After having a nice meal in a small cafe just down the road from the venue, we made our way to the venue. The Riga is quite small but it has the perfect size and shape for a rock club. There's a few tables at the back and a row of seats against the wall on the left, the right side of the room is taken up by the bar area. The Riga is a venue that Mickey Jupp has played in many times over the years. He started playing gigs in the Cricketers that's just round the corner from the club.
Opening act was the The Blues Spiders featuring Mickey Jupp fan Russ Cottee on guitars (he likes the guy so much, he even parted with a beautiful Gibson 335 to offer it to the great man for his birthday). I understand they've only been together for a few months, but despite a few rough edges, the performance was pretty impressive with some really nice slide parts from Russ. After a short break Mickey Jupp and his band came on stage (with Mickey wincing slightly at the MC's intro describing as a Southend legend). Featuring his long-time musical foil Mo Witham on guitar, Dennis Masterton on bass and former drummer of The Paramounts (later to become Procol Harum), Mick Brownlee, the band opened the show with "Cheque Book", a song that Jupp often chooses to open his gigs and which was first published on the Legend album in 1971 (commonly known as The Red Boot album). The setlist featured quite a few new songs from the four albums Mickey has put out over the last few years (you can purchase directly from the man himself via Paypal). Particular highlights were nice versions of "Trying to Unlike You" and "Song For Holly" and a rousing "I Should Be Lovin' This" written 20 years ago while Mickey was on his way to tour Sweden with The Refreshments. The set divided in 3 parts didn't bypass his more famous tunes with all the classics getting an airing (Standing At The Crossroads Again, Switchboard Susan, Big Black Cadillac and many more). Some rarely aired numbers were played, Don't Talk To Me from 1980's Oxford album introduced by Mickey as "the nearest to a hit record I ever got".
Even though the band played remarkably well for an outfit that gets together only a couple of times per year, I could feel Mickey getting frustrated with Mick Brownlee's drumming. I can only say one thing : "everything sounded fine from our side". The crowd participation grew as the night went on which Mr Jupp seem to appreciate a lot (especially during the singalong on One night with You). The band closed with a rather rocking 3rd set that ended with a cover of Bye Bye Johnny and Rockin Robin as an encore.
Opening act was the The Blues Spiders featuring Mickey Jupp fan Russ Cottee on guitars (he likes the guy so much, he even parted with a beautiful Gibson 335 to offer it to the great man for his birthday). I understand they've only been together for a few months, but despite a few rough edges, the performance was pretty impressive with some really nice slide parts from Russ. After a short break Mickey Jupp and his band came on stage (with Mickey wincing slightly at the MC's intro describing as a Southend legend). Featuring his long-time musical foil Mo Witham on guitar, Dennis Masterton on bass and former drummer of The Paramounts (later to become Procol Harum), Mick Brownlee, the band opened the show with "Cheque Book", a song that Jupp often chooses to open his gigs and which was first published on the Legend album in 1971 (commonly known as The Red Boot album). The setlist featured quite a few new songs from the four albums Mickey has put out over the last few years (you can purchase directly from the man himself via Paypal). Particular highlights were nice versions of "Trying to Unlike You" and "Song For Holly" and a rousing "I Should Be Lovin' This" written 20 years ago while Mickey was on his way to tour Sweden with The Refreshments. The set divided in 3 parts didn't bypass his more famous tunes with all the classics getting an airing (Standing At The Crossroads Again, Switchboard Susan, Big Black Cadillac and many more). Some rarely aired numbers were played, Don't Talk To Me from 1980's Oxford album introduced by Mickey as "the nearest to a hit record I ever got".
Even though the band played remarkably well for an outfit that gets together only a couple of times per year, I could feel Mickey getting frustrated with Mick Brownlee's drumming. I can only say one thing : "everything sounded fine from our side". The crowd participation grew as the night went on which Mr Jupp seem to appreciate a lot (especially during the singalong on One night with You). The band closed with a rather rocking 3rd set that ended with a cover of Bye Bye Johnny and Rockin Robin as an encore.
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