Thurs 19th February @ The Globe, Newcastle
By Juan Fitzgerald (& pics)
In between an opening one hour set of his songs , Sid Griffin recalled watching The Ramones and liking their punk rock music to a cold February night, like this one ! Sid founder of original Alt- Country rockers The Long Ryders played four brand new tunes ( reading the fresh lyrics with the help of a music stand) from their new not released, Long Ryders record & two tunes “Premier Twilight” “I Believe in Birds” from his recent solo album ”The Journey From Grape To Raisin” voted 26th best in Shindig Readers poll of 2025. In between he reflected on a long music career including the dizzing high’s of 1976 & being on the front cover of the NME. His style was eclectic with punk attitude meets folk meets country even a little bluegrass , and a particular highlight for me , was when Sid got out his Mandolin and playing acoustically , you could really hear his skill on it. Headlining the show at the packed out Globe was Sid’s American buddy Peter Case who also enthralled the audience with more long music career tales, including the catchy song “Somebody told the truth” & getting arrested by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Peter Case vocals sure packed a punch & well suited his acoustic bluesy music but he had folk material too , with the protest song “Water from a Stone” and a lovely hot boogie track “Caress Me Baby” . In another set , well over one hour long , Peter took to the venues upright piano, hammering out some strong newer material & a Bob Dylan cover as a nice finale. Then he got back on acoustic guitar, got Sid up on his mandolin & they led an unplugged tour around the venue and some “singalong’s “much to the delight of the audience . At one point Sid was standing on a table above the crowd having a ball, what a great way to encore on a cold February night indeed Sid coming a full circle.