Full Throttle
Toseland wrap up their headline UK tour at London's iconic 100 Club with a full throttle set full of rock that the bands from the classic era would have been proud of.
While the venue may not have been full, the atmosphere within building up to the set was, for London standards, extremely enthusiastic and had a vibe that something special was about to take place. All helped by a DJ that knew his audience, playing plenty of classic rock tunes. Also helped by people like Toseland collaborator, Toby Jepson, and Katie Melua supporting her husband and brother, freely mingling with the crowd. That atmosphere continued throughout the Toseland set as the crowd continued to play their part clapping along, air drumming, head banging, dancing - this show pretty much had it all.
Opening with a long intro where James Toseland's four band members played building it up culminating in the lead singer's entry to excited cheers. Pretty much all tracks from the debut album Renegades got an airing, it did feel like the live version had more of an edge with heavier riffs than on the album itself.
One or two technical issues did hamper proceedings, most notably when James Toseland's microphone forced the red flags to be waved on the gig forcing a replacement to be found, not that the crowd complained, if anything they were more animated on the re-start. It did look at one stage that James Toseland was feeling tired after the first few songs, if a former sporting world champion was feeling the pace there is hope for the rest of us yet! Alas, these hopes were dashed as he gave a full bodied performance, vocally up there with the best rockers.
No walking off and back on for the encore as "there's nowhere to go". There was a toast to Toby Jepson for his birthday the following day, a clear nod to the appreciation he has done. There was even a thank you to the Georgians in the audience, that certainly doesn't happen often but they were out in force too. But before everyone headed to their post gig 'Ludi's' there was a case of wrapping up the show with three more tracks, finishing off with the title track from the album.
James Toseland stated at the end how he can't wait to finish writing a second album so they can play for longer, well tonight's set was just shy of the 90 minute mark, there are a lot of bands with 3 albums or more under their belt that don't even play for that long. It is refreshing to see all members of the band clearly enjoying themselves even at the end of a few hard weeks on the road.