Half Moon - Saturday 13th November 2004

Report by Roger Morse

After a reasonable drive from Watford to Putney we (my brother Pete and I ) found the Half Moon .  We then had a couple of hours wait as the Pirates didn't come on stage until 9.15.
Before they started Mick quipped "are there any doctors in the audience, Ray chimes in "I'm not giving you the kiss of life" Mick replies "I wouldn't want it from you. John says "lets see if we can crank this old machine up" into LONESOME TRAIN.
John and Mick then talk about being Putney boys and it being their old stamping ground .   Into I CAN TELL.
After some banter between Mick and John and what to do next they go into LINDI LOU.  John says there will be a few cock ups as it is nearly a year since they played . Mick replied "You just had three" John said "they did'nt notice them" Then YOU DON'T OWN ME . Quick rehearsal on stage for a number they had'nt done before HELLO JOSEPHINE followed by DON'T MUNCHEN IT to which John tells the story about how they wrote it in Munich. Ray calls to Mick to check his blood pressure . John then said between the three of them they are on 27 pills a day .That's more than they did in the 60s and the good thing is now they get them for nothing.
Then HONEY HUSH. Despite obvious sound problems they showed they could still do the job as they went into DRINKIN' WINE, time for a well earned break.
When they returned John says they are not happy with the sound and the volume is turned up. While this probably helped with the atmosphere it didn't help with the distortion of Mick's guitar through the pa.  They start with MILK COW BLUES to be followed by Mick and Wilco's GOING BACK HOME ,Mick says "Wilco is very good to his mum, never goes home"
John tells how he first started backing Cuddly Duddly and about all his "Firsts" in Putney. John then introduces Johnny Kidd's PLEASE DON'T TOUCH, big cheer from the audience.  Throughout all this I was trying to video and still watch and enjoy what was going on which is difficult when your foot is tapping and you are singing along . Mick says 1959 that came out , we were at school ,we weren't on it .  Mick tells a story about I'll never get over you and John says about when they played in Wales and Tom Jones asked for their autograph, into I'II NEVER GET OVER YOU, as usual we all sang backing vocals,  great. Then into a very loud PETER GUNN.
Mick asks for requests, someone shouts Little Children, Mick says "I can play that one (plays intro) TEAR IT UP follows. they then spoke about the punk period which was a very strange time ,the crowd spat at them which meant they liked them.  FOUR TO THE BAR followed.  Mick talks about how John sits around at home thinking about all these weird and wonderful things to play "but he don't tell us, we're scrapping around" They also spoke about Brian Ferry , Van Morrison and how John Peel played their records a lot in the 70s. GIBSON MARTIN FENDER followed . John then said about Mick's heart attack and Mick thanked everyone for sending e mails to him. Then the ultimate one to use Johns words , SHAKIN' ALL OVER with a lot of audience participation. Mick shakes some hands as the leave the stage but there was no way the audience was going to let them go without one more .BABY PLEASE DON'T GO .Great to see Mick playing his ultra fast rhythm licks in this again.
Now to some up the sound could have been better but Mick , John. and Franks playing and banter more than made up for that . Just to see the the three of them on stage again when we thought it might never happen again was great.
KEEP IT UP LADS.