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Quireboys

Glasgow Cathouse, 25th February 2005

'Good to see ya!' bellows Quireboys frontman Spike, looking exactly the same as he always does in suit jacket, white shirt and trademark bandana. And yes, it's always good to see the lovely Quireboys up on stage: Nigel Mogg, sharp suited and white booted, complete with a medal pinned to his jacket, 'for services to rock'; little Guy 'Griff' Griffin, cute as a button and still looking about 19, bless him; and, um, the other hired guns, who I'm sure are very nice too…

They may kick off the set with a track from the latest album, but they know why we're all here really, and shamelessly rip through almost all of A Bit Of What You Fancy, including heart warming singalong versions of 'Hey You', 'Seven O'Clock', 'Sweet Mary Ann' and 'Sex Party' (which I still think is a bit of stupid song, but never mind). In fact, come to think of it, they played pretty much exactly the same set list as the last tour ('This Is Rock'n'roll', 'You Can't Park Here', although no 'Mayfair' this time - boo!) with the addition of rousing renditions of 'The Finer Stuff', 'Lorraine Lorraine' and 'Black Mariah' from Well Oiled, all of which merge seamlessly into the older songs. Probably because, face it, all their songs do sound pretty much the same: gutsy bar room blues and no nonsense 1970s rock'n'roll. But you know what they say: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And a career of identical songs never did AC/DC any harm, now did it?

Not that Spike makes any bones about it anyway: 'Here's another song about drink, drugs, crashing your car and rock'n'roll!' he declares cheerfully at the start of, well, just about every song (except 'I Don't Love You Anymore', that is, which we merrily yell our way through word perfect). Pished as a newt and intent on getting more so, everyone's favourite skinny arsed Geordie is clearly having the time of his life – and what are a few dropped notes compared to a night of full on, exuberant, uplifting rock'n'roll?

The Quireboys are a band who genuinely love what they do, love the rock'n'roll life on the road and, bless their hearts, love their fans. (Griff didn't bat an eyelid when I flung my arms round him afterwards in the bar and told him how fantastic he is. 'Thank you' he replied politely.) No 90 minute mortgage tour sets then back to the tour bus for a herbal tea for our 'Boys, oh no! For Spike, Nigel, Griff et al, rock'n'roll really is the only thing they know (apart from bricklaying or whatever it was they were doing before the got on Top of the Pops). And as long as they keep playing, I'll keep going to see them. As Spike points out: 'It's only three chord rock'n'roll'… and I like it.

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