Wednesday 16 June 2010

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts at the 100 Club, London




well, well, well, what can I say, if you know me or have read previous entries in my blog you will know that Joan Jett is my ultimate idol. I have only seen her live once before, but that was only as a support act at wembley arena supporting Alice Cooper and Motorhead and that was about 3 years ago.

She hadn't actually toured or done a gig in the UK for 20 years, so as soon as I heard that she was playing an intimate warm up gig at the 100 club in London (she's now on tour with Greenday- sadly couldn't afford tickets- they were £50!) I knew I had to be there, so I just kept gabbering on at Mike so that he would be on the ticket site on time the day they went on sale. I didn't know how small the 100 club was, and really wasn't sure how quick it would sell out, but the 100 club is tiny, and it sold out in 8 minutes so we were extremely lucky to get tickets!

The actual day seemed to come around really quickly, when we got the venue just before the door opened at 7.30, there were already people queuing.

As soon as we got in, I was even more excited as the venue was very small, it was like we were seeing her down a local small club (although obviously not quite local) there was no barrier in front of the stage, there were photos of legends everywhere and the graffiti in the toilets told a lot of interesting stories! (apparently one of the members of Foals is a cheating bastard amongst other things)

We didn't know if there would be a support act as I couldn't find anything online, so we found a space at the front, by the side of the keyboard player as people had already taken centre unfortunely. It turns out there wasn't a support act so we had to guard our spots with our life whilst listening to classic rock and taking photos of the gear, as well as watching the roadie use a little brush on the guitars!

It felt like we were waiting forever, and the band walked on to mass cheers. They couldn't have started it better- "Bad Reputation" followed by "Cherry Bomb"! Joan looked stunning all in black pvc, she even walked right up to us a few times giving us the opportunity to take some awesome photos and apparently she thumbed up my banner (I made one saying Vegans Rock, as Joan is vegan) though I missed that!

They played hit after hit and almost every song got a mass sing along, it was so great to be with other people that are probably as obessed as I am!

At the end I tried to get a setlist and I very almost did, and I've just found out that I spoke with Kenny Laguna, they keyboard player, but not only that he is her producer and helped her get her solo career started after the Runaways- so he is a legend! Anyway, the girl next to me ended up getting his setlist, but she was very nice and tried to help me get one of the others, and let me take a photo of hers. I managed to grab Kenny's towel, it was unused and probably bought new, but it was the nearest thing!

Anyway think it's fair to say it was my best gig ever, and not just because it was Joan Jett! I really hope she will do a full tour later in the year!


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