want to drink Lucozade; Running Free is dedicated to the Hells Angels who have stood with Paul throughout and, following the instrumental Transylvania, it’s left to Iron Maiden itself to close the night.
Heard it too many times in mega-venues not to be Pavlovian programmed to expect pyrotechnics and at least one appearance from Eddie - Paul and the Waterloo’s production budget possibly did not accommodate such theatrics.
I’ll be interested to hear how his Newark show was when I get to Stonedead on Saturday, but I’m certain it’s going to be widely considered a success, even though he was experience a few throat problems early in tonight’s show.
While Maiden sadly don’t include numbers like Phantom, Charlotte or Remember in their shows these days, hearing Paul, the voice of our youth, belting them out, reminds us all of why we fell in love with the debut and, especially Killers. What an album!
Mr Di’Anno, it’s great to have you back and firing on all cylinders. Just think how good he’ll be with better mobility.
Photo credits: Martin Hingley Photography
