Royal Albert Hall – 20/04/22
This has been a long time coming for Suzi Quatro, in fact, it seams like this gig has been in the making for years. Even chatting to Suzi on Stoakes Media early last year and on Radio TFSC Christmastime 2020, she was talking about her gig at the Royal Albert Hall – she was excited then; but now, as her and the band bounded on stage, she was on top of the world.
Suzi and the band really hit the ground running. From the opening notes of the first song, with Suzi’s energy and the added gravitas of such a prestigious venue, I knew we were in for a treat. Opening up with a string of her early hits; ‘The Wild One’, ‘I May Be Too Young’, ‘Daytona Demon’ and ‘Tear Me Apart’, this firecracker was firing on all cylinders and then some. The place was absolutely bouncing.
Suzi addresses her audience for the first time saying ‘The Queen of Rock and Roll has finally made it to the Royal Albert Hall’ which gets a huge applause and then, those hits keep coming; ’48 Crash’, ‘Mamas Boy’ and ‘Stumblin In’ with Suzi announcing that in her 50 year career this song was the only duet that she has ever done. Originally sang with Smokie’s Chris Norman, Suzi called upon her guitarist Tim Smith to sing Norman’s part and what a lovely moment. The first time and one of only a few times throughout the evening that things slowed down slightly.
Things were brought right up to date next as Suzi invited her son, Richard Tuckey, up onstage for two songs. The first, ‘No Soul/No Control’ was from the first album Suzi and Richard wrote together and ‘The Devil in Me’ followed from Suzi’s last album. Normally fans just want to hear the old stuff, but last week at the Albert Hall, the fans were loving these two newer songs just as much!
After ‘The Devil in Me’, Suzi sent Richard packing to ‘go tidy his room’ and it was time for her next two guests to enter the fold! Sweet guitarist Andy Scott and Slade’s Don Powell, both of whom did the Quatro Scott & Powell album with her. I was delighted that one of the QSP songs got an airing. ‘Slow Down’ is a raucous rocker and Don Powell and Andy Scott just added that extra punch! Andy and Suzi are long time friends and Andy always jokingly says Suzi is ‘bossy’ – a cap she wore very well as she was telling Andy to ‘pay attention’. Such a great sense of humour. Slow Down featured a great solo from Andy and wonderful sax solo thrown in for good measure! Another Andy Scott production follows with ‘Rockin In the Free World’ from Suzi’s album Back to the Drive and this again is a great moment in the show that sees some more great guitar work from Andy and high energy rockin’ from Suzi.
Suzi then says she wants to do something special for us and for that to happen, the band and Andy Scott and Don Powell simply have to ‘piss off’. She then takes her place at the piano for the final song of the first half, a beautiful rendition of ‘Can I be Your Girl’. Of course Suzi is known as the boisterous firecracker, with boundless energy, but moments like this are really special and it had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up all the way through the song. Simply stunning.
After a brief interval, Suzi and the band return and kick the second set off with one of my favourite Suzi Quatro songs of recent years; ‘Motor City Riders’. A definite show highlight for me and a song I’ve not been able to stop playing since I got home. The song pays homage to Suzi’s home back in Detroit. ‘I Sold My Soul Today’, also from her last album followed and both have a garage rock feel to them, reminiscent of that Detroit Rock sound a la Alice Cooper and Bob Segar.
The hits keep coming, ‘Rock Hard’ was super with guitar, bass and horns doing battle, ‘Your Mama Won’t Like Me’ and ‘Glycerine Queen’ proving to be real foot stompers and then Suzi makes her way around to the drumkit for the drum intro to ‘Can The Can’. Drums thunder in the Albert Hall as Suzi hammers the floor tom, before leaving the drummer at his post to come back ‘out front’.
She is back downstage and gets everyone to their feet. She launches into her first number one and band and audience at that moment were feeding off one another’s energy. It was electric. ‘Devil Gate Drive’ followed with not a single person sat down and Suzi was beaming.
All throughout the show, Suzi’s voice continued to blow me away. She has still got it in bucket loads and then some! She really does have some serious pipes. At a certain age some singers who haven’t looked after their voice very well over the years lose it, this can not be said for Suzi, whose voice has the same power and bite that it always did. She really is exceptional.
I thought ‘Sweet Little Rock and Roller’ would be the closing song, it was high energy, the band who have been on top form all night finished with their final flourish and the crowd went wild. Suzi left the stage followed by the rest of the band, but the lights didn’t come up, instead a stool was placed centre stage and Suzi returns for one more.
A beautiful, heartfelt, passionate rendition of The Eagles’ ‘Desperado’ followed. What an amazing way to close the perfect night of rock and roll with such an intimate personal song. If this show proves anything, it is that Suzi Quatro is a class above the rest and has no inkling to slow down whatsoever. Exciting times are ahead for her as a new album in the works with KT Tunstall and a six part drama series is currently being scripted about Suzi’s younger days. All in all, an absolutely wonderful night and a concert that I will remember for a very long time to come. Thank you Suzi Q!
