The Godfathers

How long have I waited for tonight ? About 17 ½ years give or take. Some of you reading this know that I had a false start in February when I unexpectedly had to go abroad with work, still expecting to make it back in time to the Valentine’s Day gig but was hampered by bad weather and missed it completely. Shocker.

I’d waited this long,what was another 8 months? Anyway, it was worth the wait. Not only were Our Boys on blistering form; it felt like they’d never been away, but I made some very good new friends from the Hit by Hit Yahoo! Forum, when we are all finally able to put faces to names – and here am I having volunteered to review the gig.

Having met at the Nag’s Head on Upper Street for a swift one (which turned in to about 5) and swapped Godfathers stories about previous gigs etc, off we trotted round the corner to the venue, and who did we bump in to in the foyer but our very own Mr. Mike Gibson! Slightly taller than I remember, but then again the last time I saw him, I was 18 ! We also managed to have a quick chat with Chris Coyne, and his lovely wife Mary, at the T-shirt and CD desk just by the entrance, so it really did feel like The Family was there in force.

Whilst waiting for the lads to come on stage we were entertained by the Jim Jones boys who played a great set, and we took bets on what the Godfathers would use as their entrance theme – I went for the Sweeney as it was that that they came on to when I saw them in Brixton in 1991. Others went for the Persuaders, but it was to be neither; they just walked on to rapturous applause, bold as brass, sorted themselves out and kicked off with military precision. Trust them to keep us on our toes!

So the set started with the classic 'This Damn Nation’ which had all of us at the front in a complete frenzy, which by the time Peter had finished with us, we were completed trashed already! One of my all time Godfathers’ favourites and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

Taking no prisoners, they went straight into 'She Gives Me Love’ and it all kicked off again,and that essentially was the recipe for the rest of the night. 'I Want Everything’ followed and I will admit to taking to take a bit of a break – I was knackered. The carnage at the front was also as good as ever, being thrown about, and doing some throwing myself – love it. It was great to hear airings of the all the best loved songs from Hit by Hit, BSWD and More Songs, although my personal favourites are generally taken from the first two.

The middle of the gig had more of the slower tunes such as 'I Don’t Believe In You’, 'When Am I Coming Down’ and 'How Low Is Low’, with a cheeky intertwining of the iconic 'Love Is Dead’, first produced by Vic Maile I believe, and as Pete said, 'So good, we had to record it twice',anyone going to disagree ? No, I thought not.

The final third of the gig started as at the beginning with 'Lonely Man’, another personal favourite,and it just revved up and got better from there. The razor sharp guitars from the Godfathers renowned 'string section’ ripped through us during performances of 'If I Only Had Time’ and 'Cause I Said So’, before Peter barked 'BSWD’ at us with his usual aggression and venom that we’ve all come to love over the years.

So that was that, until the boys came back on for their encore. 'Can’t Leave Her Alone’ and 'Johnny Cash’ surprised me as encore numbers, but hey, as if I’m complaining; the roof, if it hadn’t already been blown off, certainly had done so by then.

The only missing piece of the jigsaw was then very graciously given to us in the form of a very usually spirited rendition of 'Cold Turkey’ with George in the percussion section beating the drums for all he was worth, the string section doing their best to break their instruments and Pete annihilating his vocal chords as the Godfathers, along with some help from the lighting guys completely finished us all off.

What a rush. I just couldn’t fault them. I, along with all the other girls and boys there, still ask ourselves to this day, why the Godfathers never got to play to the wider masses. Sure there were unfortunate incidents such as Reading Festival (’88 I believe) when the boys were forced to pull out of a third on the billing due to Kris getting chickenpox, but they are worthy of and should have always got more from their efforts and talent. Such a waste, but then again, and this is me being selfish here, we do like to see our boys up close and personal in the smaller venues,maybe that wouldn’t be happening had they REALLY hit the big time. I think we all agree they deserve to be on a massive stage and video screen in Knebworth playing to 100,000 people, but secretly, I think a lot of us might just be glad.

It was fantastic in every sense – I got to see the boys after all this time, and this was the first time I got to see Kris play live too,what a maestro! I’d seen him a few times on some of those obscure music programmes on ITV at 3am about 20 years ago – one in particular when the Godfathers were supported by Roachford, and look what happened to them,did well, then faded to Nowhere City. At least our boys are still around, doing their stuff and having a laugh in the process. All I can say is long may that continue, and when’s the next one?