Great night at a packed Academy, it was Train's 1st ever concert in the North East so not surprisingly it was an instant sell out.
Support was New Zealand singer Gin Wigmore, first I've heard of her and won't be the last superb voice great energy won the crowd over which isn't always the case for support acts.
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We did reconise 1 track and turns out it was used on recent James Bond Skyfall/Heinken advert:
As for the main attraction itself, started superbly with a old fashion steam train noise starting very slowly then building to a crescendo as the stage was set for them and on walks Pat Monaghan as the crowd went wild.
2 songs in he did apologise for the odd bum note as he had a slightly sore throat and said 'feel free to join in to cover my failings' which went down to roars of laughter but it didn't effect him as he got better and better.
Have to say he's a time served front man at the top of his game with little effort he had the crowd in his hand no gimmicks just tried and tested band at there best in front of a crowd.
Train have been accused in the music media of becoming safe after a disastrous album release a couple of year back and that in the release of recent album California 37 they've accepted becoming a middle aged band and Radio 2 favourites for they safety, however the audience was a great mix of you and old and Pat even managed to find 10/12 young females to join him on stage for the song Mermaids.
So they appear to have a young following to keep their music going.
As for as packed Academy was concerned they were not going to be able to do any wrong but they didn't sit back and play safe, they knew it was their first ever visit up North and made sure they wait had been worth it all the hits Marry Me (superb quiet version for Valentines night), Hey Soul Sister, Drive by etc etc got an airing.
The final song had to Drops of Jupiter of course and it didn't disappoint spine tingling, have it on video but don't know how to post it.
A superb night was had by all, well worth the wait.
