I saw a tweet from St David's Hall, Cardiff that was along the lines of 'retweet to be in with a chance of winning tickets.' Without paying much attention I hit retweet. I mean, who says no to the possibilty of free theatre tickets, whatever the show is?! I promptly forgot all about this competition until I got the message saying I'd won! What had I won? What was the Australian Classic Rock Show? I had no idea but on Friday 14th January I went along anyway. Like I said, who says no to free theatre tickets?!
Firstly, I had no idea what to expect from the venue. I hadn't been to St David's Hall since I was little so, although I remember seeing the Pink Windmill Show, I surprisingly don't really remember studying my surroundings. This time however, I was impressed. Comfortable auditorium with plenty of leg room and friendly, proactive staff. Having been an usher myself, it's always nice to see a front of house team that really ensure people can find their seats and are on the ball when it comes to people taking photographs, using mobile phones, etc.
As I walked into the auditorium, I knew I was in for a good night. There on the stage in front of me was a huge array of instruments, amps and speakers. Being a great believer in keeping music live I was in my element. I counted 11 guitars and basses on stage before the show started and even more appeared during the course of the performance.
The show itself is pretty much what it says on the tin. 10 singers and musicians perform to a phenomenally high standard tracks from classic rock albums of the 70s and 80s. Each one being introduced by a wonderful animation of a tie-dye t-shirt wearing, joint smoking, Jack Daniels guzzling kangaroo going through his vinyl collection. Being a presentation of album tracks, they weren't necessarily songs that I knew (I'm sure I was in the minority there) but when you've got music from the likes of Pink Floyd, Dire Straits and The Eagles being played by top quality musicians, who cares if you know every word or not?! Of course there were some highly enjoyable main stream classics in there too; Stairway to Heaven, Another Brick in the Wall and Hotel California to name but a few.
My only very small complaint about the evening was, although I loved the show and loved the venue, I'm not convinced they went together. I felt like I should have been stood at the front of the stage with a bottle of beer in my hand, not sat in a theatre seat. That said, it was a very enjoyable evening and I am so glad I won the tickets because I certainly wouldn't have gone otherwise and I would have missed out on an amazing night.
You can find out more about the Australian Classic Rock show here: http://www.theclassicrockshow.com/ and what's on at St David's Hall here: http://www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk/
Yeah I'd have thought it would be more of a pub thing (seeing as most Aussie pubs have live music) and I was more than a bit convinced that it would be Hunters and Collectors and AC/DC rather than what you said they played - at least you found out what the song/bands they were playing as it went along rather than having no clue.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I've seen at St David's was my b/f's graduation.
It definately deserved a big venue but not one where you politely sit down and applaud. Something like when I saw Counting Crows at the CIA would have been better. The ground level seating was taken out so everyone was standing around enjoying the music together, and the bar was in the same room so you could wander off and get a drink without missing anything. That said, I would recommend you go and see something at St David's Hall because it is a lovely venue.
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