Hyde Park Calling 24th June 2007

Well folks the day finally arrived, Aerosmith back in the U.K. for the first time in eight long years since that brilliantly sunny day at the Toxic Twin Towers Ball at the old Wembley Stadium, and was it worth the wait, you bloody bet it was! Although I must admit it was a seriously different day to the last time I saw them on 26th June 1999. On that day the guys had just come off the back of a two year world tour from the Nine Lives album, but more importantly had scored a huge worldwide hit single in 'I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing' taken from the Armageddon soundtrack. At the time they were one of the biggest rock band's in the world, and it seemed inconceivable it would be so long for them to tour the U.K. and Europe for that matter, but it has been eight long years and the waiting was now finally over.......

Now instead of my usual full review of the other bands on the bill for the day, as some were not really worth a mention I'll just give them a quick run through. First up were the Micki Free Electric Blues Band and not a bad start to the day. They are, wait for it, a Sioux Indian rock band. I know don't ask, I have absolutely no idea what they were doing here today, but they got the crowd going to start the day off in the fading sunshine. Sort of a mix between Jimi Hendrix and Lenny Kravitz to be fair, but despite the long guitar solo's and pointless guests slots (nobody knew who he was never mind his guests) they gave a good performance. On getting back home I have found out the drummer was once in Boston, the bass player was in Cheap Trick and old Micki has a true great rock background, he was once the lead singer in Shalamar! I kid ye not folks!

Next up were Arckid. Now this was another band I knew nothing about, and so I watched dumbstruck, as for the first time I had ever seen a main stage act setting up their own equipment. This is not a good sign, if you can't afford roadies you must be crap! Now maybe it was the fact this was obviously the biggest crowd they had ever seen, or nerves or the fact they had set up there own gear, but for the first few tracks, they were truly appalling. How they hell they had even been asked to play on the line up (I was later to find out why) was a mystery, but as they stumbled through their thankfully short set, towards the end they did get a lot better, actually showing why they were touted as one of New York's hottest new bands. Now as for the reason they made it onto the bill, well lead singer Royston Langdon just so happens to be married to the gorgeous Liv Tyler, whose Dad is headlining today. Talk about getting a leg up from the in-laws! You would of thought Steve Tyler would of spared them a few roadies though.

So after these first two bands the day really started to hot up, well apart from the weather, as now it started to absolutely throw it down. But there was a bright spark on the horizon, and that arrived in the form of The Answer.

The Answer

The Answer were certainly the answer to everyone's dampened prayers as they came on to the Hyde Park stage. The Belfast lads were on at Download earlier in the year, and I missed them on that day, so I was really looking forward to them. I was truly not disappointed. This is one of the best new bands around at the moment, in fact Kerrang describes them as 'superstars already, it would be cruel not to make their dreams come true'. Never a truer word spoken. They have all the swagger of Free and sound like Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes, The Stones,Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy to name but a few. The lead singer, Cormac Neeson, has a great stage presence, and conversed with the crowd at every possible moment, making sure we had the rock sing-along and jump around wildly moments to take our minds off the rain, but on this showing, the rain was hardly noticed as their music hit the right vibe for the day, brash, loud and rocking. I'm sure they will be around for a long while yet, and if you get chance to listen to some of their stuff ' Keep Believin' and 'Only The Strong Survive' are stand out tracks and their debut album 'Rise' has just been re-released. And to add to that, the bands mySpace page there is a brilliant cover of Aerosmith's 'Sweet Emotion'.

Jet

Aussie rockers Jet were up next. They are a polished act now after touring with the likes of The Rolling Stones and Red Hot Chilli Peppers for the last couple of years. They are well know for their hits in the U.K. over the last few years such as ' Are You Gonna Be My Girl', used in the i-Pod launch ads 'Look What You've Done' and 'Cold Hard Bitch'. The band is heavily influenced by such bands as The Kinks, AC/DC, The Beatles and obviously The Stones. They produced a great performance on the day, maybe not quite as good as The Answer, but good. They are much more used to playing in front of huge crowds, and this does show through with an extremely well put together set, culminating in the fantastic 'Rollover DJ'. As I had seen them before I knew pretty much what to expect from them, and they didn't let themselves down, although I think it's time they come out of the shadow's of the bands they support, and try to make more of a go on their own, as the British rock fans like nothing more than a good old rip roaring rock band, and Jet do have the potential.

