SLIPKID'S Concert Photo Archives - Wishbone Ash 2002 Tour

Just position your cursor over the image "post-it" for some information about it (only some shots have extra info). Then click to see a bigger version !

USA + UK Fall 2002

Andy Powell - guitar, vocals
Ben Granfelt - guitar, vocals
Bob Skeat - bass, backing vocals
Ray Weston - drums

So the new lineup has had about a year and a half and a couple thousand miles of roadwork to gel since I last saw them in the Spring of 2001. Plus a whole new studio album of great tunes (BONA FIDE)! I expected the band to sound good, but I was blown away by how good!! Ben Granfelt has really taken them to a whole new level IMO. GIVE YOUR EARS A TREAT & GO SEE THESE GUYS LIVE IF YOU GET THE CHANCE!!!!!!! Absolutely tremendous!

I was able to see the opening show on the U.S. leg of the tour, in Georgetown, CT, in Andy's neighborhood watering hole basically, the good ole Georgetown Saloon. A great little venue for sitting back & enjoying live tunes while chowing down on great food. Can't beat that!

For my U.K. jaunt this year, I was only able to catch two gigs, one in Southampton at my favorite UK venue, The Brook, and the other at Ashcon 2002 in Mansfield. As it turned out I could've gone to the final show of the tour in Frome because my flight home got cancelled that day, if only I had known in advance and not gone all the way down to the airport to get stranded in London for an extra 2 days! Ok, not that bad a place to get stranded in....

The setlist for this tour had several new songs from BONA FIDE added of course, along with PHOENIX back in (replacing THE WAY OF THE WORLD as the "epic" highlight at the end of the show), and a couple other old gems like ERRORS OF MY WAY, BALLAD OF THE BEACON, and WARRIOR. I think this may be my favorite setlist in awhile! Good stuff!


- The Georgetown Saloon, Georgetown, CT, USA 9/7/02 -

One of the neat things about this night was seeing Mark III guitarist Roger Filgate again! Roger dropped by to see the gig as a spectator and witnessed the new lineup do a cracking job on many of the songs he used to perform with Wishbone, including his co-authored MOUNTAINSIDE. Bring your guitar next time Rog, let's get you up there for a number or two - on second thought, there's no room on that teeny stage in Georgetown, but I guess you could play from your seat! This place is very very itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka something or other. It's small! Watch out for that swinging kitchen door Bob!!

Three guitar legends strike a pose. The passing of the flame, so to speak, from Roger Filgate to Ben Granfelt.


- The Brook, Southampton, UK 10/25/02 -

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any photos at this gig, but I did get one of the venue schedules, which looks pretty cool!


- AshCon02, Leisure Centre, Mansfield, UK 10/26/02 -

AshCon02 was special for a couple reasons. For one thing, it was the first AshCon (on dry land anyway) to feature the new lineup with Ben Granfelt. Not only did we get to see the new lineup do an extended live show at the showcase of the evening, but also were treated to an acoustic set by the band in the afternoon.

And as a very special highlight during the afternoon, we were treated to an audio sampling of some recently discovered studio and live Wishbone songs from the 70's that have never before had a public airing - very exciting stuff for us Ash anoraks!

This convention also was a place for alot of us who have only recently met on-line via the LIVING_PROOF discussion group to finally meet in person, and put faces to our email addresses. Which reminds me, any fans interested in joining the forum are more than welcome to climb aboard! Our main focus of discussion in the forum is in sharing "unofficial" live recordings, and if you're interested, please hop over to YAHOO and look for the group there at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Living_Proof .

These are from the afternoon events at the convention. Position your cursor over some photos to see additional comments.

Some faces from the LIVING PROOF Ash on-line discussion group. Ronnie Clark at the front of the stage, where he saved me a space for the show later, thanks Ronnie! More faces from the LIVING PROOF group, including a REWIRED Colin Dodd. Billy Auld addresses the crowd while Andy Yates lurks nearby ready to give him some honorary keys. Andy presents Billy with the keys to assure that he never gets LOCKED IN at any future ASH gigs. Billy proudly displays his new keys and tells the story about why he needs them. The excellent band MOONSTONE treated us to a set during the afternoon, and in that band was none other than IAN NELSON, brother of BE BOP DELUXE genius Bill Nelson! Here's a shot of me getting to meet Ian backstage, and asking him to tell his brother to get back to playing more guitar-oriented music ala the glory days of BE BOP DELUXE. The youngest Ash fan at the convention. Check out his homemade Flying V stuffed toy. Ben during the acoustic afternoon set. Ray and Andy. This new guitar that Andy was using has an acoustic sounding piezo-electric pickup that was perfect for an unplugged set. Rainer Frilund gets some stuff from Holland signed by Ben and Andy. Ray and Bob do the meet and greet bit for the fans.

Here are photos of some of the folks in the LIVING_PROOF group, trying to get assembled for a group shot. Sorry for the size of the photos (small)! In the very last photo, the smiling faces in the front row are me and Billy Auld (holding his newly awarded keys), second row from left to right it's Mike Pering, Mile Tarling, Mike Derbyshire, Rainer Frilund, and Peter Ball, and in the final row you can just barely see Guy Roberts, then Harry Van De Pouw towering over everyone (!), and next to him is Alan Pye.

A shot of Rainer Frilund's daughter getting ready to take our group photo.

A word of explanation of these two photos is in order. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you, this is actually an order of Fish'n'chips. But what a unique fish this was - a Wishbone Fish! This was what Mrs. Pering got for dinner at the local pub, and I had to photograph this or no one would have ever believed it!!

And here is the highlight of the event - Ash's evening set! I got right up front, and even though I did not bring my good 35mm SLR camera, my little point and shoot did a pretty good job capturing some stage shots. But first, checkout the setlist below, which was taped to Andy Powell's mic stand!

The note that Ronnie Clark placed at Andy's feet to remind him to call up Graham, he of the infamous WISHBONE ASH tatto fame, to show his shoulder Ash tattoo to the crowd. And here comes a very inebriated Graham, about to undress on stage and show us the tattoo he got back when he was only 15 years old! Unfortunately from my angle I could not get a good shot of the tattoo. The words WISHBONE ASH extend completely across his shoulders though! Andy switches to a Fender Stratocaster for the encores! Andy Powell's drummer son Aynsley joins the band on tamborine for the encore. Chris Auld gets his gear ready for a guest appearance in the last song, BLIND EYE. On first chord his amplifier was so loud that it drowned out the entire band! OOPS! SORRY ABOUT THAT! GOODNIGHT FOLKS! Harry from Holland proudly displays his signed drumhead! Fans surround Ben after the gig at the merchandise counter. Guy Roberts, Ben Granfelt, and Harry Van De Pouw relax after the gig.

As an epilogue to my trip, my flight home from Heathrow airport the day after Ashcon was cancelled because of a bad storm. So I ended up stranded in the UK for an extra 2 days! But thanks to Mike Tarling (not pictured), Mike Derbyshire, Alan Workman, and Harry Van De Pouw meeting me at my hotel on Monday, I wasn't all alone. Here we are about to get on the tube to go downtown on Monday.

Back to Wishbone Ash Photo Concert Archives

Back to Concert Photo Archives

Back to SLIPKID'S homepage

Send me mail at: spam_sucks_eggs@yahoo.com