By The Dark Queen
After a long shift in my day job I head off into the dark cavernous heart of the Limelight with anticipation for the debut Belfast appearances of two bands: one I have loved since I first discovered them 30 years ago and another who totally blew me away on top of a mountain several decades later.
The venue is filling up nicely as I enter and prepare my camera to go into the pit. Scarlet Rebels skip onto the stage and immediately ‘Divide And Conquer’ as they bombard and fill the room with their energy. After introducing themselves and saying “hello” they fly straight into their new single ‘Grace’.
A trip down ‘Streets of Fire’ leads us to a chemical dependency as singer Wayne admits “she’s my secret drug”. Wayne then starts a bit of banter and gets a lot of banter back – especially when he says the wrong day of the week: yes, Belfast will take the piss out of if you fuck up, lol.
The room keeps filling up and Scarlet Rebels have gained a lot of new fans over here, just like I knew they would. Unusually, for their final song they drift into a ballad intro which has a few quizzically glances around the crowd, but as they take the ‘Heal’ through the rollercoaster that it is, they take their leave of the stage triumphant.
As I enter the photo pit for the second time tonight my heart is pounding. I have loved this band for at least 30 years, and my head is saying “please don’t disappoint me”. Over the years I have photographed Billy (in Sons Of Apollo) and Eric solo {once the night before my wedding on the very same stage on which I was married just a few hours later) but this is my first time seeing the band as a whole.
As the intro music finishes Billy saunters across the stage with his bass grooving, followed by the rest of the band, with Eric the last to take the stage as they move seamlessly into ‘Addicted To That Rush’. The crowd goes absolutely nuts {Belfast has waited way too long for this}.
The heat is rising not only on stage but in the venue as sweat is dripping not only on stage but off everyone and down the walls: the whole place is electric and suddenly Eric has problems as his mic drops on their second song. Ever the professional, Eric just walks to the end of the stage and hands the mic over to a tech, only to return to the front of the stage to finish the song without a mic and the crowd singing back.
The crowd is very much more male proportioned as Eric points out while introducing a song “A lotta dudes in here but also some ladies, so here’e one for the ladies” as they slide into ‘Just Take My Heart” to full accompaniment of the crowd.
Another highlight of this amazing night is when Eric tells us that up next is a song they have never played live before and we get ‘My Kinda Woman’; personally I was ecstatic cause it’s one of my favs.
Eric says some goodbyes to the crowd “You’ve had me for 30 years” then introduces “Mr big, Mr bad, Mr balls, Billy Sheehan”, before they slide straight into ‘To Be With You’. Everyone goes bananas, singing every word; then half way through Eric stops to say “there’s a married couple right here, Jesus Christ”, laughs and carries on. Towards the end, they all swap roles, as Eric takes bass, Paul becomes basher on the drums, Edu glides the guitar as Billy serenades through some ‘Good Lovin’.
The gig closes with Eric “Belfast we knew you’d be awesome and we were right”. ‘Baba 0’Riley’ says goodbye as they take their bow and pic leaving everyone wanting more.
What a way to say both “hello” and “goodbye” to Belfast from a brilliant bunch of great musicians and lovely guys who are the one and only MR BIG!.