Chris Cornell

Before Chris Cornell had come on stage I was a bit wary at how he would fill his hour and a half set, but I was wrong. Cornell is a well schooled rocker with one of the best voices in rock today. He has a huge back catalogue of tracks to pick from as a solo artist as a former member of legendary rockers Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog and Audioslave so to fill his set was no problem at all. He is also the singer of the last James Bond title track for the last film Casino Royale, and is the first American male artist to perform a Bond theme. By the time Cornell came on stage the weather had taken a sever turn for the worse, as it was now belting down, but Cornell had no problems in getting the crowd going, venturing out into the thick of things to get soaked himself! His set was a great mix of classic Soundgarden tracks, grinding and thumping Audioslave tracks (Cochise was awesome!) to a great mix of his new solo stuff. You Know My Name had guest appearance from David Arnold, composer to all the latest Bond films, who was amazing on keyboards, although he did seem a little overwhelmed by the huge crowd going wild. Cornell also did an amazing solo acoustic section singing Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun', Audioslaves 'Like A Stone', Temple Of The Dogs 'Hunger Strike' and his own 'Scar On The Sky', all of which showed his enormous vocal talent. Cornell is a great performer, and I was surprised at how good he was live. He filled the set with the old and the new, pleasing all there who new his old and new stuff alike. He deserves to get a huge pat on the back as to play in these conditions must of been very off-putting to performers as well as the crowd, and he kept the spirits up, as by now everyone was raring for Aerosmith.




Well, as I said earlier, it had been eight long years since my last taste of Aerosmith, and nothing at all would dampen my spirit on the day. After standing in the almost the same spot for nine hours the wait was finally over. Hayley had manoeuvred us into a spot virtually at the front and myself and the assembled 75,000 other fans were waiting with baited breath for the boys to appear on stage. The set up seemed to take forever, but then the huge video screen at the back of the stage kicked in, and a huge Planet Earth image appeared. As the planet revolved the image appeared as if the sun was coming over the horizon and then it hit, a huge Aerosmith logo directly over London, they had arrived and then, to a huge cheer they boys arrived on stage. The set list was as follows.

• Love In An Elevator
  
  
• Same Old Song And Dance
  
  
• Crying
  
  
• Eat The Rich


• I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing


• Jaded


• Baby Please Don't Go


• Hangman Jury


• Seasons Of Wither


• Dream On


• Living On The Edge


• Stop Messin' Around (Joe Perry Solo)


• Tom 'Mr Sweet Emotion' Hamilton bass solo


• Sweet Emotion


• Draw The Line


• Encore


• Walk This Way (Featuring DMC from Run Dmc )

At 59 years old Steven Tyler is still one of the most energetic frontmen around, running from one side of the stage to the other, and making sure everyone in the audience gets a close up of the singers in you face attitude. As a live act, Aerosmith are one of the best around, and without a doubt are the best act rock act to come out of the States. The set was full of their classic, and included two tracks I had never seen them do live before, due to the fact they had been away for so long, in Jaded and Baby Please Don't Go. They played all of the well know tracks, such as Love In An Elevator, Crying, Sweet Emotion, Dream On and Draw The Line to perfection. I have never seen a bass solo before, and Tom Hamilton was brilliant. This was probably one of the reasons they had been away so long, as he had spent some of 2005 and 2006 recovering from throat cancer. But his solo was amazing, and it led into Sweet Emotion, one of the bands best live tracks, and also written by Hamilton. Steve Tyler announced to solo by Mr Joe ' Fucking' Perry to the crowds delight, and he didn't disappoint with his track from the Honkin On Bobo album Stop Messin' Around, a blues classic. The whole show had the usual fantastic lighting and many, many guitar changes by Perry (I counted about 8 in all) just so they get the right sound for the brilliant rock anthems. The guys ventured to the middle of the crowd on the mini stage to play Hangman Jury and Seasons Of Wither, and used a mini cam, held by Tyler to show just how well Joe Perry can play the guitar. The set was unfortunately short, just an hour and a half, but was brilliant from start to finish, culminating in the encore of Walk This Way featuring DMC from RUN D.M.C., who collaborated on the huge remixed hit in 1986. This was Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels first appearance in the U.K. since the untimely death of fellow band member Jason " Jam Master Jay" Mizell was shot in 2002. It was a great end to the show, and the day, and to be fair, after Aerosmith came on the weather was not even a factor. Hayley said I looked like a man possessed as they came on stage, and decided to 'leave me to it' as I was far to excited to calm down. It was a brilliant show and a great weekend, and I just hope it's not another eight years before they tour the U.K. again, although I am sure seeing the reception they got they won't be leaving it as long until they hit our shores again.