Glen Matlock And The Philistines live 17th May 2007
Trent Park Golf Club, Oakwood, North London

Glen has been playing a lot of acoustic gigs recently so I was really looking forward to hearing his songs with some loud electric guitars again.

A lovely venue in leafy North London with a fair sprinkling of fans in their 20s. The band started off by debuting a brand new song called "Born Running" which set things up nicely.They played an awesome God Save The Queen fairly early on in the set with the twin guitars of Ray and Koozie sounding fantastic.

Yeah Right and Idiot were two songs that the crowd got involved with as they sung the songs titles back at Glen at the top of their voices. Whose Side Are You On? and Piece Of The Action are both crackers. Oldies Steppin Stone and Burning Sounds were great and needless to say the superb  encore of Pretty Vacant finished a brilliant  65 mins set.

Setlist: Born Running, Hot Water, Yeah Right, God Save The Queen, OK Kiddo, Whose Side Are You On?, Somewhere Somehow, Idiot, Suck It And See, On Something, Steppin Stone, Burning Sounds, Piece Of The Action, White Knucke Ride and encore of Pretty Vacant.

Review by Ray Morrissey

Glen Matlock played a memorable gig to a packed and enthusiastic crowd at Whitechapel Art Gallery. Drawing on a collection of songs from across his career, Glen took the intimate venue by storm with repeated calls for encores. The freshness and strength of Glen's more recent material with the Philistines meshed well with the the numbers recorded with the Sex Pistols, Rich Kids and Iggy Pop.

Support came in the form of a retrospective set from Rod Melvin, pianist with Ian Dury and Brian Eno, whom Glen had watched perform with Kilburn & The High Roads. Opening the bill was Essex-based hippy-bluester Colin Lloyd Tucker.

The evening ended with a brilliant Glen Matlock/Rod Melvin duel version of the Small Faces "All or Nothing". At this emotional crescendo there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

This great venue was a perfect place for Glen to play. A full room of eager Friday night folks wanting a good night out. The set started off with some fine solo material like On Something and Yeah Right which was the first of many crowd singalongs.

Ambition was followed by Sad Meal For One as the crowd again got involved in a fun shouting match as to where was the best place to get your supermarket food (Waitrose or Marks And Spencers). Rich Kids classics Burning Sounds and Ghosts Of Princes And Towers went down very well as did Stepping Stone.

Glen's voice and on stage banter was on top form as usual.

The last song Pretty Vacant sent the place wild as Glen leaped off the stage into the crowd. The audience participation level went even higher for the stunning encores of All Or Nothing and Anarchy In The U.K. where Glen was joined by piano player Rod Melvin who was the excellent support act.

A brilliant evening.

Review by Ray Morrissey

Older Reviews>