Montgomery Hall, Wath Upon Dearne

The Manor Barn, Kimberworth (acoustic)

The Saturday show in Wath was the Classic Rock Society's 300th gig and congratulations to them for that (Rach reckons to have played at 291 of them apparently).

Montgomery Hall reminds me of a miniature Colston Hall with standing at the front and tiered seats at the back. Pretty much all the seats were taken and there was a good standing crowd as well.

The setlist was as per the Cabin Fever tour with the addition (twice) of I'll Be Waiting, the song written for and sang by Chris Hudson, the son of Martin Hudson, CRS founder. If you haven't heard it, check out Chris' Myspace site at www.myspace.com/chrisscotthudson . Mr Cohen can write pop songs as well, you know! Chris has a great voice and is a really lovely guy and we wish him every success.

Another mature and tight performance (goes without saying by now) following an excellent acoustic set from Gina Dootson,and those of us who should know better got our bouncing shoes on again to Fallen Angels, and once more rocked out to Talk To Me, all of Awakening except Within Cold Glass, and the new trio, Dark Angel, Sharp Sea and Breaking The 4th Wall.

How the band have come on since I first saw them a year ago at Herringthorpe!

My wife Fran was on camera duty again. (Sorry Matt and Vinden yours didn't come out as well as the others) Here's a few pics:

The Sunday show was entirely different, set in the pleasant surroundings of the Manor Barn - but a decently sized venue nonetheless. The crowd of (my estimate) 50-60 was royally entertained, not for 35-40 minutes, as we had been led to believe, but for nearly an hour and a quarter, staring at about 1.10pm.

A wonderfully relaxed band gave an intimate, improvised and often unscripted performance, and the acoustic sound really allowed the three wonderful voices to really shine through. Matt was resplendent in his Welsh rugby shirt following their (and it pains me to say it) highly deserved grand slam (but watch out next year - we have Cipriani!). I hope this is the first of many acoustic gigs.

The Reasonings tour manager Big Dave filmed most of it so hopefully a fair portion will end up on the Dark Angel bonus DVD and is not to be missed (ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!)

The setlist (I'm reasonably certain) was:
Playing The Game
Within Cold Glass
Chasing Rainbows
Breaking the 4th Wall
Aching Hunger
I'll Be Waiting (with Chris Hudson)
Fallen Angels (non bouncy version)
Dark Angel
Tear Drop (Massive Attack)
Stormbringer (Knees Up Mother Brown version)
Sacred Shape (Dylan's improvised version)

As Matt had hinted, the acoustic version of Stormbringer was completely loony and I can only liken it to a sort of East End knees up. I don't know how they managed to get through it as the band and we were all laughing so much.

So, that was a fantastic weekend for Fran and I, and we took 2 friends, Pete and Sue, to their first reasoning gigs and theses won't be their last as they were bowled over. it was made even better as I hadn't known Nigel and John were coming up from London (fellow bouncing enthusiasts) and also Ann and Tony from Worcester, for both shows. Nice also to meet Philip, Celia and Ruth (I hope you eventually tore yourselves away from the hot dog van)