Rock City, Nottingham
UK July 1. 2003

Last Update: 08. juli 2004

Photos: Dave Pearce, Matthew Croft, Pierre Spake and Keith Stodart

WOW!
this one will stay in my mind for a very long time........
not only do i get to see my favourite band in my home town, in a venue that i basically grew up in, but they manage, somehow, to be even more amazing than ever!
i was too excited to note down a set list, but i do know they started with 'your mind and we..' and then 'alone again or', i believe they played everything they did at cardiff, with the addition of 'robert montgomery'.
'old man', was a particular highlight, arthurs vocal was spine-tingling, totally at odds with the american reports of a faltering voice.
arthurly was clearly having a ball, commenting at one point "whats this place called?.........nottingham!, well we're definitely coming back here, maybe bring the orchestra for ya"
the only disappointment for me was not hearing 'my anthem', but i feel i may be alone in that.
the venue was busier than i thought it would be, i never knew there were so many LOVE fans in nottm, also the crowd seemed to be the youngest ive seen at a LOVE gig, perhaps there is hope for the future after all?
now all we need is for arthur to heed our shouts of 'seventeen', every time we see em.
by dave pearce.

This was going to be some experience - one way or another. I had listened to my Love LP´s since they first came out - but had never seen them. I did not know what to expect - could it ever be as good as what I had grown up with. YES andmoreagain. It was a truly memorable evening and if you, like me have never got around to seeing Arthur Lee - you simply must. He may be older (aren´t we all) the band may have changed but nothing can take away from the music and inspiration. You have to be there to feel the stage presence he has. His voice has changed but it carries 35 years of living with it.

The evening started at the Bell pub in Nottingham about 5 minutes from Rock City (easily missed !) where die hard fans were meeting. Mike Randle was there and had copies of his demo CD to sell and chatted away to everyone waiting for the show. I met people from as close as Nottingham to one chap (Martin) who had flown over from South Africa and had also seen Love the previous night at Cardiff. We went up to the venue about 1/2 hour before Arthur Lee was due to come on. We were lucky enough to get up to the front row - before long the place was packed.

I lost track of all the songs they played but it was a really long set and certainly had everything I could have wanted in it. Arthur manages to pull one into the show with his stage presence and hand movements reflecting the lyrics, perfectly understated tambourine playing and powerful guitar work.. Only once all evening did he take his shades off - to roll his eyes at us - reflecting the lyrics. He seemed to have a battle with his guitar strap all night - even taking his guitar off at the end of some songs only to put it back on seconds later for the next song. One of the ´crew´ was on and off the stage adjusting his guitar most of the set and it became quite a joke between all the band members. Mike Randle captured all the qualities of the original (album) guitar work and added much more, as did all the band members. There was a lot of suggestions from the audience of tracks to play, which usually drew some appreciative or dismissive comment from Arthur - though there can be very few that evening who did not go away having heard many of their favourites. As I said I haven´t seen him before, but I got the impression that he loved the gig and I think he really meant it when he said he would try to get back to Nottingham. The set ended with solo work from the bassist, lead and drums who all got well appreciated applause from the crowd. What amazed me was the age span. Love were certainly appreciated by those as young as when I first heard them. 

Pierre Spake