Sweet home Birmingham for Lynyrd Skynyrd
There may only be one surviving member of Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic 1970s line-up but the seven musicians who took to the stage at the LG Arena are keeping the Southern rock flame burning.
LG Arena, Birmingham
Concert review by Ian Harvey
There may only be one surviving member of Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic 1970s line-up but the seven musicians who took to the stage at the LG Arena are keeping the Southern rock flame burning.
Back in Birmingham for the second time in a year to promote their acclaimed God & Guns album, it was business as usual as Lynyrd Skynyrd laid out their Deep South manifesto on a stage eventually dominated by a giant Confederate flag.
Opening with Skynyrd Nation from the new album it was a set drawn from across the band's 37-year career, with no less than five songs from their 1973 debut. A shame though that there weren't more than just three songs from God & Guns.
Johnny Van Zant has taken the place of his elder brother Ronnie, tragically killed in a plane crash in 1977, with a winning stage presence, his drawl perfectly matching the countryfied southern swing of the band's current material.
Founder member Gary Rossington along with guitarist Rickey Medlocke provided the guitar grit on songs like What's Your Name, Simple Man and and the rousing Still Unbroken, Medlocke's repertoire of guitar god poses keeping the LG crowd entertained.
The set-list led inexorably to the concert's closing double salvo of the classic Sweet Home Alabama and the inevitable and iconic Freebird.
