Henry Cluney(SLF) /Joel Gregory/Aaron Gregory

July 22, 2011 Off By Jon

Champions, Bournemouth

22nd July 2011

After a long hiatus from the stage founder member of Stiff Little Fingers Henry Cluney joined up for a tour of the UK with The Alarm and The Damned in 2009. It all started in 1974 when Henry’s parents bought him a guitar for Christmas, he then formed a band at school in Northern Ireland with Jake Burns called ‘Highway Star’ which later became legendary punk band Stiff Little Fingers in 1977.

At 54 Henry has recorded a new album called ‘Ashes’ which is a collection of songs that keep the original spirit of the 1977 band alive, Henry is back on the road with his own 12 date UK tour and tonight in Bournemouth has the privilege of hosting the first night.

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Tonight’s support acts are two brothers Aaron and Joel Gregory from Bournemouth band The Luminaries, first up is Aaron who kicks off with the appropriate ‘Friday I’m in Love by The Cure which drags a few people away from the bar to sing along with this happy tune. Aaron’s singing style is polished and easy to listen to, with his own compositions such as ‘Fairtale’ and ‘Smoke’ showing impressive creativity. After a short 25 minute set Aaron leaves the stage to polite applause making way for his sibling.

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Joel’s style is completely different and show’s a creative twist bringing on a rapper called ‘Estee’ who combine’s vocals really well to make a pleasant change from the usual singer and acoustic guitar performance.

Henry Cluney’s arrival on stage was greeted with a very warm welcome from the Bournemouth faithful , kicking off with ‘At The Edge’ from the ‘Nobody’s Heroes’ album , Henry and the his drummer reproduce the classical with some style. The audience has to be a little patient initially as the first few songs were fraught with technical difficulties and as it is just the start of the tour this can be forgiven, it was all soon fixed with Henry able to continue to do what he does best entertain.

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The banter with his Irish humour and story telling in between songs is priceless his infectious friendly personality shining through with everything he does. The audience are treated to a career spanning set list including classic SLF numbers ‘Tin Soldiers’, ‘Suspect Device and ‘Alternative Ulster’ which delighted everyone prompting a mass sing-a-long. Henry tried to leave the stage and the crowd would not let him leave chanting for more, he asked for any requests and lots of songs where shouted out to which he declined and then performed a rather random punked up version of ‘White Christmas’ in July ?? A brilliant entertaining night was had by all in attendance.

Set List
At The Edge
36
Nowhere
Johnny Was
Breakout
Inflammable Material
Children
No More Of That
49
Tin Soldiers
Torrens Avenue
Barbed Wire Love
Noize
Wasted Life
Running Bear
Alternative Ulster
Suspect Device
White Christmas