Setlist: To Shoot Another Day, Timothy Martin’s Conditioning School, Heavy Pencil, The Smut Peddler, Spook Racket, Donovan Ellington, Rabbit Foot, Duet, Wool, Tempest And The Tide, Return Of The Ellington
Encore: Ride On My Bike
I saw the band at the beginning of this tour way back in November 2024. Tonight, as we approached the last dates of a long long schedule, the band had two stand-ins – both in the rhythm section. Joining Rosalie (vocals, guitar), Rosco Wilson (guitar, vocals) and Aaron Bolli-Thompson (keyboards) were Joe Davies on bass and Raphael Mura. Davies you might know from playing with Chloe Mogg, while Raph’ played with Rosalie in her old band Purson. So how would the set sound after all this time of roadwork and what about a different rhythm section too?
Intro music was the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s Faith Healer which was a great choice. Even better because as the band checked their instruments it sounded like they were playing along with it! At this point I must mention the heat. It was one of those hot sticky nights recently and it was even hotter inside the venue. Mind over matter to cope with it but I wasn’t there to entertain anyone!
The setlist was pretty similar to the beginning of the tour. I seem to remember Denim Eyes had been in but what was evident from the off was how much punchier and drilled in the set was. It was stunning when I first saw it (at Northampton) but this was on a different scale. Playing live will do that! You could see the band were coping with the heat too and it made not a scrap of difference to the energy.
I liked Raph’ a lot. I hadn’t seen him before but he was a monster on the drums. He was just brilliant. Joe had the tricky job of standing in for the mighty Claudia, no easy task at all, but he didn’t let the side down. He sounded like he had played with Raph’ for ages.
There were some interesting set changes. Tristitia Amnesia was on the setlist between the two Purson tracks (Wool & Tempest And The Tide) but was cut, I think because there were some equipment issues with Rosalie’s guitar. We got a quite absorbing instrumental instead lead by the as usual irrepressible Aaron which reminded me of early Rainbow. He got another chance to veer off when he played an intro to Duet which featured a bit of Grieg’s Hall Of The Mountain King. He also riffed on it for the outro.
It was a well balanced set with plenty off the latest album and some choice cuts from her previous two solo albums. Donovan Ellington swung and rocked as ever and Duet was great with Rosco on vocals as well. There is a real symbiotic telepathic relationship between him and Rosalie which comes over particularly in their interwoven guitar parts.
Nice to hear Rabbit Foot again, which came out on vinyl. Hopefully we will be hearing more from this project with Rosco taking the lead. He was magnificent incidentally throughout this show, a tremendous guitar player.
The latest album, To Shoot Another Day, is I think her best and her confidence in it showed in how much of it was in the set – all given extra sparkle and dynamics from the live setting. Two which really struck home for me were The Smut Peddler and Spook Racket, both of which were formidably powerful. The two Purson songs are terrific, Tempest is one of my very favourite of her songs. but my absolute favourite is Ride On My Bike – the warm fuzz-toned sly singalong which seems to be the perennial encore. Quite right too.
So a killer gig! Rosalie was amazing as ever. Wonderful voice, great guitar and a compelling live performer. She has that X factor, star quality that you don’t see that often nowadays. A new album and another tour for later in the year. I will be there and I hope you will too.
