Blog

T.Rextasy, Harlequin Theatre, Redhill

10th February 2006

Jason, John and I went to Redhill to see T.Rextasy playing at the Harlequin. Redhill hasn't changed much since I lived there. Okay, so DMG have moved out of the offices where I used to work and they seem to have put a lot of investment into doing up the town centre (it has stylised bike racks, big benches and shiny lights now) but the feel of the place is still very much the same as it was three years ago. We got food in the JDW (cheap as chips and full of underage drinkers -- well, either that or I'm getting very old all of a sudden) before heading over the road to the theatre.

T.Rextasy are possibly my second favourite tribute band. I sometimes find it hard to listen to a T.Rex album all the way through (it always seems to get a bit samey) but I can watch the filmed shows I have on DVD until the cows come home, and seeing T.Rextasy is, of course, as near as I'll ever get to the real thing. Danielz really is the spit of Marc Bolan -- he's the one tribute artist I know of who you'd spot a mile off out of costume -- the voice is awesome too and the act/nuances are all there.

It was a funny audience -- I've never seen them fold the seats up in the Harlequin before and it must have been a hard crowd to work with. Ages ranged from about seven years up to about sixty but most were maybe in their forties. We camped at the front and I tormented J & J by liberally applying glitter in our hair and painting tear-drops on our faces. I think I'll be finding the damned stuff on my coat/pillow/clothes for weeks now. It was very good glitter though -- YSL no less -- I knew that all those freebies I got when I worked on a Duty Free trade & industry newspaper would come in handy one day if only I waited for long enough.

The smoke machine was extremely pitiful but the music was ace -- the whole "playing the guitar solo with a tambourine" moment in Children of the revolution was just magic and an encore of Ride a white swan sent everyone home on a high. Just as we were leaving the building the fire alarm went off. We sat over the road, back in the JDW, watching fire engines come and go before calling it a night.

[Danielz]
Danielz with his Les Paul

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