Hello,

This was my first time seeing these guys play, although I had seen Graham Nash appear with The Everly Brothers a few years ago. Driving down to the Bridgewater I wondered what kind of show I was going to get: to be honest I feared a fey, whimsical and frankly limp effort. Always better to set-off with low expectations, hah-hah!

In the event, the three principals strode onstage at 8.05pm to a thunderous ovation, with a fair number of the 2400 people (a genuine sell-out) remaining standing for a minute or so. Indeed there was one bell-end in the front row who spent the majority of the evening standing and giving Stephen Stills the old “I’m not worthy” nonsense: to be fair, Stills did his best to blank the weapon. All three of them looked in better nick than I reckoned they should be and they certainly were in good humour for the duration.

As is usual with me, I hardly know any of their numbers outside of the ‘greatest hits’ but in the event that hardly mattered as there was something for everyone…almost! The surprising thing was the volume: maybe not quite Motorhead but certainly robust enough. Graham Nash introduced Stills as one the world’s finest lead guitarists- you can argue that of course but he does love a solo and he made some terrific sounds out of some fine looking guitars too.

Vocals were spot-on mostly too and it was only on the last two songs of the 2 hr 30 mins show that SS sounded a little ragged but it was evident that they took a lot of care over their cues and delivery. Just for the record, all of the band (Shane Fontayne on guitar, Russ Kunkel on drums, Kevin McCormick on bass, James Raymond on keyboards and also being Dave C’s son, and Todd Caldwell on majestic B3) sang back-up on some numbers: naturally they were all fantastic players too.

The first half of the evening shaded the second for this bloke: it was an utter delight to listen to them to be honest. Even in the second half when the guys allowed each other space for their own solo material it wasn’t *that* bad, hah-hah! No, G.N. had two numbers that he was premiering from his soon-to-be-released LP and ok, the first one was rotten but the second was an absolute beauty. He also told us that he reckoned that The Hollies' singer, Allan Clarke, was just about the finest singer that he had worked with: he was also in the audience and had a number dedicated to him.

During S.S.’s ‘party-piece-slot’ he announced that he was going to sing a Bob Dylan song for us, which would definitely sound a lot better than Bob singing a Stephen Stills song! Cue a very slightly exaggerated and very funny impersonation of the great man. Top work on ‘Girl From The North Country’ too, Mr S. He also took the rise out of his own lack of success in his own solo career (“…when you’re playing Minnesota in February you pretty much know that your career is f**ked!”) and then likened his great mate Neil to a moose: he meant it affectionately…really.

When it came to DC’s effort, he announced a tune from his last solo LP and a few folk clapped: he then thanked them as being the 41 people who bought the thing! Pause for comedy effect and then following it up with “…it was pretty @#$%&’ good actually…he said humbly!”. Much laughter all round. He always looked a fierce character to me but he was cool alright: giving the audience the
occasional thumbs-up or ok gesture. Let’s face it, with this partisan a crowd, they could do no wrong, and as far as I was concerned, they pretty much didn’t. Nice one chaps!

Carry On/Questions
Marrakesh Express
Long Time Gone
Just a Song Before I Go
Southern Cross
Cathedral
Our House
Déjà Vu
Love the One You're With

Helplessly Hoping
Girl From the North Country
Myself at Last
Golden Days
Somebody Home
Guinnevere
Virtual World
Chicago
Almost Cut My Hair
Wooden Ships

Encore:

Teach Your Children
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes







































I know that I've posted waaaay too many photos: I will refine that amount, ahem...but they were terrific value. C,S & N that is, not my photos!

Cheers,

Simon.

Great pics and review, Simon! Thanks for sharing.

Nice review and great pics, thanks!
I've seen them all in various configurations throughout the years (CSN, CSNY, etc.) and it is always enjoyable on one level or another.
Last time I saw CSN was about 6 or 7 years ago at Santa Barbara Bowl. Stephen Stills' voice was shot which may have been due to his health issues (prostate cancer),
but his guitar playing was as great as expected. Thankfully he fully recovered, and good to know he's still marching on!

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Nice review Simon! Thanks for this post. Can't have too many pictures and they are all fantastic. Glad you enjoyed the show. Like them or not they are a huge piece of rock history and it's great to see them still making music together. They seldom disappoint these days and the vocal stuff they do is still unmatched, imo.

I worry about Croz with his transplanted liver and Stills with his party boy ways, all I can say is we are lucky to have them around in 2015. There will definitely be a void in this world when they are gone.

Great review and even greater photos. Thanks for the share.

Love these guys

I saw them for my first time last year here in Birmingham. I was blown away ! I think Crosby had lost about 40-50 lb looked Happy and Healthy.

thanks for sharing. terrific show & pics.

Thanks for the report, Si

saw stills this summer solo and CSN last year. glad I went to see them

SimonN great photos !!!

Thanks for the review and pics! It's heart warming to see them still around like that. Honestly, there aren't that many years left.

Amazing pix Si. What camera do you have as need to get small pocket gig camera. There was a post about them here a while ago.

I notice that Nash is barefoot. It had to be him, didn't it. Ha. Saw Florence last night and she also was barefoot. Guess barefoot days are coming back. Soul music man!

Nice photos Simon. They do put on a good show. Recently I caught Nash and Crosby's solo shows and they were good as well. Crosby's recent solo CD
"Croz" is a good one too.

Hello,

Thanks for the nice words, folks...the pleasure really was all mine, hah-hah!

Mike, my camera is a Panasonic FZ200: a bridge number but will fit into a jacket pocket. Just! If that one ain't appropriate then it's a Canon s110 compact. And a bit of luck...

Cheers,

Simon.

great set of guitar amps there, would love a magnatone!
Wish they'd done "as i come of age" great tune!

Quote
Captainchaos
great set of guitar amps there, would love a magnatone!
Wish they'd done "as i come of age" great tune!

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the amps! Yeah the Magnatone is nice but try getting your hands on one of those old Fender tweed amps, those are sweet!