Firstly, and if you saw my post from 3rd November you will know that this lack of posting is not through general laziness! So onto those Apollo Junction lads! Following on from the rather excellent pub crawl at the end of last year one of 2022’s highlights from Apollo Junction was to play in the highest pub in England, the Tan Hill Inn at Richmond, Yorkshire. The ticket price included a coach from Leeds, an acoustic set and an electric set, and a rather nifty commemorative t-shirt. On top of that, we will also receive a live CD of the event too. I love what Apollo Junction do, yes they make great music and they are becoming a stunningly good live act. But they also challenge the norm by doing gigs like this one in the Tan Hill Inn. As I write this they are also scheduled to play a set at a haunted house in Derbyshire in November!
The acoustic set was wonderfully intimate with the Apollo Junction fan family lapping up every part of it. The highlights for me were the acoustic take of “On The Ropes” where the boys threw in a snatch of the 70s classic “A Horse With No Name”. The band also does a section where each member gets a chance to sing and play a brief excerpt from one of their favourite songs. So we were treated to snippets of David Bowie, Bob Marley, and the Pogues to name just a few. The boys premiered two new songs, one of which will already be available by the time you read this, it is called “Perfect Plan” and you will hear a bit more about that if you continue reading. The acoustic set ended with a fabulous sing-along of the James 90s classic, “Sit Down”. Incidentally, fact fans, while the song was a big hit in 1991 the original was released in 1989!
The full electric set in the evening was truly spectacular and featured all the great songs, frankly, this band doesn’t have any poor songs. “Two Car Family” was magnificent. We also had the privilege of being part of the filming for the video for the new single “Perfect Plan” which is an absolute belter of a tune and suggests that the new album may even top last year’s ‘All In’. The boys mimed through “Perfect Plan” twice while we were a fully fired up and excited audience, but that would have been the case whether this was being filmed or not. I have not been to see Apollo Junction yet where the crowd was less than mega-excited. I was going to describe Apollo Junction after these two excellent sets as a band on top of their game and they are, however, I still think they will continue to get better and better and the new album, which hopefully will be with us early in 2023 will be something very special. It will probably be among the contenders for Mayhem’s album of the year 2023! I always leave an Apollo Junction show very happy and with a huge smile and I know many others in the AP fan family are the same!
All photos and the T-Shirt design are the work of the wonderfully talented Justin Leeming
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