Bad Company at Wembley Arena

David Sinclair - April 13, 2010

Bad Company is the latest group to return to celebrate all its yesterdays and find a huge crowd still waiting to do it with them. A good 30 years since their heyday, the singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs and drummer Simon Kirke have once again been touring the biggest indoor venues in Britain, together with the bass player Lynn Sorensen replacing Boz Burrell, who died in 2006, and an additional guitarist, Howard Leese.

In recent years Rodgers has been putting himself about as a bit of a solo act and as the replacement frontman of Queen, while Ralphs played a pivotal role in the reunion of Mott the Hoople before Christmas. There is not much that such men do not know about the heritage rock industry and, observing the golden rule of such shows, they gave the audience exactly the songs they wanted to hear, rendered in exactly the way they remembered them.

The biggest gamble of the night was to start — rather than finish — with their best-known hit, Can’t Get Enough, a song that immediately took you back to an era when flared jeans and power-chord machismo were the norm. Rodgers’s voice remains a finely-honed instrument, while his ability to hurl a microphone stand high in the air and catch it right on cue was similarly undiminished. If his lyrics made DCI Gene Hunt seem like a paragon of political correctness, then it was all part of the sepia-tinted time shift.

Working their way through hits including Feel Like Makin’ Love, Shooting Star and Rock’n’Roll Fantasy they played with an unerring sense of melody and economy that today’s hard rock bands rarely seem able to emulate. The encores produced a muscular Ready for Love followed by an epic version of their signature song Bad Company, on which Rodgers was still crooning about the six-gun in his hand while industrial quantities of dry ice cascaded on to the stage.

The Joe Perry Project, led by the Aerosmith guitarist, had opened the show with a motley collection of numbers, several of them from a new album, Have Guitar Will Travel. Perry took lead vocals on the trad-rock stomp of Slingshot, but the band fared better when he made way for Hagen Grohe, the man actually hired as the featured singer. There were some odd choices of cover versions but all was forgiven as Perry piled into the opening riff of Aerosmith’s Walk This Way, a song that can still set stages on fire after all these years.

Bad Company Delivers Gem in VA Beach

Jeff Maisey, Veer Magazine - June 25, 2009

Strength and honor.

Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, baring a striking resemblance to Russell Crowe as the lead character in the movie “Gladiator,” arrived at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater on Wednesday and handily conquered the hearts and minds of over 10,000 cheering fans.

Exactly 35 years to the day, Bad Company’s self-titled debut album was released and topped the charts in America and Europe. The original surviving lineup – Paul Rodgers (vocal/piano/guitar), Mick Ralphs (guitar) and Simon Kirke (drums) – reunited this summer for a mere 10 dates, including this June 24 concert in Virginia Beach.

The band arguably never sounded better.

Throughout the set, Rodgers gave a commanding performance. He constantly paced the stage as if he was on a workout routine, spinning the microphone stand at times and pumping his biceps with enthusiasm. Most impressive was the strength of his voice as he passionately hit note after note with pure conviction, especially on “Simple Man” and “Rock Steady.”

Bad Company wasted no time in delivering the many hits still heard on classic rock FM radio stations. They opened with “Can’t Get Enough,” which seemed to develop as a theme. Fans sang along to “Shooting Star,” “Ready for Love” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” and they hungered insatiably for the next song to be performed.

Rodgers and company dug deep for an outstanding version of “Electricland,” a real surprise and gem for longtime fans.  Equally fantastic were “Running with the Pack,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “Burnin’ Sky.”

Rodgers and Ralphs broke out their acoustic guitars for a moving version of “Seagull” as Navy warplanes roared in the background on routine nighttime training maneuvers.

For the closing encore, a misty dry ice fog hovered across the stage with Rodgers positioned behind the grand piano. The first notes were instantly recognized as the triumphant “Bad Company” anthem. Like every song played, this track was full of punch on the accents and heavy on the power chords.

The Doobie Brothers  served as a complimentary opening act. With original members Tom Johnson (vocals/guitar) and Patrick Simmons (guitar/vocals) leading the way, the Doobies puffed out such classics as “China Grove,” “Jesus Is Just Alright” and “Take Me in Your Arms.” The crowd favorite was “Black Water.”

The most impressive element of the Doobie’s show was the spot-on vocal harmonies and blistering guitar work.

Paul Rodgers: Wish We Were There!

From Classic Rock Magazine - review by Neil Jeffries

Legendary singer Paul Rodgers finished off the Classic Rock Week Of Gigs in suitably sensational style at London’s Hammersmith Apollo on November 6.

What happened? Read on…

A one-off to celebrate his Classic Rock Songwriter award at the Classic Rock Roll Of Honour, this was a chance for the legendary singer to remind us why he won it. Odd, really, that having been lauded so long for his voice, the strength of his back catalogue has perhaps hitherto been overlooked…
With opener Walk In My Shadow, the first surprise is that Rodgers’ former Free and Bad Company buddy Simon Kirke now occupies the drum stool – making a good band (as seen on the 2006 UK tour/2007’s Live In Glasgow album and DVD) into a great one. As early as third song Ride On A Pony, Kirke is giving a drumming masterclass on the tiniest of kits. The others, too, are equally economical but fluent – particularly ex-Heart guitarist Howard Leese, who delivers Paul Kossoff lines with respect and feel.

But this is Rodgers’ night and – song by brilliant song he delivers. As he introduces the 40-year-old Soon I Will Be Gone for, “The first time live on stage”, Classic Rock quickly forgives him the perspex semi-acoustic round his neck.

There are screams from a handful of girls as he introduces the Queen + Paul Rodgers song Voodoo, but the fellas are more impressed by the intro to Run With The Pack that follows. As it ends, from behind the piano Rodgers leaps to his feet and – in one movement – snatches the microphone before bounding to the font of the stage. The movement suggests he can barely wait to play what follows… Wishing Well.

Deborah Bonham duets on Be My Friend, then – after Bad Co.’s Rock And Roll Fantasy and Shooting Star – the 60-minute set ends all too soon with All Right Now.

After a three-song encore (including Can’t Get Enough, featuring Rodgers’ old Bad Company pal, Mick Ralphs) the houselights go up but the crowd refuse to leave – and so the amps are switched back on and the band return to play The Hunter. A special night by a very special talent!

Paul Rodgers at Hammersmith Apollo, 6 November 2009 - a one night show

Photos and review by Richard Pullan

I've seen this guy in his early days of Bad Company on a couple of occasions and a couple of times previously "solo", the last time being at the Royal Albert Hall in 2006.

I'm really a Free fan who has been kicking himself ever since turning down the opportunity to see Free perform. The early Bad Company went some way to rectify that, but I knew that I had missed something that could never happen again. However, this night, PR was absolutely on top form with huge added bonus of having Simon Kirke back on drums. Simon worked on drums with an intensity and energy that kind of reminds me of Animal of the Muppets (I mean that in the most positive sense) but has the fluidity to keep the rhythm more soulful rather than hard rock that PR's previous drummers tend to do.

We all really appreciated the Free and Bad Co numbers with the band really engaging the audience and urging us to sing ourselves hoarse; god knows what I must have sounded like, lol. There was also a couple of special guests, Deborah Bonham who dueted on "Be my friend" and Mick Ralphs joined in on "Bad Company."

All in all, a real cracking show.