Romeo's Daughter Talking Heads Southampton 08-01-16

First gig of 2016 and a veritable delight for a melodic rock fan!!

Newman were on first and as with a support slot with Vega in 2014 they impressed with a near hour set of songs from through out their lengthy career.
Led by the charismatic vocalist and occasional lead guitar of Steve Newman and lead guitarist Sean Bessant their guitar heavy AOR leanings went down well with the crowd.

2 new songs from their latest cd The Elegance Machine were aired.The title track and She Walks In Silence both fitted in well amongst the older material like Stay with Me,Coming Home Tonight and Heaven Knows.

They have an absolute ball on stage with plenty of banter with Pete Newdeck on drums joining in whenever possible.A perfect warm up.

I have seen Romeo's Daughter many times over the last 27 years and every time as a support act so this was the first time seeing them spreading their wings on a full set and for 80 minutes we were treated to a 80 minutes 17 song set that showed why they have been at the top of the AOR tree for so long.

Here is what they played.

Heaven In The Backseat
Velvet Tongue
Radio
Bittersweet
Touch 
Already Gone
Alive
Lightning
Enemy
Perfect Plan
Keep Walking
Trippin' Out
Attracted To The Animal
I Cry Myself To Sleep At Night
Inside Out
Encores of
Will Be
Wild Child 

As a long term fan it was great to see pre and post reunion periods of the band well represented.In fact they played 5 from the debut cd,1 off Delectable,6 off Rapture and 5 from last year's excellent Spin cd.

Led by the delightful Leigh Matty on vocals who impresses with her vocal range and some witty banter with some fans who only knew the early material.

To her right is the very under rated Craig Joiner on guitar who isn't flashy but get's it done with a minimum of fuss and on a couple of lengthier extended solo's shows his technique is top drawer.

The rhythm team are rock solid with Ed Poole on bass and Andy Wells on drums.In fact for a band seen as an AOR staple Wells hits very hard and by the end of the night was on his knees as he had put so much into it!!Great backing vocals from all concerned too.

There was a keyboard player who I apologise to for not knowing his name and he was a little low in the mix which for a small venue did have superb sound.

Heaven In The Backseat and Velvet Tongue were superb openers and had the crowd on their side early doors and an excellent extended guitar solo from Joiner at the end of Velvet Tongue too.

Radio from Spin fitted in superbly with it's superb chorus and one that should have been all over the radio back in the day!!

Touch and the rockier Already Gone showed Spin was one of last year's stand out albums and class is permanent.

With half of 2012's comeback album Rapture played it showed the quality of the material as they all feel like long term tracks.Alive with it's positivity and Trippin' Out's huge stop start riff stood out and I am sure anyone not sure of that album will now be checking it out!!

3 classics in Attracted To The Animal,I Cry Myself To Sleep At Night and Inside Out ended the set on an extended high with plenty of crowd involvement.

2 encores ended the night in fact the band couldn't actually get off the stage to come back on!!An acoustic Will Be off Rapture gave Leigh the chance to show off her amazing range and tone before Wild Child ended the evening superbly with the band getting a huge reaction as they deserved.

Romeo's Daughter are a superb act and should have been huge and that is one of life's many mystery's.

They support FM in Holmfirth on the 23rd of January before some more head line shows that you need to go and see.