| Gary Moore at Notodden Blues Festival 5th August 2006 Place: Brygga (The Pier) Audience:  6000 - Sold Out Weather: Clear sunny  sky and 30+ Degrees Celsius  Great day in Notodden, lots of people in town that day... probably close to 20.000... Lots of gigs from 1200 till midnight I arrived in Notodden around 1200 together with friends and family.... We entered the "Brygga" around 1400 and partly listen to the warm up acts, fine blues performers... Gary was scheduled to hit the stage at 16:40, but was delay with due to minor techincal problems, about 16:50 Gary hit the stage and kicked off in known style with 'Oh Pretty Woman'. He announced that the next song was "All Your Love (2006)", but changed the list to his famous song "Tuning Up". He joked it was freezing up at the stage and that he did the "Blue Balls Festival" in Switzerland and this is "Red Balls Festival" He continued with 'All Your Love (2006)' in great version. With 'Since I Met You Baby' he really got the crowd going with his solo, one of the better versions I have heard for while with this song. Then he announced the next song he not normally do a song from the 'Still Got The Blues' Album - 'Midnight Blues'. He did a fine version and strange to remember the version from Hammersmith Odeon in the Dark.... here he played in full sunshine 'Merry Go Round' was played very distinct and in the slow version we know. But I surely missed 'I Loved Another Woman' from the set, as he didn't do it at Hvaler either.... But he only does this song when he feels for it. The slow intro of 'Don't Believe A Word' was great a bit in 'Jumpin' At Shadow' Style. Nice and moody slow version, before it kicked into rock and the audienced followed easy.... Great solo, bit short.... Next was the intro of 'Empty Rooms', 'So Far Away' great feeling I got when I heard the first notes of the song.... Nice version and then we got Empty Rooms, and he got the guitar out of tune and needed to change it after a verse or so, but that didn't stop the song. The band played on, Gary sung and clapped before he got the other Les Paul, if you haven't seen it you would have noticed the change. Nice bass solo by Pete Rees and great solo by Gary..... It's not up to the 89 standard, but I can't ask for more....... Great that he will play some of the old song still, and it's great that picks he them so it's surprise for us, the fans.... Next up was 'Too Tired' great version and had to laugh in the first verse, with short guitar duell with the hammond. Then great and amazing guitar solo, with lots improvision and licks that the blues audience loves.... You heard the reaction from the crowd for each note Gary played...... It surely one of the longeste versions I have heard of Too Tired with the solo more than 10 minutes as I can recall  ... So the eyes had a hard time to follow Gary solo. Next was oooh not again...... Yes it was 'SGTB', well you can't play a festival without it....... Big cheers when they heard the first notes........ But they were surely warmed up before that, with music and the sun..... this turned the heat up even more, for the most of them...... It was an okay version, a standard version with the normal licks and bit more advanced solo than I have heard the last times... Crows loves it, and I have got tired of it..... 'Walking By Myself' wasnot a wake up call for 'SGTB', but we are here to have great time.... Great Sing-A-Long reaction from the crowd Gary stated that he needed the sunglasses just to be cool, and not for the sun. First encore 'The Blues Is Alright' the crowd followed easily and they have paid attention all concert along.... Great Sing-A-Long again from the crowd..... They really know who they were going to see... so they got a bonus Sing-A-Long sequence The sound engineer put on the music low, as he was unsure if Gary would re-enter the stage, as the time was past 1810 and they show originally was going to end 1800. But we got the his first UK 10 Single: Parisienne Walkways was very good, nothing more to say, missed the long note the first time, but had nice communication with the crowd when he hit it.... Another great gig, not on lazy day, he delivered as we known Gary does The Band sounded very compact and great, backed up Gary very well Good to see that Gary haven Brian with him, and it's looks like he enjoys him very much during the show. Sound of the was perfect, even though if one of the speakers had problems one of the high tone. Sound it was busted...... Gary overall playing was great, lots of improvision and great playing. It was easy to see that Gary had great time on the stage, even if he had the sun in the face all the show in that heat! He was very talkative during the gig and joked alot..... He justed used the Signatur Les Paul (two of them) and the Red Gibson 335, as you can see of the pics...... Enough mocking around....... Those that couldn't make..... you missed something great!    This was like Langsund 2002, Drøbak 1999 and Molde 1997 just great! Whenever Gary has played outdoors in Norway the sun has came from cloudfree sky, and this time was the first he played with the sun in his face.... All the outdoor shows have been special and great atmosphere..........  The Band: Gary Moore - Vocals & Guitar Pete Rees - Bass Vic Martin - Keyboards & Hammond Brian Downey - Drums  The GM Crew was splendid as always 
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