Jefferson Starship
The Brook - Southampton
2nd November 2002

So the last night of the tour has arrived and the Doctor and the rest of the crew are in Southampton.

A few of the faithfuls are booked into a hotel where the proprietor has shut up shop for a couple of hours, so we beat it round the corner to another one where we discover a certain American rock band are staying.

On several occasions, members of the entourage are spotted, but they value their privacy and the fans tend to respect this.

The venue is a strange one with a stage the size and shape of a squash court, very elevated above the audience, a fairly small auditorium and a small gallery above that. It was virtually impossible to get a decent angle for video and there was hardly any lighting, which made matters even worse. So the Doctor decided to have a night off and enjoy the band.

The Starship arrived and rattled through a set consisting of:

She Has Funny Cars
Somebody To Love
Wild Tyme
Count On Me
JPP McStep B Blues
Sketches of China
Silver Spoon
Teaching The Computers To Dream
Miracles
Hearts
Only One You

- Marty's mic "drooped" during this number so that it was pointing downwards on the mic stand, rather than up. About three times during this song the mic started to droop again. Since Marty was playing acoustic during the song, he had to basically crouch lower and lower to keep his mouth level with the mic, to the great amusement of the crowd and Slick.

Alexander The Medium
Epic #38
Hyperdrive
Young Girl Sunday Blues
Let's Go Together
White Rabbit
Ballad of You And Me And Pooneil (with the couple of lines of Teaching the Computers chucked in, as they have done on most nights)
Volunteers (main set closed after two hours)

If this was your first and only Starship show of the tour, I'm sure you would have enjoyed this set, which was an odd mix of early Airplane and later Starship songs, but some of the staples of the rest of the tour missing.

The Cardiff show was my first sighting of the Starship crew in 32 years (when they were still the Airplane - phew! doesn't time fly!) which made a difference to how I saw things. I was very hyped up. But I still thought the earlier shows were much more psychedelic, jamming odysseys, and tonight more of a set piece of rock songs.

Maybe I'd become a bit complacent after four shows in a week...

Michael Gaiman, the band's manager, came on stage at some point to give a vote of thanks to those helpers behind the scenes who made the tour such a success, and to say how much the band had enjoyed their trip. Marty is believed to be coming over for a solo tour next year, so if you missed the full Starship experience this time, look out for him in future.

The band came back for a strange selection of encores:

Coming Back To Me (as Marty has done solo every show) followed by Birthday (the Beatles song - in honour of Mr. Gaiman), Morning Dew (with Gaiman on rhythm guitar and he even sang one verse), Crown Of Creation, after which the band left the stage, but were called back again for Good Shepherd and finally It's No Secret.

After a few minutes' incoherent rambling with various fans, the inebriated Doctor made his way back to the hotel and collapsed in a heap in his room. This was a pity because Slick Aguilar and Chris Smith were in the bar chatting with fans until about 4:00 am.

I've made my way back through the space-time continuum to the security of pOoTerland where I'm now poring through the various videos I've got and reliving the great moments of the past week or so.

Don't forget to visit the band's site at www.jeffersonstarshipsf.com and particularly visit the A-Deck discussion group for postings about - well, anything.

Thanks again Jelly for the set list and other reminders.

Words - Doctor Dark - November 2002