Ace Alive!

Thirty two years ago in a basement in Canada I first heard the band that was to unwittingly change my whole perception of music, and ultimately be responsible for wearing criminally tight trousers with zebra patterns all over them.

But that's a story for another day, and indeed book.

Last Friday I had the pleasure of seeing one of my guitar heroes live on stage for the fourth time, which in itself was fantastic, but given that the last three times he was plastered in makeup and a member of KISS, the band from the basement all those years ago, and this time he was headlining his own show, I was over the moon.

Ace Frehley has never been one of the world's greatest guitarists - he's certainly no Eddie Van Halen, or Steve Vai, or Jimmy page for that matter, but he's got that rare quality in that he knows his limitations, both in terms of guitar playing and singing, and plays magnificently to his strengths.

Backed by three young bucks dressed subtly, but effectively, in identical black jumpsuits, Frehley tore the London Astoria apart for ninety minutes, kicking off with Rip It Out, the opening cut from his 1978 solo album, and ending with a rousing version of Cold Gin.

Though KISS has long been dominated by the songwriting talents of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, whenever Ace threw one into the mix it was invariably a great one, and we got plenty of his KISS offerings as proof.

Parasite, Rocket Ride, Shock Me (complete with smoking, literally, guitar solo) and Hard Times had us old KISS fans in rapture, while Snowblind, New York Groove and a blistering Rock Soldiers did Ace's solo canon proud.

Dedicating Breakout to late KISS drummer (and co-writer) Eric Carr, and thanking Paul Stanley for writing Love Gun, which was given a supercharged workout during the encore, Ace proved himself the perfect host for an evening of rock and roll, even rescuing a dwarf from the audience and letting him watch the rest of show from stage left, telling him "We got to look after one another."

Given Ace's yo-yo relationship with alocholoism and rehab, I have to admit I wasn't quite sure what kind of evening we'd be in for, but Ace was back in full force ('cause he told us so!) and delivered a gig that blew our minds and exceeded our wildest expectations in terms of the set list.

Loud, energetic, funny, and above all entertaining, Ace is back!