Tuesday night was a trip to Derby to see Johnny Foreigner and Hundred Reasons. Tom, TomTom and I managed to drive around Derby for 20 minutes before we realised that Derby Rock House is actually the same place as First Floor Club. Once we’d got used to the change of name / decor, we settled down to watch the bands.

Johnny Foreigner is a name I’ve heard floating around for a while now, and it was good to finally catch them live. In fact, it was very good. I love the combination of male and female vocals (one of the main reasons I’ve always loved Zolof and early Two Day Rule), lots of tracks had a nice fast pace, and there’s something musical going on in there that reminds me of a grittier version of Zolof. Check out my mastery of musical terminology, there. :) Anyway, very entertaining, and definitely one to keep your eye on.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Hundred Reasons live now, and they’ve never failed to deliver. Having just re-released Quick the Word, Sharp the Action on their own label, they’re touring to promote it and themselves in general after a couple of years out of the limelight. They started off slowly, figuratively if not in terms of the setlist, and seemingly without a huge amount of enthusiasm. The jumping around level seems generally rather diminished too. From about halfway through the set the band seemed to start enjoying it a little more, but the spark of old has gone, I think. They weren’t helped by appaling sound, but combined with the not-astounding number of people in the crowd, it does make you question whether they’ll ever regain past glories. I’ve not seen any reviews of other dates, and Tom enjoyed it, so maybe I’m just wrong, or this was just an “off” night – I do hope so.