To celebrate thirty years in the music business, The Quireboys have released this triple CD/DVD pack.

To celebrate thirty years in the music business, The Quireboys have released this triple CD/DVD pack featuring not only a disc of new songs in the shape of the ‘Black Eyed Sons’ album, but also 2 bonus discs – a CD of their show at Sweden Rock in 2013 where they were the only band allowed to perform on the stage before Rush (due to the fact that they were playing acoustically) and a DVD of their recent show in London, but more of that later.

First things first, the new material is very classic Quireboys with the title track being as catchy and riffy as you would expect. I love Keith Weir’s playing on the whole album, but I think the sheer understated brilliance on ‘What Do You Want From Me’ is just gorgeous – so haunting.

Paul Guerin and Guy Griffin are once again in charge of guitars and song-writing on this album with Spike giving his usual inimitable gruff ramblings. The rhythm section is the domain of Nick Mailing on bass and the very talented Dave McCluskey (The Union) on drums.

Having attended Sweden Rock and witnessed The Quireboys set, their performance before 35,000 fans was simply awe inspiring, showing that a huge stage like that was still not a daunting task for Spike et al to fill with their gloriously gritty tunes and Spike’s usual dancing and microphone stand antics. Shame this wasn’t the one on DVD, but the reasons for the next disc are clear.

The third disc which IS a DVD was filmed at the legendary Half Moon in Putney during the band’s ‘Beautiful Curse’ tour. This is the very spot where The Queerboys (their original name) played thirty years previously and this film captures the essence of what has made them such an amazing and enduring band over the years.

Sue Ashcroft