PETE SHOULDER (Live)

What a rare treat this is. A matinee show in Newcastle meaning a fine afternoon of music and back home in good time for an early start to work the next day. Must be a sign of getting old.

The North East has certainly produced its fair share of singers of a prodigious talent with the likes of Paul Rodgers, David Coverdale, Eric Burdon, Bryan Ferry, Sting and Brian Johnson all springing to mind. Surely among those illustrious names should stand Pete Shoulder.

With a rich baritone voice, blessed with rare power, melody with a nice gritty edge evoking memories of prime time Chris Cornell, this was a rare opportunity to catch one of the North East’s finest vocal talents with full band up close and personal in a suitably impressive setting and what a setting it is.

The Common Room is a beautiful, ornate Victorian Grade II listed building used by the North of England Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers with a main hall featuring decorative wood panelling and a stunning arched stained glass window which provided an awe-inspiring backdrop to this afternoon’s show.

Pete Shoulder has over the years, worked with Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham, Luke Morley of Thunder, Brian Tichy, drummer with Whitesnake, Ozzy and Foreigner amongst many others and more recently with Dean DeLeo, guitarist in Stone Temple Pilots in their new One More Satellite project. That’s quite an impressive CV and it’s no surprise that Shoulder is so highly regarded as soon as he begins singing.

Opening with Winterville’s “My Angels”, with its Queens of the Stone Age vibe and “Breathe” from the same release, showed that Shoulder meant business.

This was not all about looking back though as Shoulder has new material on its way with “Push The Button” and the wonderful swagger and groove of “You’re My Jesus” pointing to a very promising new solo album later this year.

With a more laid back acoustic section coming mid-set, the likes of the wistful “Behind The Sun” with some fine slide work from his fellow guitarist Dean Parker oozed with class while the tight harmonies on “Drowning Out The Sun” from his recent album with One More Satellite showed some real versatility across his material.

“Lillies” and “Come Rain Come Shine” from his time in Union with Thunder’s Luke Morely meant that all bases across his career were pretty much covered.

It was however the closing trio of songs that really highlighted the depth and range of Shoulder’s voice with the moody, dark and brooding “Black River Rising”, the up-tempo Led Zeppelin like acoustic romp of “Gatekeeper”, telling the story of his problems with border control in The States and the bruising Rocker, “Tear The Sky Wide Open” from his Silverthorne album, that really hit the mark.

There was still time for a pair of encores, Union’s “Saviour” and the hard rocking “Siren’s Song” to send everyone back out onto the Newcastle streets to enjoy the rest of the evening.

Quite what the seated statue of Nicholas Wood and the busts of Presidents of the Institute from years gone by would have made of it all but there’s a pretty good chance they’d have given their nod of approval.