Update: Support acts

This is posted today on mottthehoople.com:

The following support acts have been announced for the Hammersmith shows:

1st October - Joe Gideon & The Sharks
2nd October - Gemma Ray
5th October - Glen Matlock
6th October - Down and Outs

Gemma Ray have a MySpace page with some music samples. They also list their tour dates; Hammersmith is on there for Oct. 2, and probably has been on there for days. So a clever sleuth could have unearthed this fact some time ago.

A slew of Gemma Ray songs here.

(UPDATE: Gemma Ray is a person, not a band.)

Joe Gideon also has a MySpace page with music samples.

Looks like they're backloading the support acts to pump the gate for the Monday and Tuesday shows. I know who Glen Matlock and Joe Elliott are; I don't know the other two.

And what of the Saturday show? Nothing listed. Somehow I think the Saturday show is going to be special all around. Hope so.

Day 16: Getting frustrated

"Oh God these wires are so tight." -- Marionette (1974)

Classic Rock's Web site is reporting that the support band for Day 5 at Hammersmith will be Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott backed by the Quireboys.

In an interview with Classic Rock, Elliott says he'll be doing songs recorded by the MTH members after the band split up. He says songs by Mott, British Lions and Ian Hunter will be included. I guess even Bad Company is fair game.

Great idea. It's great that those songs will be heard on at least one of the shows. Joe should be tuning up on "Shout it All Out" right now.

I've e-mailed the venue trying to find out who will support on the other four nights. No response. I guess this is still a state secret.

(By the way, I agree with one of the respondents to the Elliott story -- this band needs to open one of the shows. Click on the link to "Overend Watts" if you haven't heard it.)

I hate that festivities surrounding this reunion have been expanding at both ends, and in a haphazard manner.

First there was the Tracy Hunter-Jesse Hunter gig announced for Sunday, Oct. 4. That one I kind of understand. But then there were the Monmouth shows added piecemeal for the preceding week. Now there is the Elliott news, plus the earlier story that all MTH keyboard players not named Verden Allen will be performing Oct. 5-6 (with a "special guest," and if they're not hinting at Ariel Bender my name is Abraham Lincoln).

I do understand that Mick Bolton, Blue Weaver and Morgan Fisher are acting on their own, but geez -- why couldn't their shindig be offered on the weekend?

This started off as an Oct. 2-3 reunion. Now it's a Sept. 25-Oct. 6 Mottthehooplefest.

Many of us are traveling from the U.S., and the great majority of us can't change travel plans at this point to partake in these other offerings. And, if we're taking time off from a job to go to Europe, it's natural to assume that our travel window is Sept. 26-Oct. 4 -- one work week plus two weekends.

It's frustrating. We colonials who begged vacation time and locked in travel plans in January, immediately upon the announcement of this adventure, are being taken for granted.

So, speaking for those persons, how about throwing us a crumb?

Let us know who will support on the first three Hammersmith shows.

Let us know when we can meet the band. No if.

Stop announcing events we can't attend.

That is all. Thank you.