On the eve of an arena tour as special guest with everyone’s favourite nightmare, Alice Cooper and what a pairing that is, The Tubes decided to make the most of their time in the UK by booking a few headlining shows themselves and Newcastle was one of those lucky places.
Last year the show at the Sage in Gateshead was their first in the region since their heyday in the ’70s so a quick return was in order to strike while the iron was hot and they certainly wasted no time in getting things fired up in the aptly chosen Boiler Shop.
With a show heavy on visuals, master of disguise, lead singer Fee Waybill had an innate skill to transform into the part he plays in each song as the theatrics of a Tubes show create a unique, visual experience as he flits between a Marlon Brando motorcycle rebel, cheesy gameshow host, a straitjacket wearing madman and washed up Glam Rocker in a multi coloured collision of shock Rock meets vaudeville.
All of the theatre and bizarre stage props would count for nothing without the songs to back them up and The Tubes have these by the bucketful from the jungle rhythms of Monkey Time to the super Funk of Tip of My Tongue at one end of the spectrum to the spit and snarl Punk of Prime Time to the Glam sleaze of the ubiquitous White Punks On Dope featuring Waybill as the has-been beer swilling Quay Lewd all blond curls and towering silver platform boots. What a sight.
For a band with their roots in the ’70s it’s quite incredible that four of the five members up on stage are from the original line up who cut the debut album back in ’75 while new boy, keyboardist David Medd, is well into his second decade with the band. Few bands from those times can make such a claim.
Drummer Prairie Prince may well have the coolest name in Rock and a CV of collaborations that has seen him work with everyone from Journey and Jefferson Starship to Michael Jackson, Billy Joel and George Harrison. Impressive stuff.
She’s A Beauty and Talk To Ya Later, the big hits from the days when MTV was a mere baby, where choruses were big and shoulder pads even bigger, brought the scintillating show to an end.
The Tubes are one of those rare bands who really must be seen at least once in a lifetime.
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