There’s a poignant moment at the end of “Live In London” when Paul Rodgers tells the crowd: “Take care of each other, and we’ll see you again.”
This was the final show of Bad Company’s 2016 UK tour, recorded at London’s O2 Arena on 29th October. Four days later, Mick Ralphs suffered a stroke. This would be his final live performance with the band. Listening ten years on, those words carry a weight nobody could have anticipated that night.
The performance itself is a reminder of just how magnificent this band could be. For an hour and a half, Rodgers, Ralphs, Simon Kirke and their colleagues make the whole thing seem effortless. There are moments here when perfection seems an entirely reasonable description.
“Live For The Music” opens proceedings, and really, isn’t that what they did? By the time “Gone, Gone, Gone” arrives, the whole thing is sensational, while “Feel Like Makin’ Love” sounds like the archetype of AOR. You can hear so much of what followed in these songs, and you can hear exactly why.
Even the less heralded material is superb. “Electricland”, the only single from their sixth album, “Rough Diamonds”, is a case in point. “Burnin’ Sky” stretches out and sounds like no one else, while “Run With The Pack” finds the instrumentation every bit as perfect as the song is polished. These are musicians who understand precisely what each song needs.
“Ready For Love” offers another reminder of Ralphs’ songwriting gift. Everything they do sounds so good here, and the inclusion of “Crazy Circles” is particularly welcome, given how little they had played it live. A catalogue this strong allows them to dig something out and have it sit comfortably alongside the obvious favourites.
“Trouble Shooter” was a new song at the time, and the twin guitar work is so damn perfect that it leaves you wondering what else this line-up might have created. “Movin’ On” is bluesier than some of what surrounds it, with the harmonies and the solo providing further reasons to marvel.
Then, like any great arena rock band, they get to the point where it is wall-to-wall bangers.
“Shooting Star” was the first Bad Company song I ever heard, through a Bon Jovi cover around 1989, and it was the one that got me into the band in the first place. It still means plenty. “Can’t Get Enough” is perhaps the song you would play to somebody who wanted to know what Bad Company were all about, before “Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy” finishes the main set in raucous fashion.
They return for “Bad Company” — and I have always loved a band with an eponymous track — before a second encore brings “Seagull”. It is a lovely version and a lovely way to end it. Knowing what followed makes that gentle farewell all the more affecting.
Bryan Adams, Roger Taylor and Little Steven were among those watching in London. Ten days earlier, I had seen the band in Nottingham, and I began my review with these words:
“It is perhaps only when you listen to Bad Company play their songs one after the other for an hour and a half, that you fully appreciate the scale of not just their own back catalogue, but also their influence on just about every single hard rock band that followed in their considerable wake.
“Tonight is nothing more and nothing less than classic rock played superbly.”
Listening to “Live In London” now, I stand by every word.
Rating: 8.5/10
