Ian Hunter unofficial CD: "A Night At The Opera House"

Handmade For Fans #8.

Review

Once more into the breach, dear friends... Ian hits the UK once again for his annual spring tour, only this time he's got his old mucker and Hoople colleague Mick Ralphs with him! Gosh, us fans couldn't believe it when the tour announced, and we weren't disappointed.

Happy to be Ian's right hand man (left hand? he was on our right, or Ian's left...) this was still an Ian Hunter show, so apart from Hideaway (from Mick's solo album Its All Good) Mick was just happy to lay back and play effortless lead guitar.

The old Bob Dylan classic Knockin On Heaven's Door gets an airing (for the first time?), as is a new number Twisted Steel (which is all about September 11th). At long last Schizophrenic material gets a rest, and instead we are treated to old Hoople classics like One Of The Boys, Rock n Roll Queen, Original Mixed Up Kid and Death May Be Your Santa Claus.

Sound quality is on a par with other "Handmade" audience recordings, with only slight compression to the sound and with audience noise rarely intruding.

One of the shows from the tour was recorded professionally, but it remains to be seen if it will be released commercially (post-review note: it wasn't). It also remains to be seen if the Hunter-Ralphs partnership will continue beyond the spring 2002 tour. This is an excellent document of an excellent tour.