Just back from Kew. Great concert but a few too many trees to be a great venue. Shame because The Temperate House was an amazing back drop. Not a patch on Kenwood as an open air venue. Had to ditch the picnic spot and get to the front and saw Reason or Rhyme from the Dance Area next to the stage. So glad he played it - was prepared for him not to from the reports of earlier concerts on the tour - but the boy came through for us!

Off the the South of France for the family holiday and now wondering about his Monaco gig....

Anyway, what did everyone else think?

Arranged to meet west London friends at Kew, so it was more of a social event than most gigs, which was probably just as well...

They arrived early and stood in a 100-200m queue, yet still ended up near the control booth, i.e. about 70-80m from the stage and with low tree branches obscuring the view of the stage (not really the done thing to advise the Royal Botanical Gardens on pruning issues, I guess!).

So I agree that Kew is inferior to Kenwood House. Could have been improved if the big screens had shown the stage (as they did for Ms Ellis Bextor earlier), rather than the video backdrop which was big enough anyway...

When BF & Co. took the stage I was immediately struck by the presence of a third guitarist (Spedding thankfully still on the team): none other than Neil Hubbard. Nothing more than a routine introduction for him later, though.

Nice surprise in the set list was the inclusion of Reason Or Rhyme in lieu of Boys And Girls. Otherwise the set list mirrored the gig in Germany earlier in the week, save for minor tweaks in the running order of the later songs (i.e. My Only Love, Avalon & What Goes On).

Stand-out song for me was Make You Feel My Love; BF's version makes the hairs stand up on my neck and he should have issued the song as a single before Adele did, as I'm convinced it would have struck a chord with the Avalon & Jealous Guy lovers...

A nice enough night out for what it cost (i.e. about half of what I paid for my Paris ticket), but geared towards the upper middle class picnickers, rather than the diehard fans.

Still considering Warsaw or Budapest, though, based more on Paris than on tonight.

Yep, many at Kew were there for the picnic , not the music. I'm afraid I got rather irritated by some of the crowd who seemed to be there for a natter, non stop right through the first 3 songs, so I decamped to one of the video screens, where our picnic was , thereby missing most of the gig - the live feed was not constant or was overlaid on the backing video. And the sound at the back was diminshed.

Some one should have proof read the tour programme.
Am I missing a point but the dates of some of the albums are out by a year or so ? .
In Your Mind 1975
The Bride Stripped Bare 1977
Mamouna 1995
.. etc etc.

My Videos from Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RIiYug4PXE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6EWMHgnwhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c43blUX-EY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lnr1qkvbgQ

More to come from Gloucester this Friday.
Kew was excellent, Bryan was superb!

Nick