Jefferson Starship

Main Setlist:
• Have You Seen The Saucers
• St Charles
• Count On Me
• Darkly Smiling
• Teaching The Computers To Dream
• Silver Spoon
• Miracles
• Hearts
• Only One You
• Have You Seen The Stars Tonight
• Starship
• Across The Board
• JPP McStep B Blues
• Ride The Tiger
• She Has Funny Cars

Encore:

• Coming Back To Me
• Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil
• White Rabbit
• Volunteers

Jefferson Starship! Can you believe it? No, well neither can I, to be perfectly honest. The last thing I expected to be doing as 2002 came to a close was writing a review of a Jefferson Starship gig, especially one featuring a line-up with both Paul Kantner and Marty Balin.

Nevertheless, that’s exactly what I’m sitting here doing, two days after it happened. Oh, and believe me, I am paying for it too. You see, I couldn’t really afford either the petrol to get to the gig, or the cost of the ticket, but there was no way I was going to miss possibly the one and only chance I would ever have to see Jefferson Starship live. She who must be obeyed still isn’t talking to me and this one will come back to haunt me in the future, I know it. My decision to go to the gig was selfish and self-indulgent, in the extreme – and I had to sacrifice the chance to see Bouchard-Dunaway-Smith the following night too. But, I just had to do it.

I’m not a rabid Jefferson Airplane/Starship fan. I have listened to the music for years and I have a few of the albums and I know the more popular of the songs, but I am, by no means, an expert. So, why the hell should I risk extended domestic unpleasantness and financial hardship just to see a rock band?

For a start, Jefferson Starship is more than just a rock band, isn’t it? Like the Grateful Dead, it is an institution, a little piece of the history of the world, a part of our continued evolution, from a time when the world looked so different and a whole bunch of post-war baby-boomers, in a low-rent area of San Francisco, thought they could change the world.

I saw the Grateful Dead back in 1981, at the Rainbow. My mate Stevie and I hitched down to London and, for me, it was one of the greatest gigs ever. There was something in the air at The Rainbow that was more than just the amazing music and the aroma of weed. The combination of the feisty lyrics and the psychedelic music, even some fourteen years later, still conveyed the spirit of the age and the very optimism of youth that decreed that anything was possible. For a few hours, you came to understand the concept of the American Dream and began to feel that every person could make a difference. The message was still as valid as it had been in 1967, the forces of evil still existed, they just had different heads. But I was young then. Now, of course, I realise that you can’t change things, the best that you can hope for is to swap the head of the tyrant and keep your fingers crossed that he is less psychotic than his predecessor. But, I digress.

On November 1st, Jefferson Starship walked on stage at The Robin, the small but perfectly formed stronghold of quality live music in the UK’s Midlands, to play one of just a handful of UK dates on this, their 35th Anniversary European Tour. I had misgivings as the leader tape ran. I was no longer eighteen years old, this was not 1967, or even 1981. Jesus, it wasn’t even the same century. Would this turn out to be just a bunch of burned out, twilight zone dwelling, acid-flashback hippies, who were stuck in the trip that time forgot? Had I secured myself a whole heap of spousal grief for no good reason?

No.

When you have musicians of the calibre of Slick Aguilar on guitar, Chris Smith on keyboards and the legendary Prairie Prince on drums, you can’t be anything but musically superb. Aguilar is a stunning guitarist who manages to sound like a cross between Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia, whilst Smith, a renowned session player and now full-time band member, provides some very atmospheric fills and textures. Last, but by no means least, the one and only Prairie Prince – the man responsible for keeping it all together on stage. Surprisingly, he has now been with Jefferson Starship for ten years.

From the opening bars Have You Seen the Saucers? to the closing refrain of Volunteers, some two hours and a bit later, there was never a second when I doubted the wisdom of my choice. As with so many of the elder statesmen of rock, what the Kantners and Balins may now lack in youth, they more than make up for with experience, stage craft and a back catalogue that you could fill your average ark with.

As always, there are Kantner songs and Balin songs, some are performed ensemble and others are performed by the various band members leaving and regaining the stage.

Balin songs such as Miracles and Comin’ Back To Me, verge on being distinctly wannabe lounge-lizard at times and you can easily picture Marty, attired in spangly suit, crooning on-stage at the MGM Grand, during a Vegas residency. But, he has a great voice and a charming stage presence and you just feel privileged being allowed to watch him.

The Kantner songs are as different as can be to the Balin numbers. They are the battle cry of the spaced out, intergalactic protester, fighting against anything you’ve got handy. For me, these were really where the main surprises came in the set. Kantner, seated playing 12-string acoustic could have knocked me down with a feather when he announced JPP Mcstep B Blues, for example.

Somewhere in a psychedlic-hippy-middleground the two factions combine and you have a rather bizarre mixture that shouldn’t really work, yet somehow does, rather well, as a matter of fact, mainly due to the very tidy form of Diana Mangano. The superb rendition of Ride the Tiger was gobsmackingly good, as was Across the Board showcasing Mangano’s awesome voice. She has not only managed to fill Grace Slick’s shoes admirably, she has made a place for herself too. A significant achievement in itself.

There were some new songs, and there were classics. With a back catalogue the like of Jefferson Starship’s, someone’s favourites are not going to be there. They didn’t play Shadowlands or Dark Ages, two of my favourites on Deep Space/Virgin Sky and neither did they play Crown of Creation or Wooden Ships. They did play It’s No Secret, She Has Funny Cars, The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil, Somebody to Love and White Rabbit, before finishing off with Volunteers. To complain about that seems a little churlish, but I will do so anyway. At The Robin, we received the shortest set of all the UK dates by around half an hour.

The omission of Wooden Ships and Crown of Creation, particularly, was extremely disappointing. I realise that they can’t play everything every night, but leaving these two songs out of a Jefferson Starship set is like Yes not playing Starship Trooper or Deep Purple not playing Smoke on the Water. They are signature tunes. Mind you, I don’t necessarily lay the blame for this on the band. I felt that the Robin audience was especially (and unusually) lame and gave up far too quickly after Volunteers. The Robin can be like that. They can be the best audience or the most lacklustre collection imaginable. C’est la guerre!

Someone pass the Kool-Aid, for heaven’s sake!