Brian Downey’s Alive and Dangerous/Poole Vigilantes

May 10, 2024 1 By Jon

Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne

Walking in to the Tivoli theatre to a mass of PV and Thin Lizzy T-Shirts can only mean one thing… a night of Rock. As I joined the long queue of eager fans awaiting to enter, my thoughts turn to the potential songs that will have made the set lists.

I take my seat within the front row and look at a stage full of drums and variety of guitars. The house lights start to fade down and on to the stage enter lead guitarist, Matt Birley; Martin Davies (bass) and Terry Bernard (drums) from the chosen support act, local band Poole Vigilantes all to the roar of cheers and applause from members of the auditorium.

They open their set with the introduction to original track “Warrior” before lead vocalist and all round leading front man Neil Law enters on to the stage takes his stand and hits the first note, this song is then followed by “Chase The Ace” before Neil introduces the band saying he’s going to keep tonight’s 40 minutes set clean, but if you want to hear more to head on down to the Lord Nelson pub in Poole tomorrow night where they will be playing a full set of their own material and classic rock covers before launching into “Long Road” and “Midnight’. Neil then tells the crowd that despite the fact the band have been playing as a covers band together for the last 23 years they are now working on their 2nd album of their own material and then introduced us to the track “Don’t Call It Love” from their forthcoming album followed by “Hard Rock Angels” dedicated to all their female fans .

Poole Vigilantes 1–2–3–4–5–6

Neil then let us know that he wasn’t going to put the song “30 days” (penned about his many bans on facebook) in the set due to some of the censored lyrics but he was told that Jim Davidson had recently performed there by the theatres manager , needless to say the song made it into tonight’s set list, much to the happiness of the fans in the audience who were singing along. After the track ended Neil took to the microphone again to say that they only had time for two more tracks, the next being another off their first ep entitled “Overboard” which once again featured some fantastic guitar playing by Matt. Their set concluded with the song “We Came Here to Rock”, which ended with a huge round of applause. You can tell by the boys faces just what this performance meant to them and it was totally deserved, they certainly did come here to Rock.

Next up is the legendary founding member of Thin Lizzy, drummer Brian Downey and his band named Brian Downey’s Alive and Dangerous, consisting of Matt Wilson (bass and lead vocals), Michal Kulbaka (Lead guitar) and Joe Merriman (lead guitar).

Brian of course needs no introduction as he has been a drummer since 1967. In early 2016 he formed Brian Downey’s Alive and Dangerous and the band predominantly tour all over Europe performing Thin Lizzy tracks ,which is the reason we are all here tonight .

Brian Downey’s Alive and Dangerous 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10

The band take to the stage to the sound of sirens and launch straight into the song “Are You Ready” , when the song finishes Matt asking “are you here for a good time? Well so are we!” in his Irish tones before launching into “Jailbreak” off Thin Lizzys 6th studio album of the same name. Matt knows how to work the crowd asking for audience participation on “Wild One” and then showcasing Michal and Joe on guitar with still in love with you. “Parisian Walkways” is also in the set tonight with Matt saying that most of thin Lizzy has played this song at somepoint or other and to give it up for Gary Moore who sadly is no longer with us. This is followed up by “Cold Sweat”, which was dedicated “to all those heavy rockers out there,” off Thin lizzys final studio album- “Thunder and lightning”.

Winding down towards the end of their set they play crowd favourites “The Boys are Back in Town”, “Black Rose” and finally the classic Irish rocker “Whiskey in the Jar” before taking leave from the stage to the sound of all the fans both old and new applauding the band chanting encore. Not to disappoint us they returned to the stage and permoring three more “Suicide”, “Fools Gold” and “Hollywood” before taking their final bows. This evenings entertainment was not to finish here, I was lucky enough to be taken backstage by Neil Law to meet the man himself Brian Downey . A once in a lifetime opportunity for me having already met the likes of Scott Gorham, Ricky Warwick, Damon Johnson and Marco Mendoza in the past. I still need to pinch myself to prove that it actually happened.

And then 4 days ago Matt Wilson put out a public service announcement saying he had a great time in the English Tour of Brian Downey’s Alive and Dangerous and that its been 7+ years of being in the band but as of the end of August this year he will be stepping down in his role of vocalist and bassist in the band.saying that it hasn’t been an easy decision but he knows its time to try other things. So good luck Matt , I look forward to seeing what you will be doing next.

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