Review: Gun

Sala Arena, Madrid 30 Oct 2015

Reviewer: Peter Scallan

GUN and I go back a long way having known three of the guys for well over 30 years and had the privilege to play the odd gig with Giuliano Gizzi. Consequently I have seen them many times in a number of locations including of course Glasgow Barrowlands which is always something special. I had heard that Spain was partial to a bit of GUN and that Madrid was a favourite city for the band and was looking forward to both the gig and enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of Madrid!

I must admit, with about 30 minutes to gig time I was getting worried that the place was empty with barely 60-70 people in when the local support act finished. However, in the space of about 20 minutes the place filled up and it was rammed. The band hit the stage with the opening song from the latest album Frantic called Let It Shine and what an opening! The place erupted and became even more frantic when they quickly launched into Don’t Say It’s Over which really had the place bouncing and singing. The fever pitch increased even further when Better Days kicked in with the crowd singing the words with Dante Gizzi. Another new song followed in the shape of One Wrong Turn before another GUN classic was rolled out in the form of Seems Like I’m Losing You from the Swagger album. A superb rendition of Something To Believe In followed with the place really bouncing and was dedicated to local boy Luis Diaz who is a diehard GUN fan and was our personal Madrid tour guide for the first couple of days. Next up was single Everyone’s a Winner which was followed by the awesome title track from Frantic, which I just love and is even better live than on the album. The roof nearly came off the venue when the Giuliano opened Money and the crowd was bouncing like it was 1977 and the punk revolution and shouting every word as it was sung. These were quickly followed by a further two songs from Frantic with Hold Your Head Up and then Labour of Love again both sounding raunchy and rocking. Another song from Taking On The World was rolled out in the shape of Inside Out leading to the penultimate song Word Up with the crowd joining in. The guys then closed the set proper with Steal Your Fire which is one of my personal favourite before leaving the stage. However, the place erupted like it was the second coming when the encore started with Taking On The World followed by Welcome To The Real World. And there was one more song which brought to crowd to the boil as no GUN gig would be complete without Shame On You. And so it was ended and GUN seriously rocked Madrid!

Now admittedly it was always unlikely that I was going to be impartial with this gig review given a lifetime of history with some of the guys. However, while the band served up an absolutely awesome set, the real surprise was the Madrid crowd who rocked even harder than the band. I found myself just looking about at people’s reaction to the band and it was fanatical. GUN’s Xmas gig at the Barrowlands has always been special but this year Glasgow you will have to go one helluva way to out rock Madrid. Madrid – you were pure dead gallus and made a happy man feel very old!