JOHN CORABI Bannerman’s, Edinburgh

Hitting Edinburgh halfway through his European Unplugged Tour, John Corabi, ‘Crabby’ or, to some, the best singer to have fronted Motley Crue, treated a packed Bannerman’s to an evening of great entertainment.

Currently riding a wave of success with The Dead Daisies it would have been easy to have played a safe set heavy on their material, but instead fans of his 2012 Unplugged album would not have been disappointed as he took us on a career-spanning journey through his time fronting The Scream, Motley Crue, Union and The Dead Daisies in addition to playing a couple of well-chosen covers.

The format was intimate. Armed just with an acoustic guitar and a microphone, and without the luxury of other musicians for support and to help fill out the sound behind him, he played a 2 hour set and introduced each song in turn with a story from the road. In addition to being a gifted singer, who can still sing with the best of them, John is clearly a born storyteller and held the audience with his stories. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad and ranging from the death of his manager’s wife, through unexpectedly meeting Aerosmith in the studio and, as a huge fan, being lost for words, to auditioning for Motley Crue and through a string of broken relationships which have provided inspiration for his songwriting.

If anyone needed any reminding that there has been so much more to John Corabi’s music beyond his current day job, tonight’s set did just that. Opening with ‘Love (I Don’t Need It Anymore’) off of the first Union album, this was quickly followed by ‘If I Never Get to Say Goodbye’ from his solo acoustic album and ‘Father, Mother, Son’ by The Scream. After teasing the audience with a few bars of ‘Same Old Song and Dance’, a great cover of Aerosmith’s ‘Seasons of Wither’ followed before back-to-back Dead Daisies’ tracks ‘Sleep’ and ‘Dead and Gone’. ‘Dead’ from Union’s second album, ‘The Blue Room’, was up next.

Despite the huge level of success which Motley Crue experienced while fronted by Vince Neil, it would be hard to deny that John Corabi was a better singer and we were treated to ‘Misunderstood’ and ‘Loveshine’ off of Motley Crue’s self-titled album which he recorded with them in 1994 after being asked to audition by Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee. The Union ballad ‘Robin’s Song’ and my favourite Dead Daisies’ track ‘Something I Said’ were up next followed by a fantastic cover of David Bowie’s ‘Lady Stardust’. Then the set drew to a close with Crue’s rowdy ‘Hooligan’s Holiday’ and The Scream’s ‘Man In The Moon’.

Given the undoubted challenge of carrying a solo acoustic gig for a couple of hours, the pacing of the gig flagged a little at times during the set, but easily recovered. Minor observations aside, this was another great evening at Bannerman’s and a pleasure to experience top calibre musicianship and entertainment up close in a small venue.

Recommended. Catch him tonight in Newcastle or tomorrow in Stoke-on-Trent if you can.

GM