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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery March 2018 |
Back in 1979 John Peel played
Tours "Language School" on his show for 50 consecutive nights declaring it his second favourite 45 of all time behind the Undertones "Teenage Kicks". 39 years years later, The King Charles pub in Poole was the venue for Tours' first gig in all that time where a packed upstairs medieval room saw Dorset’s favourite sons shake off the intervening years with a blistering set featuring all their favourite tunes from their "Album Of The Year That Never Was". The Band rehearsals, which I had previously reported on for Retro Man Blog (see
here for details) had obviously paid off as the band blasted through their three minute power-pop classics.
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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery March 2018 |
I’d never been to a gig in a medieval room before replete with all the details, hammer beams, inglenook chimney and lancet windows - what an amazing venue for a reunion gig. Although most of the songs are nearly forty years old, the late seventies was a golden age of great Power Pop and the songs sound as good today as they did back then.
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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery March 2018 |
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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery March 2018 |
Basher on drums and Steve on bass are excellent throughout and keep the whole gig moving right along, and this is the first time the band has appeared as a five piece with original member John Hole back in the band. When Ronnie, Richard and John are on-song the guitars really are a "wall of sound" and what they lack in perfection they make up in passion. They complete their rousing set in just about 55 minutes to a huge ovation and I can’t tell you how good it is to listen to these great songs played live once again.
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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery March 2018 |
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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery March 2018 |
Ronnie tells me that the band should be doing another gig at The King Charles later in the summer, although Basher has commitments with his band "The Electric Shakes" and Richard has to fly in from New York. But hopefully things will come together next year for a 40th anniversary tour, I really hope they can pull it off. If tonight’s performance was anything to go by then I hope by next year it’s full steam ahead. (Paul Slattery, March 2018).
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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery March 2018 |
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| Tours Photographed by Paul Slattery in 1979 |
You can hear Paul talking about his trip to see the gig and listen to the band's classic "Language School" single in our latest episode of
Retrosonic Podcast (episode number 30).
Thanks to Paul for the feature and great photos. We'll keep you updated on future Tours news.
just to say that tours were merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to the bournemouth post-punk scene of the late 70's/early 80's. if you're in reading about it and listening to other local bands of that era (of which i was in a few myself) then go here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gavinunderhill.co.uk/bmthbeat.htm